i've been reading and learning about the pdx10's widescreen...and if i'm correct, it retains it's resolution in 16:9 mode, instead of blowing up the image horizontally or chopping it vertically.

so if this is true, what i'm wondering is this: could i shoot and edit in 16:9 mode, and then before output, use the "Aspect Ratio" slider in the "Distort" menu of the the "Motion" tab to shrink the video vertically (-33.3%) to correct the aspect ratio, and therefore shrinking the vertical pixels and creating a sharper-higher-quality image? does this make any sense?

You don't want to do that...

If your final destination is DVD, the DVD player will automatically squash the 16X9 video for display on 4:3 sets...giving you the "increase in vertical sharpness" you are talking about.

ahhh...so the dvd player does the aspect ratio correction by itself. i get it now...so if the dvd is viewed on a 16:9 television, it will fill the frame...but if it's viewed on a normal 4:3, it will be automatically be squished down and be letterboxed. i get it.

thanks for the response.

Worth doing a test using your camera settings, using your editing programme, using your DVD authoring set-up, your DVD burner, playing it in your DVD player into yout TV. Nothing like testing before the big day.

tom.

If your final destination is DVD, the DVD player will automatically squash the 16X9 video for display on 4:3 sets...giving you the "increase in vertical sharpness" you are talking about.
Almost, but DVD players should give two options for 16x9 material on a 4:3 display. One is as above ("letterbox"), but the other fills the entire 4:3 frame of the display with the centre of the widescreen image - this is known as "centre cut". In practice letterboxing will lose resolution, not increase it - the DVD player will reduce the 576 (480 for NTSC) lines vertically down to 432 (360) - then add 144 (120) lines of black to regain the standard PAL (NTSC) signal.

Much material is now produced 16:9, but 4:3 safe - nothing vital, especially captions, graphics etc, happens outside the centre 4:3 area of the frame.