Crop settings to go from 2.35 aspect ratio to 1.78 full screen 16:9

[cp2k]

I'm in the process of backing up some Blu-Ray movies that are natively 2.35, and would like to convert them to MP4 in more of a 1.78 ratio so that they fill the screen completely (no black bars on the top or bottom). The MP4's are for a relative who is older, and any time I give them a movie with black bars they call to tell me their TV is broken again.

I typically use VidCoder instead of Handbrake, and I've managed to use the "Crop" settings to remove the black bars from the top & bottom with no issues. The problem is that just results in a stretched/squished appearance. I haven't been able to find the correct "ratio" to crop off of the sides to make it look right.

Can anyone help or point me to the best method to calculate how much to crop the sides?

[ProWo]

That's easy.
for a 16/9 video, the width must be 1.7778*the height.
For example, if your video is 1920x818 (2.35:1), then your new 16/9 video is 1454x818.
You only have to crop a total of 466 pixels right and left, as you wish.
You already know that essential content will be lost.

[cp2k]

Thank you, that's the help I needed! I knew about the lost content but I'm not watching these versions and I don't think they care. I could give them a 4:3 Full Screen DVD and they would be perfectly content as long as they didn't have to see the black bars.

[ProWo]

4:3 Video on 16:9 TV will give you black bars again.