I always zoom in on letterboxed images on my widescreen tv. In fact, i was just watching my DC ESB laserdisc on it last night. You'd be surprised at how good you can get those laserdiscs to look on a widescreen tv with just a little adjustment on the picture controls (sharpness, color, contrast, etc.) I know i was! I expected them to look like crap, but they are actually quite satisfying. They don't look as good as a nice new anamorphic dvd, but they certainly don't look bad.... They look good enough that i forget all about the format/quality i'm watching them on & get sucked into the story, just like i always have. In fact, i still haven't made up my mind on the dvds & my laserdiscs are playing a big part in that. They look so much better than i expected on my new tv, that the dvd's aren't nearly so tempting. Had they been new tranfsers with anamorphic enhancement i'd be first in line to get them, but since i really don't believe in supporting a product that is so insulting/lazy (they should be working hard to get me to spend my money on their product, dangit!!), I'm really not sure i care to purchase them at all now, regardless of what the reviews wind up saying. (if i just can't stand it, perhaps i'll enlist the help or rental stores & my friends DVD-R drive...)

Back on topic, the only time i don't zoom in on letterboxed material is if it does, indeed cut off so much of the subtitles that they are unreadable. (on the starwars laserdiscs, it cuts off the bottom portion of the letters, but enough is visible that you can still read it, even if you don't have the lines memorized by now...)