Being forced to use Windows DVD maker. New software is not an option.

Let me rephrase. on a widescreen TV the videos are squishing toold screen TV sizes. The videos are already created to fit a wide screen. Once burned to a DVD the videos width is aLtered.

I think Chocolate Pickle actually has your answer here. The DVD format here is the limiting factor. It is possible to produce anamorphic DVDs which can be expanded by the player to fill a widescreen TV. However this is similar to letterboxing in that it's a pre-processing step on the video before processing it into a DVD. Either method will work but both entail formatting the original content into a 3:2 container and then expanding correctly at the player (anamorphic) or end device (magnify letterbox to fill the screen)

You may be http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/cd5edb7b-a4dd-43c9-ae95-20ac5692b2c6/windows-dvd-maker-aspect-ratio?forum=w7itpromedia Other people are having the same issue. Someone suggested under settings, to select the compatibility tab, and uncheck the box that says "AVI Decompressor". It might take longer though.

This http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-pictures/windows-dvd-maker-burns-only-43-aspect-ratioeven/b2f2fbfd-a6f2-414d-9cb6-37e281a00208 suggests that you have to convert AVI to WMV. It also links to another article which might be helpful.

on a widescreen TV the videos are squishing toold screen TV sizes. The videos are already created to fit a wide screen. Once burned to a DVD the videos width is aLtered. Yes. That is exactly what will happen. That's because the DVD player thinks it's 4:3 -- and tells your widescreen TV that it's 4:3, so your widescreen TV displays it as 4:3. If you want a 16:9 window inside that 4:3, you're going to have to letterbox. Or you're going to have to burn a BD, which spec does support 16:9. The fact that your original source was 16:9 doesn't matter. By the time it's burned onto the DVD, it isn't 16:9 any more. (By that point it's 3:2, with a tag saying it should be expanded by the player to 4:3.)

Something's going wrong here, but you're not being very specific about what exactly you're seeing wrong. The video could be "squished" in multiple ways. Here's how widescreen works on a DVD: The video is still 720x480, but the 16:9 video is squished (horizontally) into those dimensions. This is called "anamorphic" video. An indicator is added to the DVD video stream to indicate this to the player. When a DVD player set up for a 16:9 TV sees this anamorphic indicator, it displays the video across the entire screen and you get widescreen video. If it's set up for a 4:3 TV, it squishes the video vertically and adds letterboxing. One of two things could be happening to you, as far as I can tell: 1. Your video is anamorphic widescreen, but Windows DVD Maker isn't setting the flag properly. This seems unlikely since your preview looks correct. Also, it's unlikely your source material is anamorphic unless it's from a DVD. 2. I think this is more likely: Either you, or Windows DVD Maker, added letterboxing bars to the video, so it's being treated as 4:3. Your DVD player is then stretching it across your whole screen for whatever reason. If your source video already had letterboxing bars, you'll probably need to crop it to 16:9 so DVD Maker can handle it correctly. I haven't used that program myself so I don't know about that.