VHS aspect ratio

[darkbluesky]

Hello,

I'm a new poster in these forums, but years reader. This and doom9 have been always my references to all my home video projects. I'd like to say thanks to all people contributing here. Thank you.

I have been reading many times the guides on doom9.net and also 'Der Karl's Capture Cards aspect ratio for Dummies', but I have a doubt before going ahead.

I'm working with a US classical movie from the 40s recorded in VHS from TV (PAL) some years ago (it is a special version that it is impossible to find currently on commercial editions).

AFAIK the REAL aspect ratio of the 40s movies was 1.37 (just like PAL DVD) and NOT 1.33, so I'm wondering now if the movie recorded in VHS has a 1.33 or a 1.37. If it is 1.33, that could mean:

A. That the broadcast station (or something else) cut the "excedent image" to fit it in the PAL standard???
B. They broadcasted it with an aspect ratio streched to fit all the image, although it was a bit deformed?

Can someone clarify it? I need to know to define the process to convert it to DVD.

Thank you!

[JohnnyMalaria]

The difference between 1.333333 and 1.37 is so small as to be irrelevant (less than 3%).

I would imagine the film was transferred as-is and a very small amount of the image lost on the left/right or slight letterboxing.

At typical PAL pixel resolution of 720 x 576, it would be equivalent to cropping a 740 x 576 image - i.e., losing 10 pixels either side of the frame OR letterboxing a 720 x 560 image (adding 8 pixels top and bottom).

Given that consumer TVs deliberately overscan the image, it all becomes rather academic....