to crop, or not to crop, that is the question...

[GrandPixel]

I am in the process of ripping my blu-ray collection for playback on my iPhone 4. I am using RipBot264 with the 3.0 profile, default 22 CQ, and 128kbps 2.0 channel audio with 100% normalization. Video width is 960 to match my phone's screen, and I have been using auto crop, so vertical resolution varies from 400 to 540. I have only done a handful of movies so far, but I am wondering if I should not be cropping. Are there advantages/disadvantages to encoding the black borders for a consistent 16:9 ratio? Doesn't seem like there would be much difference in quality or file size, but I can imagine playback issues with certain devices or displays. Any thoughts?

On a side note, do the rest of my settings seem appropriate? Any reason to adjust anything?

[minidv2dvd]

if it plays and you like the video output that's all that matters.

[milatchi]

I always crop. For my purposes I don't see a reason not to.