Originally posted by: Gaffer Tape
Coming into this heavily populated thread, I feel rather stupid, but if one never asks, one never learns. What is the difference between it being anamorphic and it simply being letterboxed?

Anamorphic has a 33% sharper picture, since more lines are devoted to the actual image and not wasted on the big black bars. When encoded, anamorphic images are squeezed and then when played back on a 16x9 monitor they are unsqueezed, giving you the highest resolution possible.

Neil - not sure why people are shocked at this announcement