Re: Recorded DVDs being 'squashed' left to right on my iBook

Eight? What the hell is that about? I meant 'height'.

Use VLC (free download) and select the aspect ratio to suit your film.
That usually works- and the display is beautiful.

However, VLC isn't always perfect at playing back all odd recordings. In
which case, try Apple's bundled DVD Player and go Window->Video Zoom.
There, you can fiddle with the eight and width separately. But the
picture quality from VLC looked better to me, last time I tried
widescreen.

I have just changed my DVD recorder and it works fine except for some
small problem. When I play the recorded DVD on my iBook, the
widescreen picture is 'squashed' to fit on my laptop screen. With
prerecorded widescreen DVDs I just get the standard black top and
bottom with the long, wide pic in the middle, but apparently not with
this recorder. I first noticed it when I setting up and testing the
new recorder. The display was set to 4:3 but when I played the test
DVD back, it was similarly 'squashed'. I sold that problem by
resetting the display to widescreen and on playing back on my TV, the
picture showed up as normal. However, the solution hasn't worked for
my iBook. I have scouted around my laptop settings but can't see
anything which might solve the problem. Can anyone suggest what i
might do (apart from simply watching the film on TV instead of here in
bed as I had planned to and enjoy)?