Crop and Resize on Nero AVC

[Difatoni]

Hi, I'm backing up all my dvds to standard nero avc at 1000kbits and 256kbit/48000 Dolby Digital. I'm going to be playing these on quicktime on a mac mini through dvi on a 57inch hd hitachi 16:9 screen. I read literally hundreds of threads and there are many different suggestions, but none quite sufficed. I would like to show the backups at the same aspect and res as my dvd player does it on my tv. What are some suggestions on how to do this- should I use autocrop or autoresize (or both), or do them myself to some degree. I obviously want a fullscreen with no borders on left or right. (never saw them on my dvd player) The other question I had was does the display res I choose in the mac change the quality or display of the movie on the tv.(such as 720x480 vs 1900x...) Lastly, I know recode is faster when reading off harddrive, but any idea how much faster. (Should i backub first)
Thanks in advance, just want to get my media center rolling. (AVC takes a long time!!!)

[dvd_maniac]

I have a 57" Hitachi as well and would like to know some of the same info. Although I use a pc with an AIW 9800 Pro and can't seem to get a good dvi picture. Does somebody have any recommendations or reviews on their hdtv accessory dongle that they sell for 29.00?

As for ripping first or not. AVC takes a long time and would probably shorten the life of your dvd drive. As far as performance wise, I often encode stuff over a 100mbit/s lan connection and see no decrease in fps, so I do not think you will see a difference from HDD or DVD drive.. IMHO...