Only from the top and bottom. I can understand not wanting any cropping whatever if you’re combining a 4:3 DVD with a 4:3 laser videodisc, but when you’re dealing with VHS, which very often, if not always, has a bit of picture distortion at the bottom of the frame (my VHS copy is, of course, no exception), it just can’t be helped if you’re going for consistency, which I am in this case. Besides, I watched my entire VHS copy cropped to 1.66:1 just to be sure it’d work, and all the titles managed to fit rather well. Plus, the DVD, which I intend to use for most of the restoration process, has some artifacting of its own in a single shot, and cropping to 1.66:1 hid it quite nicely. One key objective of a restoration, after all, is to make the program look good.
Oooh, I understand now. Thanks.