[MPlayer-users] DVD from tape: to crop or not to crop?

[Levente Novák]

I would like to make a lot of PAL DVDs out of old Hi8 tapes. I am
wondering whether it is better to crop out the head switching noise from
the bottom of the frames then insert a black bar to recover the original
aspect or leave the noise as it is. Which method gives a better quality
DVD? I know that if I wanted only crop it would spare bits but how about
the addition of the black bar? AFAIK it is needed as the aspect is fixed
in DVD, it must comply with the spec in order to be playable on
standalone players.

And what about cropping both four sides by say 8 pixels then expand to
720x576 (not scale)?

Levente