The best thing about HDTV is not really the aspect ratio so much as the resolution is.
The resolution is 1920 pixels by 1080 lines. This is a very nice resolution,and
films are shown with much more detail and clarity.
I think that kind of resolution is worth buying a HDTV TV set.
This is a great thing about movies shot on film. With every new generation of electronic
equipment films just keep looking better and better. On the other hand,
films like episode2 that are shot on HD video will always look the same.
Today's HD television systems have the capability to broadcast episode 2
in full resolution. I think that cinema experience should always be better than
TV experience. Episode 2 will never look better than today no matter what
kind of new TV standard appears.
I can imagine how wonderful episode4 will look on in 40 years when they introduce some
new 4K TV standard (unless of course Lucas scans all his film at 2K and burns the negatives or something).
It is very ironical that Lucas's newest film is worse in image resolution and tonal range,
worse than some film he did 27 years ago.
Here of course i'm not counting episode1 that was butchered with 2K resolution
SFX work.