But I think I also got some misinformation from the salesman.

No!



The difference between a car salesman and a TV salesman is the car salesman knows when he's lying.

He claimed that he was unaware of a TV besides the Sonys (Sonies?) that would support unsquishing anamorphic signals.

I'm sure that most modern televisions will do this. If the television is 16:9, it will definitely do it. If the television supports a progressive-scan signal (480p), it will most likely do it. If the television supports HDTV, it will most likely do it. I can't imagine anyone building a TV with 480p/HD capability which doesn't support anamorphic DVDs. Check the manual of any TV in the showroom, it should be in the manual.

As a side note, does anyone know if TV manufacturers are using old NTSC tubes in their new 4:3 HDTV sets?

I don't think that's technically possible. In order to display 1080i, you need a tube capable of doing the job.

Now, I'm sure many manufacturers are using the same sorts of technologies and assembly lines to build 1080 tubes as they did to build 480 tubes. But I don't think they are exactly the same tubes.