Thanks for the history lesson, Rob.

We're all aware of the pan-and-scan technique, and I'm also aware that the term "Anamorphic" was originally used to describe the way a Cinemascope image is captured on the film celluloid, as well as to describe the lens used to project the film back to its original aspect ratio.

However, the term "Anamorphic" also refers to a choice that's made in the DVD mastering process. It really is exactly like I described it: The producers can choose to master the image in either the full 480 anamorphic lines or the 60% letterboxed lines. In the world of DVD creation, this is a digital process instead of an analog one. And whether or not you can see the movie in this "enhanced" mode depends on your equipment and whether or not you've made the 16:9 choice in the DVD's user setup menu.

Yes, this very closely parallels the original analog-celluloid usage of anamorphic lenses, but your statement that "Anamorphic has nothing to do with mastering" is misinformed. In DVDs, it has everything to do with it.

The advantages to an anamorphic DVDs are so overwhelming, I don't know why all widescreen movies aren't produced this way. I can think of a couple of possible reasons:

1) An anamorphic DVD has more data than a letterboxed one. So maybe you wouldn't have as much room to store extra bonus material. Personally, I'd rather have the extra resolution than the extra bonus material. And I know that there's ways to get around this limitation: Double-layer DVDs, increasing compression on the bonus material, etc.

2) Perhaps the people who were given the job of mastering the DVD only had a letterboxed telecine transfer on videotape to work from. Maybe they weren't given the resources to go back to the original print and get a proper anamorphic telecine transfer to start with. I think this is the most likely explanation, and if true, this is just LAME. This would be akin to the early days of CD's, when the discs sounded harsh because they were just normalized samples of the vinyl LP master tape. Nowadays, we know how to create CDs properly, and they're not just dupes of an LP: we know how to squeeze the extra resolution from the CD format. Same with DVDs: if they would just treat it as a better format instead of a fad, they'd realize they can publish their work in higher quality and it's an advantage to go back to the original source material.

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Tony Fabris