What does ANAMORPHIC mean? Thanks in advance.

p.s. I have a 1999 Sony WEGA 36" TV, and it has a Vertical Squeeze feature (but not manual, as in 2000 and up models), does it mean that my TV is 16x9 capable?

thanks again!

A TV with the vertical squeeze option is 16:9 capable. Set your DVD player to output to 16:9 and the TV will squeeze the picture down to the correct proportion. Ultimately the aspect ratio of the picture will look the same as it did before, but it will have a third more resolution.

The word anamorphic has two different uses. One pertains to a way that some widescreen movies are filmed. The other refers to a way that any movie wider than the standard TV 4:3 ratio is mastered for DVD.

When referring to the filming technique, anamorphic is used to describe special lenses that horizontally compress a widescreen image into a standard 1.37:1 film frame. A corresponding lens on the movie projector stretches the image back to its correct shape. These lenses are typically used for the 2.35:1 and wider aspect ratios. Specific "brand names" are CinemaScope and Panavision, among others.

When referring to DVD mastering, the widescreen image is stretched vertically so that more of the horizontal lines of resolution are used to store picture information, rather than be wasted on the "black bars." A 1.78:1 transfer will use all of the 480 visible lines for picture and a 1.85:1 picture will come very close. Wider ratios will still have some lines wasted, but that's unavoidable.

A widescreen TV will then stretch that distorted picture horizontally into the correct shape. A TV with squeeze mode will squeeze it down vertically. In either case, you're seeing the picture in the correct shape and you're getting a third more lines of resolution.

If you have a standard TV with no squeeze mode, you can set your DVD player to 16:9 to see what the distortion would look like. Believe it or not, some idiots do this on purpose because they prefer the distorted picture to the black bars.

If you have a standard TV with no squeeze mode, set your DVD player to 4:3. The DVD player will "downconvert" the picture by removing a third of the lines of resolution and squeezing the picture back to its correct proportions.

Thanks for the response. Actaully I have a 1999 Sony XBR250 WEGA 36" TV Set, which I am pretty sure has the "Vertical Squeeze" feature (although it is automatic, versuse the newer 200 and up models which are Manual, meaning you can use the Remote Control to toggle this feature).

My DVD player (JVC 701) has been set to 16x9, so I indeed enjoy the movies in the Anamorphic aspec ratio (even the Scope 2:1 DVDs, albeit "thicker" horizontal Black Bars in Top and Bottom of the screen)

thanks again!

Again, "anamorphic" isn't an aspect ratio. If you have everything set up properly, an anamorphically-enhanced DVD should have the same proportions as non-anamorphic DVDs, just with more resolution.