Our office just upgraded my computer to a G5 (nice!) and I've been playing around with iDVD. We have a lot of footage shot with an anamorphic lens that I'd like to burn to a DVD, but I can't find any settings to code it as anamorphic. Would encoding it first as 16:9 in FinalCut (so that iDVD will just recognize it as 16:9 automatically) be the only way to do this? Seems kind of annoying if that's true. I'll have to capture and reexport for every tape.

i dont think iDVD can burn in 16:9. if you bring 16:9 material into iMovie HD, it will automatically start letterboxing it. i've tried it, and it requires a rendering of all your captured widescreen footage.

note: iMovie and iDVD are meant for each other. so i assume that if iMovie wont let you do true widescreen, then iDVD cant either. just use dvd studio pro.

The current versions of iMovie and iDVD support 16:9, older versions did not. Unfortunately I don't use either....

http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/import.html
Support Formats
HDV (720p & 1080i)
MPEG-4 (Simple Profile)
iSight
DV
DV Widescreen

http://www.apple.com/ilife/idvd/
Support for HDV and Widescreen Video
You’re using the newest video cameras. Shooting the latest video formats. And importing it all in iMovie HD. So it’s only natural that iDVD would also let you import the high-definition video (HDV) and 16:9 widescreen formats (both HDV and SDV) you can edit in iMovie HD. iDVD, in fact, quickly and easily converts them to a standard definition DVD format, letting you create DVD projects of stunning quality.

You might find some help at Apple's support forums for these programs:

http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=141
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=128

R.P., your info is incorrect...iMovie will letterbox automatically *unless* you set your project as widescreen. to do this:

File>New Project

a "Create Project" screen will appear with a small pulldown menu. click on "DV" and you will seen a range of choices. you must set this before you capture footage or the NLE will do as you describe....

iDVD supports 16:9 automatically, as long as it is correctly set up in your original project, whether it is Final Cut or iMovie....

good luck!

i apologize, i was mistaken.

Thanks. Big bummer. :(

marco, i don't know if there isn't a workaround...was your original project in 16:9 in a different NLE? if so, isn't there a way to output it to tape, then re-input it into a Mac-based timeline? or does your NLE allow you (Mac does this...) to output it to a full DV version that you could then import into a Mac NLE then to iDVD (or even, perhaps straight to iDVD?)...there must be some easier way to do this which scales back on your need to re-import everything.

i have never used this, personally, but open your iDVD and at the opening Create Project menu, there is something called OneStepDVD, which i think allows you to bypass capturing, editing, etc. in the NLE and go straight from tape to DVD. it may be the solution you need....again, good luck.....