I have been toying with the idea of scaling down 1080 material exactly 2× and cropping to SD in anamorphic widescreen for DVD.
With the source material being 2.35:1 (1920×818), the result would be 2.09:1 (854×409 upscaled).
Yes, that would be pan-and-scan with image lost on the left and right side, but the advantages would be:
- Scaling with an integer factor would retain the most image quality from the source.
- You would fill 12% more of the 16:9 screen.