Widescreen Premium a Rip-Off??

I much prefer watching movies in widescreen format. Just use a dvd with both formats on it and see which one you prefer. One other thing to keep in mind even if buying a 16x9 setup is that a lot of movies are done in 2.35 to 1 aspect ratio which means you will still have small black bars top and bottom. Easy to adjust to and well worth it not to have to use 4x3.

Go for the widescreen if you can afford it. DVD movies are awsome on them and 16:9 is the future standard.

The better wide screens allow you to adjust the picture format. I had the same concerns & didn"t buy a widescreen last year but I have one now & it is great especially for movies & sports.A widescreen looks nicer in a room which may be important if you are married.Also you have to remeber in the not too distant future the 4:3 sets will have the "funny" picture. Good luck

I was really wanting a 16:9 set but found the $$$ premium too steep to justify a 34" 16:9 set at $3,500 vs the Sony 4:3 XBR400 at $2,200. The Sony is not a true HD picture but the screen IS almost a wide as the 16:9 34" and a bonus is that I get the next 10 years worth of regular TV in a big size. (The pace of HDTV is so slow it's almost a certainty that the HDTV broadcasters time deadline will be pushed back at least 5 years...) so then in the ten years from now I can get that 16:9 TV and I will be happy to junk the Sony that, by then, will have served me well for 10 years. And the damn cable broadcasters and digital senders generally don't pass a signal worthy of the true HDTV screen anyway!!! But I do have to say the 16:9 is a GREAT looking design.

I, too, hesitated to buy a 16:9 TV until I saw some good DVD's on a 65" Mitsubishi set. Wow! That changed my mind. Since I watch little TV and mostly movies, I have been quite happy for the last month, let me tell you. I probably would have been very happy with the conventional 61" Sony set I was going to buy, but for only $500 more, I got the widescreen set. To me it was worth it. To others, it may not be. Make your own decision.