Matting 4:3 to a 16:9 ??? Is it as easy as this?

[Krawk]

This is one of those my brain is aching right now things.

How does one take an MKV that uses 720 x 480 for the video frame but displays it as 4:3 (640 x 480), to matte it to a 16:9 and display it 720 x 480 ??
At first I thought, matte the original image to a height of 360 (take 60 from top and bottom), then display it at 720 wide, which in theory should zoom in to look correct. 640 / 360 = 1.78, display width of 720 should stretch top and bottom to 480, right? But then the PAR comes into play and it will look funny, right? Or did I hit the nail on the head? Will the PAR auto adjust?

My Police Academy dvd that is properly matted to 1.85:1 (as shown in the movie theaters) is suffering from disc rot and cannot be ripped. I have another copy on the shelf that is the 4:3 full frame version. I know it was matted to show in the theaters so I am okay with matting it myself.

[Woodstock]

"Full screen" has more detail in what it shows than "wide screen". A full-screen presentation gives you a lot more usable pixels in the center of the film, or wherever they elected to place the focus.

It is RARE that the disk author simply blanks out the top/bottom. A wide screen presentation will normally show the entire vertical scope of the full-screen, but use fewer pixels to do it. And there's also the aspect ratio of the individual pixels...

But, the 4x3 presentation of the PA movies isn't that bad, since most of the action is kept in the center.