Anamorphic HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs

I just noticed that a lot of your info pages for various high-def titles list 'Anamorphic 16:9' on them. I'm probably being nit-picky here, but high-def discs are not 'Anamorphic' just because they are native 16:9. Anamorphic refers to the process standard DVD uses to store 16:9 squeezed into a 4:3 frame. And although there is technically an anamorphic option for HD DVD and Blu-ray of 1440x1080 pixels (Blu-ray supports 1280x1080 too if I'm not mistaken), this is rarely used as it reduces quality to save disc space. Most titles are native 1920x1080 pixels which is not at all anamorphic.

So in the standard DVD world 'Anamorphic' is a positive thing meaning better quality, but in the HD DVD or Blu-ray world it is the opposite. I also doubt that most manufacturers would publish that a title was encoded at 1440x1080 or even call it anamorphic if they did.

Chef,

You're right, of course. When we switched to the new site format a year ago, the automated process for updating the database did a lot of strange things to our listings, including labeling some widescreen standard-def movies as full-screen. Weird.

Anyway, if you could list a few of the titles you noticed were incorrectly labeled, I'll change them. Thanks.

John

http://www.dvdtown.com/moviedatabase/release-details/tmnt/21865
http://www.dvdtown.com/moviedatabase/release-details/tmnt/21343
http://www.dvdtown.com/moviedatabase/release-details/tmnt/18834
http://www.dvdtown.com/moviedatabase/release-details/tmnt/20001

Just a few I came across.

Just noticed that 2 of those are combo discs. So I guess those are correct. But the other 2 are HD DVD only.

Chef,

Corrected. Thanks much. If you come across any more, let me know. You can e-mail me directly if you like. My address is in my profile.

John

This post confused me for a while...