Help in selecting export settings

Thanks to all who answered I will digest what you have said for future use.

In the meantime I think the problem was with  the DVD burner I was using as when I switched to a different make it filled the screen perfectly.

Do what Bob says.

Sequence that matches the footage and export to mpeg2-dvd.

If source is interlaced set fields to upper.

For other then Encore you need to turn the multiplexer on in the export settings.

If you want to keep the high resolution make a BD-disk.

Export to one of the mpeg-2 DVD widescreen presets.  Then use Encore or another authoring program to author and burn the DVD.

A DVD would be standard def... So that would be 720x480 which is typically a 4:3 aspect ratio

HD or 1080P is a 16x9 aspect ratio..

I would suggest you to create a new sequence that is SD (720x480) and copy past your 1080p sequence in there... You will have to do some overall scaling and pan and scan but that way you can make sure your output is what you want...

There is no way to get out of the aspect ratio conversion so you will either loose some video off the sides to fill the top and bottom of frame or you will have have a bit of a letter box to keep the sides of the frame