Now I have yet to make the switch to Blu-Ray, although I'm planning to do so in the near future. I have one question about the format that I think you guys will probably be able to answer for me.
Are all Blu-Ray discs anamorphic?

Pretty much. I'm not sure how anamorphic applies to 4:3 material (ie, is the Casablanca hddvd considered anamorphic? (are the pillars encoded into the picture or added by the machine)) but all the widescreen blurays thus far have been anamorphic (at least, all the ones I've encountered, and I haven't heard otherwise). Of course, this is me going off the definition of Anamorphic = Bars added by the machine.

Blu-Ray discs don't need to be anamorphic, if I understand it correctly. The player "knows" how to display them properly, and because it is a full high definition image, there isn't any loss of detail in using a non-anamorphic image the way there was on DVD.

Technically the answer is no, but the answer is yes.

The term "anamorphic" does not really apply, but I think what you're really asking is, "Are all Blu-ray discs optimized for a 16:9 display?" and the answer is yes.

To get into more detail, I believe BD content is always encoded at 1920x1080 with black pixels filling the unused space depending on the actual aspect ratio of the movie.

99% of Blu-ray discs are 1080p...some are 1080i (Sharkwater for example and some random documentarys). Anamorphic no longer applies.

Welcome to the boards, Bob.

Check out the search feature on the board for individual items your interested in

There are people who wish the BD format supported anamorphic enhancement, so that they could get full-height 2.35:1 for their constant-image-height projection displays.

But it doesn't.

What others have said here is all correct. I will just add one point of clarification. The term "anamorphic" refers to the way that widescreen material is stored in a 'squeezed' format on DVD to take advantage of the full pixel grid, and then unsqueezed during playback. Since High Definition is natively 16:9 in shape, no squeezing is needed. Therefore, all Blu-rays are optimized for 16:9 displays, but technically not "anamorphic".

The pillaring on 2.35:1 BRs is annoying but that's the one and only way to experience the movie as originally intended... someone have a talk with those silly film-makers!

16:9 BR discs always fill all or virtually all of a 16:9 hdtv screen. Anamorphic SD discs also stretch to fill most - or all - of the screen depending on ratio and look smashing on my player.

4:3 material on BR and SD discs is pillared on the sides of said 16:9 screen. See reasoning in paragraph #1.

Non-anamorphic widescreen SD disks are pure evil on BR players and 16:9 tvs. Pillared all around and teasing you with potential widescreen goodness. Sell sell sell!

Not that it pertains to the OP's question, but the Casablanca HD DVD is indeed 4:3 (the same is true of WB's Adventures of Robin Hood HD DVD). With an HD-A3 set to output "4:3" and connected to a 4:3 HDTV, the image fills the screen. The player still outputs a 16:9 image, but with the 4:3 movie stretched horizontally. The TV then expands that image vertically to the dimensions of the set. The Casablanca HD DVD on a 4:3 HDTV is, in technical terms, pretty fucking sweet to watch. On the other hand, set the HD-A3 to "4:3 Letterbox" and the same image will be windowboxed and overscan will be eliminated. The Star Trek S1 HD DVDs force this option because the 4:3 image is pillarboxed within 16:9 - the menus and features require it. The same is true of BCI's 4:3 Bob Hope discs.

Something worth mentioning - for regular DVD, both my PS3 and my Toshiba D2 (HD DVD) via component are incapable of displaying 4:3 material correctly - its stretched to fill the 16:9 screen. I would have to use the TV's settings to correctly display this material, but actually just use my Malata 996 (multi-region DVD player).

I think they display 4:3 DVDs correctly via HDMI though - if I'm wrong, someone will put me right fairly quickly!

One odd thing I haven't been able to figure out:

I have two HDTVs. In my main home theater, the PS3 (over HDMI) will display 4x3 DVDs fine, but non-anamorphic, standard definition extras on Blu-ray discs are always horizontally stretched. The button on my remote for stretching/unstretching material is disabled. My HD DVD players haven't had this problem on this TV, and the PS3 doesn't stretch 4x3 SD Blu-ray extras on my other HDTV. No idea why this is.

"Pillaring" on 2.35:1 BDs? Why would 2.35:1 BDs be pillared?

Have you checked the BD/DVD settings on the PS3? If upscale is set to normal, the PS3 upconverts the signal to 1080/720. That is what the TV will see. If you set it to off, then the PS3 outputs the 480 signal as is.

if i were to buy a dvd from the united kingdom on blu ray how would I know if it works on my PS3? What companies make region free blu rays and which dont. HMV has there will be blood for pre order, would that work on my ps3?

edit: I stopped being lazy and checked amazon.co.uk website and its region is PAL.

There's no such thing as PAL in Blu-ray. Amazon has simply copied the DVD specs.

Blu-ray does have region coding. North America is Region A and the UK is Region B. Whether a studio will actually region code the disc is hit-or-miss, however. We won't know until the disc comes out and someone can confirm.

This is a good site that tracks region coding information:

http://bluray.liesinc.net/

I'm referring to the horizontal black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. Perhaps "pillar" only refers to vertical bars and there is a better term here.

2.35:1 aspect ratio doesn't completely fill a 16:9 screen, thus the bars at the top and bottom of the screen. (It's a "super" widescreen ratio, in other words.)

Some TVs won't allow you to manipulate images over HDMI, and it sounds like your "problem" set is one of them. Try stretching some other material to be sure. It seems that the other TV will automatically correct the image.

The extras on the DVDs play fine because the PS3 and your HD DVD players are upscaling them and preserving the proper aspect ratio. For BDs, however, the PS3 does not upscale SD extras.

Now that DTS-HD MA decoding is here, upscaling of SD extras on BDs is the last "big" feature I want Sony to add to the PS3. It's annoying for me having to switch to 4:3 mode and back, and even more annoying for you since you can't correct it at all on that one TV.

Horizontal black bars are letterboxing (because the image looks like you're viewing it through a letter slot).

Vertical black bars are pillarboxing.

Bars on all four sides is windowboxing.

Cool, thanks for the clarification.

PAL isn't a region, it's a video format, which as Josh pointed out doesn't apply to Blu-ray (or HD DVD for that matter).

Standard DVDs have different regions, as well as incompatible video formats (NTSC and PAL). Blu-ray has no conflicts with respect to video formats, but does have region coding (A, B or C), which may or may not be implemented on a given disc. HD DVD has neither.

Just to add further clarification, that's true of the main feature, but sometime (often) the standard def. video-based extra features are specifically PAL or NTSC.

Thats what i thought, didnt think PAL was blu ray. dont need to import it now that it is being released in June