OK, so I've got the HV20, love it, but having problems creating a DVD that fills the entire TV screen and doesn't have the letterbox black bars on top and bottom.
I think most of my workflow is fine in PPRO 2.0:
HDV 1080i editing mode
16:9
1440x1080
1.33 pixel aspect ratio

Of course when I go straight from camera to TV (panasonic 42 in. plasma), it fills the entire screen, and I know I'm not going to get the same resolution from a DVD but just trying to export it in the right aspect ratio.

Thanks!
Vlad

Create an MPG2 file (DVD NTSC format), in the normal DVD resolution (eg 720x480), 16:9 aspect ratio (eg, anamorphic), there should be a preset for that? (don't have ppro2 but)..
as long as both source and destination are 16:9, and PPro2 knows that, there shouldn't be a problem?

I believe pixel aspect ratio should be 1.78, which is a 16:9 HD ratio.

i'm not familiar with your setup, but in dvd studio pro, it doesn't matter what the exported videos aspect is, you set the aspect in the dvd authoring software when you are building the tracks, so i'd look for an 16:9 option when you build the track.

Thanks for the replies, and I've used the 16:9 presets but I'm still struggling with this. I'm including a photo of my TV in 4:3 aspect mode (which has the 16:9 box in it) and then in the "just" mode which stretches the 4:3 to 16:9 but as you can see the letterbox crop is still there and the movie is now actually narrower than 16:9. If I go to the "zoom" aspect setting it fills the entire TV but looks pretty bad.

Thanks again,
Vlad

Pixel aspect ratio does matter in both your editing app and authoring app. They both need to know that the 1440x1080 should be displayed as 1920x1080 or 854x480 respectively. I think this is accomplished by the 1.78 ratio.

we are talking standard def dvd correct? it looks like the authoring app your using adds "hard coded" bars to the image, again in Dvd studio pro you can select whether you want it to letterbox, panscan or both. or it could be a setting with the dvd player as to how it displays 16:9 content. when you playback the dvd in your computer or another player are the letterbox bars hardcoded there as well?

Austin, I think you got it, it is my DVD player. I haven't tried another one yet, but I've played it on a couple different computers and it looks fine.

Thanks for your help,
Vlad