[Eoin Ryan]

“Why? Export as Anamorphic. The DVD will play as full screen in a 16:9 TV and Letterboxed on a 4:3.”

The way I do it, even though letterboxed on a 16:9 TV, I still think the image looks better with the black bars at the top and bottom (once there’s none at the sides). By letterboxing myself, I’m preserving the original 16:9 aspect ratio but making sure there’s black bars on the image when displayed on any TV.

“If you’re letterboxing it before it gets to the DVD, it will play with letterboxing no matter what kind of TV it plays back on.”

Did you mean to say “pillarboxing no matter what kind of…”. My intention is to have the footage letterboxed as I think it looks better (and it still is widescreen – the full widescreen frame is showing). Once the black bars are there, I think it adds a cinematic feel to it. However, pillarboxing is not something I want/like.

“Kind of defeats the purpose of shooting anamorphic to begin with.”

I don’t understand this. Can you explain?

Thanks for the help.

[Eoin Ryan]

“There’s nothing you can do about this since you’re shooting SD except to shoot in Anamorphic and then the DVD player should fill the screen with the image. But this all depends on how the end user has their TV, their DVD/BluRay player setup. ”

I’m already shooting in anamorphic. However, I’m editing the footage as letterbox. And then exporting the footage as letterbox. Come to think of it, when I did bring the DVD samples to electronics stores to try them out on various TVs and players, it was only when I played it on a BluRay player that I got the pillarboxing aswell.

So do you mean I can continue to do what I’m doing and not worry about someone being stuck with pillarboxing? I mean, if it depends on their TV settings for example, then they should/will be able to change that to a different setting, say “16:9” and my image will appear as I want it to: black bars top and bottom even on a widescreen TV?