[NSP]

I have to convert a DVD to Mini DV because I lost data on a hard disk.
The only copy I have is a DVD copy.
It's a short film that has been selected for a competition and they ask for a more professional copy than a DVD.
The thing is (well... there are several "things"...) the short was edited based on HD footage from a HD handycam with a hard drive. It has widescreen atributes that my Mini DV camera does not have (here's another thing, I would like to save a couple hundred bucks and do it myself in Mini DV than pay someone to do it in another format, as they accept Mini DV in the competition).
After converting the DVD to an AVI file and recording it to a Mini DV tape, will the 16:9 picture be faithful to the original copy on the DVD? Will the aspect ratio be the same, or will it cut the sides or squash the image? I know quality wise it doesn't make much sense, but it a question of accepted formats...
Thanks!!

[cgc]

I'm not a video editor, but I've done a LOT of conversions of my videos to take when I travel and if you set up your conversion for 16:9 it should remain 16:9. The best thing to do is to experiment. When I'm unsure of settings (like trying to get vids to play on DLNA TV...grrr) I'll extract a short segment of the movie using Quicktime and process that. This way I don't have to wait up to an hour (and I've got a 4-core Mac). If that meets your standard then process the entire thing and go have a drink

BTW, out of curiosity, what are you using to do the conversion?

[Big Mac]

I have to convert a DVD to Mini DV because I lost data on a hard disk.

Why can't you just copy the DVD to a different hard drive?