On Wednesday, I went out and got myself a new TV. I went from a 4:3 19-inch low-def CRT to a 16:9 32-inch HD-ready LCD. (If anyone is interested, It was from Best Buy, a Westinghouse for $999. You've only got a couple days left.)

After changing around my cable setup (more composite cables), I was finally able to take advantage of progressive scan and anamorphic. First disk I put in to look, was my Fellowship of the Ring. I was confused when I saw that it still had black bars top, bottom, left and right. I then tried my Two Towers. Same thing. (Both are the base two-disk set.)

I then checked the back of the case.
Widescreen version. Presented in a "letterboxed" format preserving the 2.35:1 aspect ratio of its original theatrical exhibition. Enhanced for widescreen TVs.

So, these 2 are not anamorphic??

I went through some of my other disks:

Stargate: Ultimate Edition- nonanamorphic
Terminator 2: Extreme Edition- I'm not sure, doesn't look like it.
Dr. Strangelove: 40th Anniversary- anamorphic
Jaws 25th Anniversary*- anamorphic
Jurassic Park*- anamorphic
The Last Starfighter*- anamorphic
Midway: Collectors Edition*- anamorphic

*- Universal Pictures releases Looks like every Universal pictures disk I have is anamorphic.

Now, in the past, I never even thought about the difference, and never really noticed a difference. In fact, I think that the Lord of the Rings movies looked excellent on both my TVs.

The doom and gloom stuff I've seen all over the place about the OOT not being anamorphic, its not as important to me now.