WLMM and DVD and aspect ratio

Not sure what you mean by "auto selection". With your camera you must have either 4:3 or 16:9 selected. There is no auto selection, there can't be. How would your camcorder tell what you were going to show the resultant video on 4:3 or 16:9 equipment. If you turn the camera off whilst in the 4:3 setting then the next time you turn it on it will be in 4:3.
If you are talking about selecting the aspect ratio to author your final DVD to then exactly the same info as above applies. Makes no difference what software you use.

flez said:

c, the problem is when i import it into WLMM it sees it as 4:3 if it was recorded as 4:3, and still sees it as 4:3 when recorded as 16:9, and there seems to be no way to stop this.

When you say "No in my camera I choose the aspect ratio fromt he reocrding menu, it records the same frame size but with different pixel ratio as you say"
That's exactly what everyone who uses this capture sytenm does. It is the tried and tested procedure! Perfectly normal practice!
If you are getting a 4:3 clip that was recorded at 16:9 then I can only re-iterate what I keep saying that is the capture stage is at fault somewhere. Can you give a detailed workflow of exactly what you do and what settings you choose when you capture via your firewire card? I did ask if you would be prepared to invest in some 3rd Party software but there is a better way. How about a 30 day trial on Corels Video Studio? You can download it from here:
Video Editing Software – Corel VideoStudio Pro X3

Then I can help you better regarding the capture process. I know that works well! We can also do some very good and straightforward editing there too!

flez said:

May give that a try if i can spare a few hours to play this week, but I still see no reason why I cant select the aspect ratio of my source footage, its an omission in my book.

If you mean that you can't select the aspect ratio of the final DVD then you can. When you get to the Burn stage at the bottom right of the screen you will see "Options" Click that then on the DVD Options tab you can select 4:3 or 16:9 amongst other settings.
But I do agree WLMM is a poor example of a video editor. Most regular users and I repeat I am not one of them, use the older versions, not this latest offering! I can't stand it, it is far too cumbersome and there are not enough user selectable options.
Personally I would not waste my time on it. As soon as we finish this thread I shall uninstall it as a complete waste of space IMHO, of course!!!!!

Does it record as anamorphic?

Theres 3 different resolution types.

720x480 = 4:3
720x480 anamorphic = 16:9

The only differnce is the AR flags in Video stream.
An anamorphic encode simply flags the AR in a way which tells the decoder to stretch the image in order to fill a widescreen viewing area.
(For example it may flag AR as 175:96 rather than 4:3)

Other true 16:9 are 720x400, 1280x720, 1920x1080

Not very familiar with PAL material, but it may work the same.

Wishmaster said:

Not very familiar with PAL material, but it may work the same.

Pretty much... The main difference between PAL and NTSC is that PAL video streams are always interlaced.

I see that flez has some good support here, so I won't interude (too much), but I would simply like to say that, in the end, aspect ratio does not matter, nor the standard the video was recorded in... WLMM is a very, very bad piece of software; perhaps not for video editing; but encoding yes. No cropping, the AR issue happens often, it is limited in output formats etc.
@ flez, I know that, perhaps, you don't want to hear this, but I suggest that you simply use another piece of software for both encoding and authoring DVDs, regardless of the source.

PAL works the same but the standard is 720 x 576 as opposed to NTSC which I think is 720 x 486. Anyway with great respect I think to go down the anamorphic road at this stage would be trying to run before we can walk. Lets get a sound understanding of the basics before we get too techie! I daresay that there are many members who produce perfectly good and acceptable DVD's without any knowledge of the principles of anormorphic re-forming. The very name is likely to put some people off, sounds more like a disease of something unmentionable!

If it helps, and you do not mind taking the time to learn the program, you can try recoding it with MeGUI.

I have a Tutorial for it in the Tutorial section, as well as one for burning AVCHD for those who record in HD :)

As for burning SD Video to DVD, I have always used Nero for this.
Of course this is a program you must purchase.

I'm not sure what another good alternative would be thats free.

As far as open source alternatives go, I'm not sure there actually is a good alternative that is not actually hard as hell to understand and efficiently manipulate.

BTW, MeGUI rules 8D