sorry

thought there might be an easy way to stretch an anamorphic pillarboxed 4:3 picture to a 16:9.

isn't there just some command in Vegas for this?

seems a pretty basic thing to do - but I can't find anything in the help function.

Cheers

There is.
Post the information requested, and someone else will help.

If what you want (not sure) is to fit 4:3 source to a 16:9 screen without pillarbox, you can crop, stretch, or drape the sides. This is in no way "automatic" without use of a script. And knowing your media properties including display dimensions and pixel aspect.

If otoh you want to fit the preview to source Display Aspect Ratio, search for "match media settings."

Good luck.

I think what he is asking is how to stretch a 16:9 video recorded in 4:3. This is actually an excellent way to record HD video through an SD video chain for putting on a DVD. I do it all the time by outputting from my HD DVR, into my VCR which has Firewire output. The best way to do this is to output 4:3 in order to get all the pixels the SD device (analog NTSC video) expects. Otherwise, you lose resolution. Doing this gives you 4:3 video, but it is squished horizontally and needs to be expanded in order to look correct.

To stretch out to 16:9 (which is what I think the OP is asking for), your go to each event, right click, choose Properties, click on the Media tab, and then manually change the Pixel Aspect from 0.9091 to 1.2121.

I have a script that will do this in one click for all selected events.

Is this what you were looking for?