I haven't researched this much, but I've noticed many DVDs that claimed they are optimized for 16x9 TVs. ...not necessarily the original deminsions of the frame that was shot. This cropping may simply be a type of 16x9 pan/scan. I can't think of a better way to discribe it. Unless the packaging states otherwise, Widescreen editions may simply mean 16x9 so we might be seeing a new kind of "full screen" version in the sense that it's intended to fill the screen of an HDTV television. We just lose less of the image.