I have about 20 short 640 x 480 .flv files that I want to burn to a DVD.
(I've tried with iDVD, Toast 10, iskysoft DVD Creator and have successfully created DVD's with these files but not having any luck getting a full unclipped 640 x 480 on a standard TV )

(Even tried editing the image files with My DVD Edit so that they showed at 16:9 but it bombed when it said the VOB files needed to be updated)

The flash files are from I guess Camtasia and cover the full screen (640 x 480).

It is important the info (menu) bar at the top is seen on a normal TV.

What happens is due to the 4:3 size and the TV overscanning the menu bar is clipped.

I tried saving as wide screen but the picture is then far to narrow to be of use.

Can you please give me advice as to how I can say put say half an inch black at the top and bottom so that the full screen in visible.
Or maybe you have another solution.

The only way to put black bars on top and bottom is in some video editing application, like iMovie, Final Cut Express or Final Cuto Pro...You should convert your flv files with QuickTime Pro for example into DVCPRO or some other format /.h.264 high quality/ and import those in one of the mentioned apps, add black bars and export back and encode in MPEG2 for DVD...