Using TMPGEnc on a Captured Letterbox Source

[bgrieb]

Whenever I capture a program that is broadcast in letterbox (like "ER"), I notice that there is often noise in the black-barred area.

Suppose that I plan to take a typical AVI video with this situation and encode it to VCD using TMPGEnc without changing the aspect ratio.

Is it better to:

1) clip the letterbox out and mask it back in
or
2) just encode the file as is

My thought is that option 1 would allow better quality in the actual content area since there won't be any wasted encoding of the noisy letterbox area. Is that true?

Thanks,

BG

[Forum Troll]

Crop out the black area, and use the anamorphic template.

[bgrieb]

Would that be the same as clipping and setting the Video Arrange Method to Full Screen (Keep Aspect Ratio)?

Thanks Again,

BG