[cmillerdesign]

I have a new Sony HC90 which records in 16:9 and have both a 36" 4:3 and a 46" 16:9 TV. I will be editing all the video in iMovie 5 and burning to DVD. For now we watch most things on our 4:3 TV, but in a few years that may all change. I want to shoot the format which will give me the best resolution when played back after editing. With my old Sony TRV11, which didn't have a true wide mode, I shot everything at 4:3 to fill a standard TV, then if ever I wanted to watch the video on a wide TV I would just "expand" the picture to fill the screen. When played back on our 16:9 TV the quality looked the same whether I shoot at 16:9 or 4:3 and "expanded" the picture. Should I shoot all my video in 4:3 and use the "expand" function if and when I want to watch it on a 16:9 TV or should I shoot everything as 16:9 and watch it "letterboxed" on a 4:3 TV? I tried a test but it is hard to compare the 2 when the footage is not the same and you have to flip through some screen menus. Thanks.

[loki74]

i say record in 16:9 IF and only if your cam does true 16:9. This means that the cam must have a 16:9 chip that it records fully, as opposed to chopping off the top and bottom portions of a 4:3 image. If it doesnt do that, an anamorphic converter is always an option.

What I would do is actually make 2 cuts and 2 DVD's. For the 16:9 cut, just leave it as it is. For the 4:3 cut, crop the image at varying poits in time at varying positions to show only what is importnat. This way there is no stretching, no faking, no mattes, and no loss of resolution. It will however, take some more time....

[bwahahax]

loki74 is quite correct regarding true 16:9. Doing a quick search on the net it seems your camera does have a 16:9 chip, so I say go 16:9!