Also, maybe your original source material is letterboxed instead of being true 16x9?

Randy,

Not clear from your post if you see letterboxing on playback on your TV.
If so, you need to tell the DVD player it is playing out to a WS TV.

Otherwise, what the others have already said. Check in DVDA:
File> Properties> Properties> Video Defaults> Aspect ratio = 16:9

Tom

Am I correct in understanding that you captured the video live to a stand alone DVD burner, are now importing it into Vegas and trying to render it to a DVDA compatible mpeg2 format?

Also, maybe your original source material is letterboxed instead of being true 16x9?

I feel a tad goofy but I think that is the case.
Believe it or not I don't own a widescreen TV but I just took the original (source) DVD over to a friends widescreen and it doesn't fill up the screen (bars on top and bottom). Then we played my DVD and it was squished (having twice the width of bars at top and bottom).
So does this mean it's 4:3 and I should just render as such?
Thanks everyone,
Randy

Am I correct in understanding that you captured the video live to a stand alone DVD burner, are now importing it into Vegas and trying to render it to a DVDA compatible mpeg2 format?

I captured live from a DVD player via a DV deck to Sony vidcap as an .avi then converting.

I have just rendered to 4:3 and about to burn another...if the destination is a widescreen to I set DVDA to widescreen?

Looking at the preview on my widescreen PC monitor the widescreen and 4:3 setting look the same.
The problem is even with properties set to widescreen the 16:9 (or letterboxed 4:3 or whatever the hell it is) has the bars on the top, bottom and sides.....arrrrrgh!!!!!
IOW, I believe on a 4:3 TV it will look like 16:9 material but on a widescreen look stupid (it'll have bars all around and just be smaller)
the original at least doesn't have bars on the side

So the video was originally on another DVD?

yes, a PBS TV show that I have permission to duplicate

I just burned the "16:9" video with 16:9 rendering all the way down to DVDA and it's ""squished from top to bottom on a widescreen TV....It seems that means that it's actually 4:3 cropped (letterboxed) but when I render to 4:3 it has bars all the way around on a widescreen TV.....any clues please????

Randy,
Can you post a screengrab of the preview window of your project?
What is the clip's aspect ratio set to?
Tom

Yessir I can...in Vegas or DVDA or both?
Also at which specific settings in each?
Thanks so much...I might retire until tomorrow morning (I'm friggin' exhausted after spending 30 plus hours on a 2 hour gig)

I had this problem years ago and asked the same questions. What I found out was that the DVD player setup menu was NOT set to a 16:9 display. After spending an hour drilling down thru the DVD menu, I found the setting, and now, every time I play a 16:9 DVD I made with DVDA, it plays properly. Quite a discovery if you want to know the truth.

Your description indicates that you have captured 4:3 video with letterboxed content.

This is not full "widescreen" for 16:9 displays.

Capture as 4:3, then use Pan/Crop however you want to transfer the visible content to a true 16:9 widescreen project.

Randy,
I was thinking of the Vegas preview.
Tom

Given that you have the legal right to do this, you can do it in the following way.

If it's part of a DVD you could just import it directly. To get around the DVD copy protection you could use a program called http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.htmlAnyDVD[/link] from http://www.slysoft.com/en/SlySoft[/link]. It works transparently in the background and removes the DVD copy protection. Just be sure to disable it (easy to do) when you burn a DVD.

If you are using just a small section of the DVD, you can separate it by using a program called http://www.womble.com/download/index.htmlMPEG Video Wizard[/link] which is free for the first 30 days. It is well worth buying for DVD re-edits anyway. Just grab the VOB files off the DVD and put them on the MPEG Video Wizard timeline and render just the parts you need. MPEG Video Wizard smart-renders this video so you don't lose a generation in the process, and you can put the smart-rendered sections right on a Vegas timeline. If you have AnyDVD running in the background there will be no copy protection issues when you do this.

By capturing it in with a capture box you are adding two extra generations: one when you capture to avi, and the second when you render to DVD compatible mpeg 2. Doing it my way will drop this down to one generation.

Your description indicates that you have captured 4:3 video with letterboxed content.
Oh man, I feel so stupid!!!
I don't think this is the issue but it made me think of what the issue must be.
Okay so I am still shooting in 4:3 (a couple of Canon XL1S') and I got so annoyed with the pop-up in VidCap asking if I wanted to capture Hi Def or 4:3 every time I inserted a tape that I selected 4:3 and then checked the box for vidcap not to ask me again so apparently I captured this in 4:3 right?
So I've tried to find this option to tell vidcap that the material is 16:9 (I don't think it's HD but I dunno) but can't find this option anywhere.
Can anyone tell me where to change this setting (nothing turns up in help when searching for widescreen, 16:9, or 4:3)?
FWIW I so much appreciate your patience!!!

Randy,

Listen to Lawrence!!! You are trying to "capture" digital content that's already in the digital format that you need. Stop doing this!!! Forget about Vidcap. Just import the DVD using File | Import | DVD Camcorder Disc... (use AnyDVD if it's copy protected as long as you have permission). If the original content is widescreen then that's what you will get.

BTW, have you looked on the DVD package and does it say "Widescreen Edition"? Because it might not be widescreen at all. It might be the "Full Screen Edition" in which case all you have is 4:3 letterbox to work with anyway.

~jr