What's the deal with GS150's widescreen mode?
 

Having just purchased a GS150, I am starting to get back into video, but MiniDV and the DV format is new to me (had an old VHS-C and Hi8 back in the day). So what is the deal with the cam's widescreen mode? I know that it's not just cropping top and bottom, and it appears to actually widen the viewing area. But it still reads as the same resolution as normal DV, so I'm assuming the aspect ratio's different than the usual (normal DV is .9, right?).

Also, when I make a compilation in After Effects, and use the Widescreen DV preset for the comp, it uses a pixel aspect ratio is 1.2, but the comp monitor still is the 4:3 ratio, and the video is scrunched up (there's a technical term for ya). Is there a way to resize the monitor window so I know how my titles, etc. will really look?

Last thing is, when I play back widescreen footage from my cam directly into my TV, it's pulled out to the TV's full area, so everything is too tall and skinny. Is there any way to fix this? Thanks for tolerating me.

Thomas, I haven't used the GS150 extensively but with it being a SD cam its limited to the NTSC 4:3 restriction of 720x480. It then goes thru an anamorphic process (scrunched up) to fit the 853x480 16:9 SD image into the 4:3 720x480 area.

Here is a good link that covers the SD widescreen anamorphic conversion in camcorders.

http://www.maxent.org/video/16x9.html

I'm not familiar with After Effects and you may wish to post that issue seperately in the forum below.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=31

As for playing your 16:9 footage directly from your cam to your TV. That will depend entirely on what type of TV you have. If you're running a 4:3 SD set it will need to letterbox the image but not all sets do this (most 4:3 HD sets do). If you're running a widescreen SD or HD set make sure the widescreen aspect is set to FULL (not Wide1, Wide 2, 4:3, or Cinema).

You need to interpret your footage and set it to 1.2 pixel aspect ratio. This is done by right clicking the clips in the project window.