cutting out the letterbox?
 

something has just dawned on me that if perhaps i crop out the letterbox on films, it will give me a smaller size. i know this can be true with divx encodes so id asume its true with kvcd aswell? also if cropped when played on a dvd player will it still show in letterbox or will the dvd stretch?

Will dvd stretch, sorry. In fact VCD and SVCD and of course KVCD should be in 4:3, therefore letterboxed.
So, if you cropped, you should add borders after :) .

darn too bad... oh well thanks for the info