And out of curiosity, WHY WOULDN'T THEY MAKE THE BARS BLACK?!?! There could be no burnin then. It just makes no sense to me.

if the bars were black, the phosphors in those regions would not be "exercised" while watching standard 4:3 video. you really want all of the phosphors across the screen to wear evenly, for those times when you do watch 16:9 sources. otherwise, over time, those areas where the black bars were would appear brighter than the rest of the screen.

--dan.