Help cropping a 4:3 movie with a letterbox (of all things!)

[Gothor]

Hiyas,

According to DGIndex, a DVD I am trying to encode is 4:3. But it has black bars across the top and bottom, sort of a fake letterbox. (Setting the Pixel Input Aspect Ratio to 16:9 results in a truly ridiculous looking squished letterbox.)

So as far as I can tell, I need to set the PIAR to 4:3, then crop off the fake letterbox. The resulting Output Resolution Aspect Ratio is 1.818.

Is that correct? Am I maintaining the aspect ratio of a "real" letterboxed 16:9 movie?

Any advice on this would be a big help. Thank you guys.

[CWR03]

Is that correct? Am I maintaining the aspect ratio of a "real" letterboxed 16:9 movie?
Does it look right? As far as I'm aware, there's no 4:3 letterboxed DVD format. More than likely you're either mis-sizing it a bit and it's 16:9, or it's 1.85:1. Look it up on imdb.com, which should give you the correct aspects under DVD Details for that title. Either that or use a ruler against your screen and measure something that should be round.

[jggimi]

Does it look right? As far as I'm aware, there's no 4:3 letterboxed DVD format...Sure there are. I own a number of "widescreen" DVDs that were authored with 4:3 DARs. Its terrible, but true.

Several years ago, I purchased a collection of six Rogers & Hammerstein musicals for my wife as a gift. Every blessed one of them has a 4:3 DAR. And what's worse, several of them were shot in Todd AO -- a late 1950s widescreen format in ratios like 2.20:1 or 2.35:1, or even 2.5:1. Seeing "South Pacific" or "The King and I" with 4:3 DARs is an unmitigated disaster. ...So as far as I can tell, I need to set the PIAR to 4:3, then crop off the fake letterbox. The resulting Output Resolution Aspect Ratio is 1.818.

Is that correct? Am I maintaining the aspect ratio of a "real" letterboxed 16:9 movie?16:9 is 1.78:1 -- not very many movies are actually in 16:9. That's why there's letteboxing. Of course, in your case, like my R&H musicals, theres a lot more letterboxing because of the 4:3 DAR. To confirm your AR, check your film out at www.imdb.com -- look in the "technical specs" link for specifics.