19:6 anamorphic recording vs. default project setting and letterboxing

Question

Setup
- MB Pro
- Canon DV cam MVX25i
- TV widescreen model (SONY)
Goal
- Make DVD's (from footage taken with the camera) which provide the best quality when played on the TV set in widescreen mode.
Method
- I have taken all footage as 16:9 recordings (when I play from the camera directly to the TV quality looks great) The camera is doing this in an optimal way (from what I read anyhow) by squeezing the stuff into a 4:3 format (theirby not loosing resolution on the CCD).
- Now I am trying to make a DVD by importing stuff with iMovie HD and later on make a DVD with iDVD.
Problem
- Whenever the camera is connected the project iMovie makes is DV-PAL (in a 4:3 format)
- When importing clips they are squeezed (as expected)
- Then (if the option is selected) iMovie is letterboxing those clips. So bars at the top and the bottom. NO GOOD!
- If you then view this full screen you get bars at the sides (because the 4:3 project is shown on the widescreen of the portable) and bars at top and bottom (due to letterboxing).
- I didn't bother to take this in iDVD.
So THE question: how to make iMovie do the following:
- Start out with a DV widescreen project
- Import clips from the camera and stretch those (because these are 4:3 and squeezed)
As a sidenote:
Does anybody know how iDVD writes a widescreen project to DVD is it going to letterbox thas as well or is he doing the anamorphic approach (like it is done on the better quality DVD's)
Macbook Pro 2Gb 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   Canon MVX25i DV cam

Answer 1

HOW TO MAINTAIN 16:9 ASPECT FROM IMPORT TO BURN
This is the way I do it. There is no compulsion on you to do it my way, but this works (for me). I started this method before iMovie and iDVD were upgraded to 6.0.3, and because not all elements of the various iDVD themes (particularly the pre-iDVD 6 ones) are consistent in keeping to 16:9 throughout the process. I have for years shot in nothing but 16:9 widescreen, partly because it looks better (IMO), partly to future-proof my videos for the increasingly popular widescreen TVs. Living in the UK, I use PAL (25 fps). Wherever you see a reference to PAL in the following you may substitute NTSC (30 fps) in the various settings mentioned, the basic idea is the same. I still use this method, and take these steps, regardless of whether it is always necessary. Worst case scenario: it would have worked anyway. Best case scenario: it works perfectly where it otherwise wouldn’t!
The object of the exercise is to ‘fix’ all constituent parts of the project (video, titles, theme, effects, even audio!) in the desired 16:9 aspect to avoid producing a DVD where the movie is in 16:9 and the menu is in 4:3 or where other irritating surprises lurk in your project, which you only discover after burning a coaster!
First go to http://www.mydvdedit.com/index.php?lang=english and download myDVDedit. This is shareware although the download is free. Send the guy a few dollars/euros, he deserves it. While you are there, read all about it. Now install it in your Applications Folder. You will need it later.
You have finished your iMovie project with music, transitions and so on, and saved it to you Movies Folder. Before you started the project you naturally set it DV Widescreen.
Open iDVD. Give the project a name, and save it as Widescreen if it didn’t default to the same aspect as your iMovie project. Now import the iMovie project into iDVD, choose a theme (any theme you like, even if it prefers to stay at 4:3) and save the project. Do what you would normally do to the theme and its drop zones. Save the project.
Now save as Disk Image on your desktop. Leave it there for the moment when it has finished/appeared.
Open your Movies Folder. Create a new folder. Name it PROJECTNAME – TS FILES (where ‘projectname’ is the name of your project!). Close the folder. You can of course call it anything you like, but htis aids identification.
Now double-click the disk image on your desktop. It contains two folders: AUDIO_TS (which is empty, but please pretend that it isn’t) and VIDEO_TS. Drag and drop these to the folder you created in your Movies Folder. (This takes a moment).
Click on the AUDIO_TS folder and go to Get Info in the file menu. Right down the bottom is where you have to change the permissions. Under ‘Ownership & Permissions’ change this from Read Only to Read & Write. Click the small triangle next to Details, scroll down and click on Apply to enclosed items. You will be asked for your root password. When this has completed (fairly fast, as that folder was empty!), click on the VIDEO_TS folder and do the same. This takes a moment longer, as that folder is full of goodies with which you should not otherwise interfere! Close the Projectname-TS Files folder. You have now allowed yourself to change the properties of the contents of those folders, which leads us to the next all-important step.
Open myDVDedit. Go to File and open the projectname TS Files folder. By all means stare at it shock and awe, but don’t bother finding out what it can do, except for the following:
Top left you fill see a list of files. Lower centre you have a large window. On the vertical menu to the left of that, click IFO.
In the window at the top left, ignore ‘First Play’ (if there was anything to correct in that, myDVDedit will have done so and told you).
Click on VMG Menu en (English). Now the whole thing springs to life.
Set Coding Mode to MPEG-2
Set Standard to PAL
Set Aspect to 16:9 (not any of the other options)
Now save the file.
Click on VTS Menu 1 en (English) and repeat as above.
Click on VTS 1 and repeat as above.
You have now permanently ‘fixed’ the entire contents of the TS folder (the disk image) in 16:9 aspect. Close myDVDedit – you won’t need it again until the next project!
If you have Toast 7 Titanium, open it. ‘Select DVD-Video from VIDEO_TS’. Choose Select from the main Toast window and select your projectname-TS Files folder. You are now ready to burn! You can set the burn speed (2x recommended) before the burn commences. Allow Toast to verify the burn before you eject the DVD-R disk.
If you don’t have Toast 7, then I assume you can burn the projectname-TS Files folder (disk image) via Disk Utility. I say ‘assume’ only because I have never tried it that way.
Either way, you now have a DVD which will play as 16:9 widescreen on any TV set, even the old ones where you can’t ask it to letter-box.