Resolutions for full screen playback?

[sharper3]

So I'm trying to pre-encode everything with SUPER (a ffmpeg frontend) so that I can store it on an old PC, and it can just serve to the TiVO with pyTivo, rather than re-encoding on the fly. I know I'll lose some storage space (because mpeg2 is a lot less efficient than WMV10). I'm having a problem with the Tivo HD basically losing it's mind when I try to use 1280x720 and 720x480. Both result in some form of letterbox. Is there a special resolution I'm supposed to be using? When I rip a DVD and just rename the VOB to .mpg it comes out perfectly. Could it be my software? I tried Videora converter, but it doesn't support anything above 720x480. Thanks, ahead of time.

[jkalnin]

I am about to do some tests on this next week, but I think the resolution you are looking for is 1920×1080. That is full widescreen resolution, and should result in no black bars assuming your content is the correct ratio to fill the HD screen. Some movies are in a crazy ratio that requires letterboxes even on HDTVs.

[wmcbrine]

Uh, no, the resolutions are fine. But, what is "some form of letterbox"? Not the normal form? My guess would be that you're not flagging the aspect ratio correctly, but there's not really enough info to go on.