Most of what was letterbox laserdisc master material originally is now 16x9 (although the packaging on many of their titles doesn't reveal this except in the small technical info at the bottom).
I would guess the DVNR was done digitally by computer, sooo... wait I don't know a thing about the process. Is it some sort of telecining where the film is taken directly to a digital video camera or is it processed by computer?
Ok I'll shut up now, if the tapes were digital the DVNR could have been done before or after I suppose.