IMO widescreen DVD's are better than full screen DVD's, even on a 4:3 set. Sure the picture doesn't fill the 4:3 screen but you get to see the entire picture that the director wants you to see and the picture quality is still better than a full screen VHS movie.
On a 16:9 widescreen it is really a "no brainer"...buy widescreen only.
To fill the widscreen with a fulll screen movie you need to either grossly distort the picture by stretching it horizontally, cropping the picture even more than it is already cropped (see below) by zooming, or doing both with "wide zoom" (as Sony calls it) or "Just" (as Panasonic calls it).
Almost all movies nowadays have an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 or 2.35:1. Full screen DVD's are cropped to fit a 4:3 screen. In the process 28% of the picture is discarded for 1.85:1 movies and 43% is discarded for 2.35:1 movies. With a super widescreen movie like "Ben Hur" (2.76:1) you lose 52% of the picture with the full screen version.
As Borromini suggests try to get anamorphic widescreen movies because they are designed to give a sharper picture on widescreen sets than they do on 4:3 sets. (They are playable on all sets). They are labelled as "anamorphic" or "enhanced for 16:9 widscreen TV's". (Note that the phrase "enhanced for 16:9 widscreen TV's" does not mean that their aspect ratio is 16:9; it just means they are stored on the DVD in a way that produces a sharper picture on a 16:9 set.) However, bear in mind that not all widescreen movies are available in anamorphic form.
As far as letterboxing (black bars at the top and bottom of the screen) is concerned, it is normal for all widescreen movies with an aspect ratio greater than 1.78:1 (16/9) which means almost all of them. Depending on your TV set you might not even notice the letterboxing on 1.85:1 movies but it will definitely be noticeable with 2.35:1 movies and there is no way to avoid it without cropping or distorting the picture (or both).
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