In menu creation I made a short avi clip to 16:9 ratio; it plays as such.
I made a menu with buttons in the 16:9 ratio; no problem.
I imported and made a timeline of my clip, held down the alt key and dragged it onto my 16:9 menu with the buttons. Once it settles as a video background to my buttons, the video is of 4:3 ratio. It loses the 16:9 ratio. ????
I've done this more than once. I've spent a couple of hours on the forum and can't find a resolution.
I want my 16:9 clip to appear as such when transferred onto the menu. Please help.

You need to set the interprete footage in Encore to widescreen.

Did you say you made a timeline and then alt-dragged the timeline into the menu (I assume you were trying to make a motion background)?

If you want to make a motion menu background, you just use the clip (imported as an asset) and not a timeline. You can either alt-drag just the clip into the menu or use the pick-whip from the properties of the menu
What version of Encore, and how did you make the clip, menu etc.

Maybe that will help.
John Rich

Thank you, Ann. But, where do you "interpret footage" in Encore.

JohnR, yes, I've made a motion background; that's done. When I generate a timeline from that motion avi, the resultant aspect ration becomes 4:3 in the properties window with 16:9 grayed out, in spite of the fact that the same avi plays on MS Media Player as 16:9 and the menu before adding the motion background is the appropriate 16:9.

The question is, why is this avi changing to the 4:3 ratio? And, how can I prevent it?

The avi was generated through Proshow Producer; I'm using Encore 2.0.

I'm probably missing something, but what is the aspect ratio of the .avi, not the timeline when you import it into Encore?

As I mentioned, you don't use a timeline for a motion background, but the .avi.

To get to "interpret footage", you right click on the asset ie the .avi in the project window and interpret footage is in the pop-up menu.

John

Thank you, John!
It is a 16:9 generated, through Proshow, avi.
I don't use the timeline for background creation; I generated it to explore my problem in losing the 16:9 aspect ratio.
I found the culprit, the elusive "interpret footage" box, thanks to you. It seems that it defaults to the 4:3. I changed it; again I'm smiling; and again I thank both you and Ann.