Quote: When playing DVD on a player the menu and video appear to be in different aspect ratios.
The menu looks correct when TV set to 16:9 but video then is too wide with black stripes top and bottom and short fat people. (TV set to auto aspect gives same result as 16:9)
If TV set to 14:9 then video looks ok but now menu to narrow with tall thin people.
When disc played on computer everything ok without messing with any settings, preview in PD9 also ok.
The project aspect ratio in PD9 is set to 16:9.
This is very frustrating as have made the DVD as Xmas present, can anyone help.

PS note videos from camera and using Gspot the size is shown as 720 x 576 with aspect 16:9, this does not make much sense to me.

In the create Disk module you can choose the aspect ratio of the menu you are creating. That selection is in Disk Preferences.

Standard definition video can be either Wide Screen (16:9) or Regular Display (4:3). The same resolution. 720x576 is PAL format and standard definition.

Some TVs do not display correctly. But your description is of a 4:3 Menu with 16:9 video.

Black on top and bottom of the screen is called Letter Box.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

In the disc preferences the only aspect item I can see is entitled "select the video recording format" and this is set to 16:9.

Another aspect problem is the DVD includes small clips from dig camera which are 4:3. Again they are ok in the preview but on disc they come out wide and squat. In Edit, I have opened the select Aspect ration setting of these clips and it was set to Detect Automatically, when I change this to 4:3 the clips are now displayed as wide and squat in Preview, not sure how they will be on the DVD but just about to burn again so we will see but takes several hours.

Quote: In the disc preferences the only aspect item I can see is entitled "select the video recording format" and this is set to 16:9.

Another aspect problem is the DVD includes small clips from dig camera which are 4:3. Again they are ok in the preview but on disc they come out wide and squat. In Edit, I have opened the select Aspect ration setting of these clips and it was set to Detect Automatically, when I change this to 4:3 the clips are now displayed as wide and squat in Preview, not sure how they will be on the DVD but just about to burn again so we will see but takes several hours.

If you need to change the aspect ratio of clips on the timeline, Right Click The Clip > Set Aspect Ratio.
You can set how the clip is displayed.

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

That option does not seem to work as I would expect.
Some of my clips are 4:3 but when I use this option to select an aspect ratio of 4:3 the clip in preview goes wide and squat.
When played on DVD the 4:3 video no looks ok and somehow shows full screen in 16:9.
Not sure what is going on but one thing is certain, the preview and what ends up on the DVD are not always the same.

Quote: That option does not seem to work as I would expect.
Some of my clips are 4:3 but when I use this option to select an aspect ratio of 4:3 the clip in preview goes wide and squat.

That is because your project is set to 16:9 Set Aspect Ratio is fitting the 4:3 video into the 16:9 format. There is more that one option in the Set Aspect ratio, you have to play with them, you see the result in the preview.

When played on DVD the 4:3 video no looks ok and somehow shows full screen in 16:9.
Not sure what is going on but one thing is certain, the preview and what ends up on the DVD are not always the same.

Welcome to the world of Video production!
Video Editors have struggled with the various video formats forever, It is not getting any better. You have to decide which is the lesser evil.

When you mix formats (Wide and full screen) you have to fit something somewhere. One way is to stretch the 4:3 to fill 16:9.
The way TV stations do it is to have black bars on the sides of 4:3 on a 16:9 screen.
Now you can put a 16:9 background that will show behind the 4:3 to fill the screen with something other than Black.

I do that all the time. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.