it's a bit strange really.... sometimes a widescreen project plays fine through external preview - other times it does not. I think it may have something to do with whether you are pushing out frames that have been re-compressed. I'll have to fire up a widescreen project and verify. If my memory is correct... it displays properly in widescreen (letterboxed) on external preview as long as you have applied any FX to the clips. Seems counter-intuitive that applying an FX would fix this... but that's what I think happens.
If you're going out via 1394 to a 4:3 monitor it certainly doesn't, no matter what. You could fudge it in Vegas but that'd kind of defeat the whole purpose of external preview.
Bob.
Nope... I'm describing something that actually happened. Not my imagination I can assure you. I had a widescreen project and it automagically switched from being strected/distorted full screen to being properly letterboxed on my 4:3 TV. You can by all means say that there is something faulty here... but you cannot possible tell me that I did not see what I saw with my own eyes.
I don't see why it would not letterbox it anyway... It should... Preview is supposed to allow you to get better color correction and set your composition & placement of elements.....
If I want to see the video letterboxed I usually just set the project to 4:3 mode and Vegas will handle it. Need to remember to change it back to 16:9 before final output of course.