It's probably least confusing to consider just one example at a time.
So I'll take the case of how to work with my typical AVI movie clips
from my digicam, a Canon Ixus 60 (Powershot in USA). GSpot etc
summarise these AVI files as:
640 x 480, SAR = 1.333 (4:3), PAR = 1.000, DAR = 1.333 (4:3)
Codec = mjpg (Motion JPEG)

For background info, I use these in various programs such as
MemoriesOnTV, MovieMaker, and WVW, to make family DVDs, PAL (720 x
576) 16:9 DVDs, for playing on my 16:9 TV. I also use the following
other mixture of sources:

- Still images of various resolutions, increasingly 16:9 but still
with some 4:3 and other ratios, depending on subject matter.

- Other AVIs made by screen captures, which I try to keep at 16:9.

- DVD ready MPEG clips, such as made by MoTV's 'layering' facility

=======================================

OK, specifics. Consider the 5 second, 9 MB, 640 x 480 Canon MJPG clip,
TestCircle.avi:
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/I...TestCircle.avi
If I open that with any of 10 or so programs like VirtualDub,
PowerDVD, WMP, etc, it plays showing the stool without distortion, as
expected.

However, if make a DVD MPEG from it with WVW using my usual settings
for widescreen PAL TV, the result when played is distorted. GSpot
reports
720 x 576, SAR 1.250 (5:4), PAR = 1.422, DAR 1.778 (16:9)
Codec = mjpg (Motion JPEG)
and WVW has clearly stretched it from 4:3 to 16:9.

By contrast, MoTV fits it to the screen, as I want, with black space
either side. In WVW I would have to customise my template to avoid the
problem. But that would screw up the result from source clips with
different ARs.

How do other WVW users work with mixed sources please?

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

"Terry Pinnell" <terrypin@dial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:56gtt2lvgk8q6hv061im6rpkpvb7ddtkeq@4ax.com...
Terry,

Methinks what you need to do is to consider a more substantial editing
package like Vegas or Premiere. Whilst I'm a great supporter of Womble for
simple domestic use it really is not designed to handle mixed media of the
kind you envisage. Maybe there are a few tricks to create a work-around.
Possibly converting your " 640 x 480, SAR = 1.333 (4:3), PAR = 1.000, DAR =
1.333 (4:3)" images to 720 x 576 and using that as a starting off point.
Personally I would get hold of a trial of Vegas and see if that answers your
needs
Stu

"Stuart" <stuart€@whodunnit8.com> wrote:

Thanks Stu. I'll probably persevere with my current tools for a while.
Apart from the challenge, I'd like to get my money's worth!

Must say, it seems surprising to me that an inexpensive program like
MoTV can handle mixed aspect ratios, yet WVW cannot. It's presumably
only a matter of stretching the width of a 4:3 source if the target
DVD AR is 16:9.

That said, with more ambitious editing in mind I *did* recently
download a trial of a Adobe Premier Elements (at 700 MB, my largest
ever program download!). But it turned out it needs "SSE2 support" It
therefore failed on my Athlon 1800, which doesn't have that.

I'll try Vegas sometime.

Meanwhile, I'll re-study the technical advice I had some while ago
from Jukka Aho, the resident AR guru, to see if I can come up with a
relatively simple implementation. I'm sure it's possible to get the
best of both worlds. WVW's attractive MPEG editing features, while
overcoming its apparent limitation of a fixed AR for its source clips.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

"Terry Pinnell" <terrypin@dial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:h283u2lks9c374kuvg1b3rumbs4cv6bquh@4ax.com...
Terry,

You should click on the "info" text next to where you got the
AR data in GSpot. In that info pop-up window you will find
http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/conversion which is the link to
Jukka's Guide to AR Conversions. (As you can see it's not
only us in this NG that picture him as a Guru on this subject.)

Luck;
Ken

"Terry Pinnell" <terrypin@dial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:56gtt2lvgk8q6hv061im6rpkpvb7ddtkeq@4ax.com...
Terry,

Not sure if this is helpful but I just laid into Womble a 40 second track
ext digital TV mpeg2 16:9 720 x 576 , 6686 kbps and butted up against this a
mpeg1 4:3 656 x 480. 1150kbps 40 second clip. About as extreme as possible!
Saved it out as MPEG2 PAL DVD template.

This played okay in WMP 11 correct aspect ratio.

Authored a DVD using Womble (16:9 PAL) and it played okay without a hitch.
Mind you I don't normally author in Womble I prefer ConvertXtoDVD or Sony
DVD Architect for more complex work..
Stu

"Ken Maltby" <kmaltby@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Thanks Ken, but to be honest I've looked at that before and can't make
much sense of it. I don't think it works for AVI files like the one
under discussion
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/I...TestCircle.avi

And anyway, I'd find it a PITA to have to resize each of my 640x480
AVI clips before I could encode!

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

"Stuart" <stuart€@whodunnit8.com> wrote:

Thanks Stu. If you get time to try my actual file
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/I...TestCircle.avi
that would be even better!

I suspect the issue may be as simple as WVW being less than competent
with AVI sources.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

"Terry Pinnell" <terrypin@dial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:ncf6u2pk618fp4kec52hrr4e6qvch12207@4ax.com...
Have you played with the Expert settings and tried square pixels etc?