And this is where I get completely bewildered.
My source is 16:9 from a Sony PD-150. My compositions (both in Premiere and anything in AE) are 16:9. I export and set the export ratio to 16:9. In Encore, the timeline indicates the footage is 16:9.
When I watch the AVI export in Media player – it is 16:9.
When I transcode the file to 16:9 4mb (or even 7mb) and burn it, it plays full screen. More like the 16:9 footage is proportionately expanded to get rid of the bars.