Hi, two things:

I have a Panasonic GS500 widescreen camcorder. It can film in 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio. I import it using the dvgrab command.

I also have a widescreen laptop.

Using mplayer, playing 4:3 video makes it appear "stretched out" when maximized. It looks good playing 16:9.

I am also trying to use Cinelerra to edit video (to which I'm a newbie, but trying to learn!). Using its Compositor and Media window, 4:3 media looks fine, and 16:9 media looks "squashed." When I rightclick a 16:9 avi file and select "Info...", it tells me that it is 720X480 -- 4:3. What's up with that?

Can anyone shed light on either of these issues?

Thanks!

This isn't the full answer but....

720x480 refers to the screen that the video has been created in. It has nothing to do with the aspect ration ( 4:3 16:9).

In the US, the standard used is NTSC which has a screen size of 720x480pixels. In australia we use PAL, with a screen size of 720x576. These numbers refer to TV, but with video editing you need to define which of these standards you are going to complete your project in. If your project is created in PAL, but is played in NTSC modes, the picture will be affected. You see heaps of this in videos on google, youtube etc.

If your in the mood for technical detail, wiki PAL or NTSC.

With regards to the mPlayer issue, I dont know enough to guarentee but I would imagine that it related to the same issue.

Good luck with Cinelerra