Replying to myself as the edit window has passed - still haven't tracked down that double-cropping story. The thought occurs, what happens with source material

Replying to myself as the edit window has passed - still haven't tracked down that double-cropping story. The thought occurs, what happens with source material which fits no definition of "wide"? Older TV shows or many Kubrick films? Horizontal black bars on screen to correct aspect are common, vertical black bars are less acceptable for whatever reason (Aesthetics? Acclimatisation? Who knows?). My xbmc setup not only has a hybrid stretch+crop for 4:3 stuff on my widescreen TV, it also has a setting which stretches more towards the edges than the centre of the picture. Acceptable presentation for my old TV recordings and such but if someone handed me a Dr. Strangelove recording distorted similarly, I'd be less than impressed. I prefer to ruin the presentation on my own terms! Another mode I use for presentation of 4:3 material on the wide TV is 14:9 + crop - this is essentially a halfway-to-fullscreen zoom mode I use for my old game consoles. This has never, in my experience, cut out any relevant action or HUD info as these games needed to be designed for ludicrously variable CRT overscan in the first place.