Problem with Aspect Ratio

[TeeKay]

I have a Topfield 5880, a 4:3 TV and a DVD player that palys mpeg2 files without re-encoding to DVD (mpegiso I believe it is called).

Ok, so I have a .rec file of a film that plays on my Toppy with a black bar top and bottom.

VideoReDo tells me that it is
Encoding Dimensions: 720 x 576
Display Size: 720 x 576
Aspect Ratio: 16/9
Frame Rate: 25.00 FPS
Bit Rate: 4.350 Mbps

I convert the .rec file to an mpeg stream, without changing the aspect ratio or Bit Rate (no change option), and then burn the file onto a DVD.

When I play the DVD on my DVD player the playback is stretched to full screen height.

Is this a problem with my DVD player or am I doing something wrong?
Incidentally, the DVD palyer is capable of playing back shop bought DVD's with the correct aspect ratio.

Tim

[phd]

Try setting the aspect ratio when you save the file.

What authoring program do you use?

[TeeKay]

Pat,

I tried setting the aspect ratio but it didn't make any difference.

>What authoring program do you use?
I'm just writing the mpeg stream to the disc, so I'm not using amy authoring software.

Tim

[Lester Burnham]

Typically standalone DVD players signal aspect ratio signalling not necessarily using the aspect ratio in the film / stream, but using the IFO file when referencing the PGC / titleset.

Clearly that isn't relevant or present when simply dealing with mpeg2 files as data.

So it may be that your standalone doesn't deal with picking up aspect ratio correct from merely the data in the mpeg file.