The experience I have had is that some people are clueless as to how to set their dvd players for 16:9 viewing. I know in this day and age people should know, and it's a shame, but you more or less have to treat the customer as if they were stupid.

If you do dvd's in 16:9 then you had better make sure the client(s) either have the equipment or at least know how to set it.

4:3 on the other hand is pretty boring, but at least it will work on BOTH screen sizes with out a lot of fiddling (which is what clients usually prefer.

I have in the past run off BOTH sizes and allowed the clients to choose the size for them selves.

I have also included a small note at the beginning of the video for the really dumb people stating that if they they see a distorted picture then they are using the wrong screen setup and they will need to consult their dvd manual on how to reset the screen size.

I have a woman friend who says she likes the way 16:9 looks on a 4:3 set when stretched vertically. She says everyone looks nice and thin. I think she is only half joking.

Perhaps she has been watching too many CNN website videos. There, everyone appears to weigh 300lbs.

Asking the common man to determine if their tv has a distorted picture is in the same realm of a politician saying he will not legislate earmarks.
JJK

I understand your desire for people to watch the video correctly, but since each DVD manufacturer uses a different setup process, it might be hard to explain each circumstance without having to make a whole new video.

Dave T2

I'm guessing, based on past experience, that there are now at least 4 or more ways a viewer can mess up the aspect ratio, and no single approach is going to fix all possible errors. My new Sony flatscreen has 4 different width options selectable from the remote, even after things have been configured for the monitor itself and the various players (PS3 and a Toshiba DVR) that I presently use.

On much older TVs (and many people do have these if they're not video-obsessive the way I am) I'm not sure you'll have a lot of choices, other than those hidden in the configuration menus of both monitor and DVD player. Just label the discs "Widescreen" and those watching will or won't figure out the rest on their own. For people with smaller screens, a letterboxed presentation can drastically reduce what they can make out on the screen and they may have valid reasons for preferring to watch the image stretched out on the vertical axis, just so they can make out a little more detail.

You do have to consider that there ARE many consumers who still buy DVDs in Fullscreen (Pan&Scan) versions, perhaps for this reason.

I'm including a little disclaimer on a DVD I recently did for my aunt and uncle with a lot of their home movies. The content was shot with a miniDV cam in 4x3, and they've since purchased a 46" 1080p 120Hz HDTV, heh. Sadly I don't think any combination of settings will make it look that good on such a screen, but distorting it would only make it worse.

Strangely enough, though, I was testing it out on my grandparents HD setup, a 42" 1080p LG with an upscaling DVD player. The DVD player is set properly, and the TV's aspect ratio mode is on "Select by Source" and on that setup the image is still stretched to fill the screen.

Would this be due to the upscaling nature of the DVD player... is it somehow intereferring with the TV's detection of 4x3 video on the disc? The 16x9 menus and additional stuff (mostly humurous content made by me for the DVD) play properly, of course. A regular 4x3 TV with a normal DVD player has no issue displaying both types properly... this is the first time I've had an issue with mixing 4x3 and 16x9 on the same disc. If it is the upscaling DVD player, I suppose I should add to the disclaimer that this disc should be played on a regular DVD player.

Atomic, I had the same problem with an upscaling Phillips player, it would stretch 4:3 video on any output setting other than 480p. Very annoying, I dumped the player for that reason. This does not happen my Toshiba HD-A3 player. I think it is a bug in the Philips player.

The problem is the way the DVD players are set up. Most people never change the factory settings. It is pretty easy to do however. It used to be that DVD players had their default settings set for 4:3 TVs. Now that most new TV sales are 16:9, DVD players are coming set up for 16:9 sets. This means that on a 4:3 TV, the image will be stretched vertically. This is true of commercial DVDs as well as those authored with Sony software. It takes all of about 30 seconds to fix this. I can't imagine what all the fuss is about.

By the way, that is one of the things I love about HDMI. It's pretty much idiot-proof.

my LG upscalling DVD player stretched anything that was upscaled. Annoying on 4:3 DVD's. Took me a few watches to notice because I wasn't sure if the kids messed with the TV's widescreen or the DVD player's widescreen. :(

The most important thing is to make sure that the DVD is set to the correct ratio. It used to be a problem with discs prepared in IMovie. I had a huge row with someone once when they were blaming my player for showing their video in the incorrect ratio. Of course it played correctly on his 16:9 TV.

I pointed out that actually, by default most DVD players show 16:9 video in the correct ratio on 4:3 TV's and that the only way the it can be messed up is if the the video has 4:3 flags yet the content is 16:9. Very annoying.