[John Gregoriades] "The ratio of width to height of a picture is what I meant. 720 divided by 480 = 1.5"
That would only be true if the pixels were square but as Joe pointed out, they are not. Standard Definition NTSC pixels are 0.9091 in width (NTSC DV). So you must multiply 720 x 0.9091 and get 654.552. In reality, what you perceive to be 720x480 is really 655x480 which is 1.3645 ratio.
What camera produced 640x424? This is a non standard format and there is no way to fit it into any broadcast standard format without cropping or letterboxing.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com