Originally posted by: zombie84 So yes, a film that is 2:35 is obviously going to have a slight letterbox since there physically is no way to accomplish it, but the films are still encoded in an anamorphic 16x9 image. The only other option would be to make 2:35 TV sets, but then you would be complaining about the letterboxing on all movies narrower than that aspect ratio, which are far greater in number than the ones in 2:35.
So, you're saying that the thin black bars we see on a 16:9 screen when we watch a 2:35 movie aren't encoded as part of the image. That means the 2:35 image is squeezed slightly into an anamorphic 16:9 image, and then unsqueezed back to 2:35 when played back, right?