Ok, this has been asked many time before, but when I look for my specific answers I end up reading dozen of post, usually distracting me and making me interested in a different topic.

Well, I have a 16:9 video footage shot in an XL1 (PS Technik)
1st- I'm submitting to a television station
2nd-I want to create DVDs
3rd- I want to transfer to Beta SP.
***No VHS***

I want the TV station to broadcast in letterbox
I want the DVD to be letterbox (for 4:3 screens)
I want to display widescreen (for widescreent TVs)
I want Film Festival to show in WideScreen and/or Letterbox.


I read in a previous post that it's better to send a TV station a straight 16:9 with no shrinking or letterbox..Is this correct?

For a DVD to show letterbox in 4:3 TV--Do I shrink the picture vertically 75% and put a leterbox on top and bottom (Magic Bullet Letterbox)? Or Scale 16:9 footage down (vertically and horizontally) and put a letterbox around it? Do I just send to Adobe Encore without shrinking (720:480)? Would this DVD Authoring software create a Letterbox version automatically?.

For WideScreen do I only create a full 16:9 version with no letterbox? or shrinking.

For Beta SP transfer should I just send the full 16:9 with no letterbox (or shrinking)?


Sorry for this mix of questions, I hope the replies we gather here could also be used by others looking for these answers.

I can't comment on TV or BetaSP.

You do not need to worry for DVD as long as you keep the whole
chain 16:9. Thus edit in 16:9, output the MPEG files with 16:9
flag turned on and do the final authoring 16:9 enabled as well!!

A correctly setup DVD player will add the letterboxing itself when
using a 4:3 TV. How did you think Hollywood was doing these
DVD's? They are (almost) all anamorphic 16:9 and for people
without widescreen TV's (like myself) the DVD player letterboxes
the footage on the fly as long as you made the disc correctly.

So the 75% verticla shrinking is for VHS only?

That depends on how you look at it. But you only need to letterbox
your footage for tape, not DVD indeed. Whether your TV station
will accept 16:9 anamorphic tapes I don't know.... Perhaps check
with them?

At one point I thought I was doing something wrong. My TV would zoom in into the picture and make evrything look twice its size. Someone told me that the scan feature on my TV wa turned on. I disabled this and my problem was resolved. Howeve,r I also had to turn this setting off the DVD player as well. I just did a test and DVD will create the letterbox with no need to shrink. I guess for BEta SP I'll just export in its native 16:9.