Making 16:9 DVD's from cinema wide .AVI's

[pwiz]

If I use Win DVD Maker (WDVDM) to cut a DVD from an .AVI that is wider than 16:9 it plays with the image squashed to fit the 16:9 aspect.
Should I use Win Live Move Maker (WLMM) or a third party program to crop the sides or pad the top & bottom of .AVI or other formats, and then WDVDM to cut a disc?

Or is there are 'free' third party program that allows me to choose cropping and padding options for extra width .AVI and other formats and encode & burn to DVD in 16:9 or 4:3 ?

 

[Borg 386]

Windows DVD maker does have a problem with aspect ratio, I don't believe there is a fix for it yet, there is however a workaround. Too bad, I really like the menus Windows DVD maker generates

You have to use Live Movie Maker. Here's a link to the workaround

Windows DVD Maker Aspect Ratio

It basically involves making the project in Live Movie Maker, selecting the aspect ratio there, and then exporting it to a DVD. This apparently preserves whatever aspect ratio you selected. This takes a while, but as I said, it does make some nice menus

Another option is DVD Flick, it is free and has a lot of options, the only downside it you're limited on the Menus, but it does a great job. Note, this software runs best when set to Compatibility XP, SP3

http://www.dvdflick.net/

Features:

• Burn near any video file to DVD
• Support for over 45 file formats
• Support for over 60 video codecs
• Support for over 40 audio codecs
• Easily add a menu
• Add your own subtitles
• Easy to use interface
• Burn your project to disc after encoding
• Completely free without any adware, spyware or limitations

For a more detailed list of features, see the Features page.

 

[pwiz]

Thanks Borg. I'll give it a go.