Quality DVD with anamorphic footage

Hi,

I am making an educational DVD ,using a PD170 with 16:9 anamorphic settings.
As I understand from many posts in this forum this is not ideal cause it is native 4:3.
And to be honest it looks pretty mank and blurry

What filters or effects should I use ( FCP 6 ) to make it look acceptable ? Without getting too complicated cause I just started this line of work recently.

Thanks, Bas

I don't actually recall if the PD170 did 'fake' anamorphic, or if it shoots actual 16:9.

If it's 'real' anamorphic, there shouldn't be a problem. Read this in the Wiki for more info : [www.lafcpug.org]

If it's 4:3 and letterboxing the content so it looks the right shape but is inside a 4:3 box, your only real option is to scale up the footage to fit the frame correctly, which will result in a loss of quality, or do something like this : [www.lafcpug.org] , or make your project 4:3.

[I am making an educational DVD ,using a PD170 with 16:9 anamorphic settings.
As I understand from many posts in this forum this is not ideal cause it is native 4:3. ]

Anamorphic is the best way to do 16:9 in DV, believe me. Any camera that hard-mattes into widescreen letterbox in 4:3 is not using the whole chip. Being a Sony it's probably using anamorphic like my little A1U.

FCP has no problems resolving it, as Jude said, provided you check off the Anamorphic flag in your DV capture preset.

I've done two DVD's from anamorphic footage, exported as letterbox 4:3. Best solution for varied users and screens, including computer viewing. (16:9 flatscreen users can invoke a Zoom control to fill the frame with only a little loss in quality.)

The only thing better will be Blue-Ray, from material shot in HD.

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:

Toggle Dynamic Trim with Command-Shift-D!

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Thanks for all that,
As far as I am aware the sony shoots real anamorphic however the pixels are still 4:3 , stretched into 16:9 with loss of quality.
So in the log and capture I set it to 4:3 letterbox instead of "anamorphic" ?
Does that mean that I can start editing all over again?
Are there any filters and effects you would recommend ?