Well guys, I'm totally lost at this.
However one thing is more important to me than the cropping, it's
the aspect ratio.
I would be happy to have extra pixels as long as the aspect ratio isn't harmed !
So could anybody actually do the following test for us (I don't have a standalone dvd player) ?
The idea is quite simple :
1) take a dvd (preferrably not a fullscreen 4/3, widescreen/anamorphic would be best) and play it on your standalone DVD player till you find a nice static shot with an easily measurable shape in the middle of your TV screen.
2) measure the height and the width of this shape (could be an actor, a car, a table, it doesn't matter
)
3) Calculate the Width / Height ratio
4) Play the same dvd on you computer with a standard software player. Stop at the same frame. Do a window capture (*) of this shot and paste it in paint (or any better drawing software).
5) Count the height and width in pixels of the same shape
6) Calculate the Width / Heigth ratio
Give us the results !!
The whole question would be to know if the ratio will be quite equal or if there will be that famous ~2.5% difference.
If someone could be so nice to do it, please, pretty please, I'm getting mad reading all those technical guides on that topic.
(*) : to avoid messing with directplay acceleration that will produce a black window to be pasted in paint, before launching your dvd software player, start some video in any multimedia programm and hit pause.