if you're going to go through the trouble [read: cardinal sin] of cropping it, you might as well crop a full ~12.79%* from both sides so it will completely fill out a 16:9 screen.
At which point you begin interpolating the original PAL footage that you were trying to exploit on an NTSC DVD.
"the black bars are still there"
How many of those lines would appear on your 16:9 TV ? I'm not sure that specific point is the deal breaker for 'everyone' (since you are speaking for all of us).
I'm confused. You suggest further cropping but would not give up the original framing anyway. Aren't you simply saying that you would prefer the (original) 364 lines in case #2?
