i want to put 16:9 rear projection screens in a night club so that 16:9 videos fill the screen and 4:3 videos fit 'fully' inside the 16:9 screen with 2 black vertical stripes on the left and the right. in other words, the system is to be designed for 16:9 and the 4:3 fits in the middle. I do NOT want a full 4:3 screen with 16:9 fitting in that. which does SSL output ?

ssl will support all output modes.

preserve
constrain
stretch
4.3
16.9

a better question is what output does your computer output on the video output. most likely it's a 4:3 shaped output native on the TV output. most likely your computer can do 4:3 output OR 16:9 output natively on DVI or VGA but most likely it won't output a 16:9 native on TV (composite, s-video).

Video-SL is not constrained to a particular aspect ratio and can be fit to whatever size you want. As a-swift said we have different ways of handling source aspect ratios that differ from the output aspect which can be selected as desired.

Finally, we also support anamorphic output (which treats pixels as 4:3 instead of 1:1)

Noob question: Is the aspect ratio something which is file dependent? If so... wouldnt we need an aspect ratio option for each deck?

I've been tinkering with output settings, and as a simpleton I can't quite finger out which one really suites my needs best.

I have a MacBook Pro 2.4 Dual Core and my nighclub has 25 16:9 Hitachi HiDef plasmas - what would you guys suggest using for my output?

I should also note that the above post is actually a serious question (NoTonyLittle)

all of my VIDEO files are 4:3 because that's the way I get them from promo only. even the ones that are widescreen are not really widescreen because the titles always fall in the letterboxed area. when you crop them down, you clip the titles. it's a mess.

to answer your question though. i run mine at 4:3, preserve. All my H.264 videos are 720x480 with 4:3 aspect ration and all my xvids are 640x480 (native 4:3).