Films are shot with a certain amount of tolerance on framing; directors' viewfinders are marked with a rectangle giving the minimum amount a theater can show and be considered "properly" set up. There's a fair range of latitude on how a DVD can be framed and conform to that. Within that range, do you prefer tighter or looser scaling and cropping? In particular, if the film records an image which extends vertically beyond what some theater screens will show, is it better to show the extra (since it's there and the screen real estate is there) or crop it?
Also, btw, one feature I've wished my otherwise-well-featured DVD player had: a 95% out-zoom. I think my TV has a fair amount of overscan, and some DVDs of older movies (which were shot with an Academy ratio frame) have 'meaningful content' extend beyond the edges of the screen (another feature would be able to pan the zoom--I don't know why they put in zooming in 1% increments and didn't allow panning; weird). OTOH, the ability to have audio on the 2x fast-forward is very handy, and I do like the player in a lot of other ways. So I'll just live with the fact I can't have everything.
I would imagine the correct answer is "whichever way the director framed the shot".