No, that's the way all anamorphic DVD's are - their true aspect ratio is 1.78:1 and they have black bars superimposed on the top and the bottom to make them the correct aspect ratio. If no TVs are wider than 1.78, why make any DVDs wider than 1.78? Most XviDs get rid of the bars because they take up image quality. Case in point, my THX 1138 XviD (from the DC DVD) doesn't have those bars and neither does my uncut-Japanese-version of KILL BILL: VOL. 1 (and that's also missing subs
). So that's why the XviD of Balance is like that.HOWEVER, the brightness is way outta whack (far too bright) on the XviD (I watch all movies on my TV at level 32 or 34 brightness (of 64), and I found myself watching my burn of Balance at 10!) and it does look squished vertically quite a bit (emphasized by the fact that DVD Santa made more bars to fill the whole 1.78:1 range when the original video wasn't that size).
On a side note, doing it in fullscreen didn't matter at all; it made it widescreen anyway...
And it does play on all my players now
