"I think that greatly depends on the quality of the zoom feature on your widescreen tv. "
"The "benefits" of Anamorphic will be reaped solely by those who are in possession of 16:9 displays. If you're watching these on a standard 4:3 TV, the anamorphic will mean nothing for you really. I'm unfamiliar with the process of making the image anamorphic, so I can't really say if it will be worse or not. Making an image anamorphic artificially seems to me to have an inherent limitation built into it. Whether that limitation translates to a worse picture on a 4:3 set, or merely a somewhat less than stellar picture on a 16:9 display, I can't say."
Just to be clear: taking a 4X3 source and blowing it up to 16x9 causes you to "lose" resolution. It's like taking a JPEG of a swimsuit model and zooming in - you begin to see the pixels at a certain point.
On top of that, if you take that same image and then watch it on a 4x3 monitor, you lose even more resolution, because the DVD player has to remove every third (fourth) line of resolution to make the image fit. Obviously, these effects can be more or less noticeable depending on the equipment you are using, but the end result is the same. Watching a 4x3-to-16x9 transfer on a 4x3 tv is a double-whammy to the ultimate visual result. Depending on the quality and calibration of your television, however, this effect can range from unnoticeable to glaringly obvious. Case in point: matte lines. Some people claim to see them on the DVD, and others don't. Point of fact - they are visible on the DVD, but if you adjust your brightness/contrast beyond a certain level, they will "disappear".
If you only have a 4x3 television, then you only want the 4x3 transfer. There's no benefit to you at all to have an anamorphic version. If you have a widescreen tv, then either set is fine. (The "anamorphic" set is pretty much what you would get if you zoomed in on the 4x3 picture. The only difference would come from which device zooms better: the software used to create the anamorphic image, or the ability of the tv to zoom without creating too many artifacts. In that respect, your mileage may vary.
Hope that made sense.
