I am getting really frustrated with this video - I have recorded it using the HV20 - I have set up the project using the manilla folder and picking the mt2 file. I then rendered it out using Widescreen NTSC mpg.
When I bring it into ARCH, it look good, it is within the second set of safe lines - but when I rendered it out and played it on my TV, it looks 4:3 - part of the lower third is cut off on either side.
When I preview it using ARCH, it looks ok, it goes from the main menu (which is 720 X 540) and then expands when I click on one of the video to the 16:9 ratio. But played as a DVD on the TV - it stays in the 4:3 ratio (same as the menu) and doesn't expand when the video is played - like in the preview in ARCH. On the TV, the black bars are at the top and bottom though...So, hopefully I have explained this issue correctly - any ideas? I am sure it is something simple (fingers crossed).

Lots of idea.

First, the video should not be inside the safe lines. That tells me that the video is not widescreen.

Secondly, if it's 720x540, you have a PAL setup, not NTSC. Don't know if you did that in Vegas or in DVDA.

The graphic for the main menu is 720 X 540. Sorry, also I meant that the video runs right to the edge, but the lower third area is inside the safe lines.

It sounds like either your DVD player or your TV set are messing things up.
Unfortunately this is an all too common problem :-(

Disregard post, misread OP.

Secondly, if it's 720x540, you have a PAL setup, not NTSC.

Happy to be corrected but I thought 720 x 540 is the resolution you would choose to adjust 720 x 480 D1/DV NTSC to display as square pixels. I've never come across this resolution in PAL land.

I'm wondering if the pixel aspect ratio is in fact the issue with David's lower third graphic.

Whoops! Sorry 720x576 is PAL. Square format NTSC is 655x480. NTSC has a PAR of .9091. So 720 * .9091 = ~655.

I have no idea what 720x540 is.

I work almost exclusively in PAL land so I have it relatively easy and I don't really know the ins and outs of NTSC, but a little research suggests this:

D1 NTSC 4:3 (note D1 not DV, so you need to factor in the additional 6 lines):

- Non-square pixel source size: 720x486
- Equivalent square pixel size: 720 x 540 (or 648 x 486)

As a side note, I believe pre-CS4 versions of After Effects (and maybe Photoshop as well) used PAR values that were rounded, which may cause problems (e.g 1.2 instead of 1.21 and 0.9 instead of 0.909). These are now adjusted in CS4. I may be going off the point here but it might be relevant to David's situation.

David, is your issue with the whole video or just the lower third? If the latter, what did you create the lower third in? I'm guessing AE or Photoshop and you haven't adjusted the PAR of the image/video to match your output.

(Also interesting to note that 720 x 540 is exactly half the frame dimensions of HDV. Don't know if that's just a coincidence.)

Just thouht of why this is probably happening. In DVDA, when you set up the project you MUST tell the project that you are creating a widescreen DVD. Otherwise it will do exactly what we see here. It will look 16:9 in the preview, but will make a 4:3 disc on output because the widescreen flag never gets set. Doing it in the video render is not enough.

I'd check that and see if that isn't the problem.