Bad Mix: Blu-ray DVDs on Plasma TV

[PlasmaGuy]

I just bought a Sony PS3 to watch Blu-ray DVDs. The happy new is that the first movie I bought (Disney’s Dinosaur) looks fantastic on my plasma TV! The sad news occurred when I went to view other blu-ray disks. Almost all these moves are released in 2.4 : 1 aspect ratio. When viewing, I get the bars across the top and bottom of the screen, which isn’t much of a problem with LCD TVs, but is a problem with plasma. Because of plasma burn-in issues, when watching these movies I have to use the 16 : 9 zoom feature. This fills the screen with a picture, but of course it looks grainy. So this leads me to my question:

Does anyone know if the movie studios intend to re-master the 2.4 : 1 widescreen movies to the 16 : 9 aspect ratio?

For years studios routinely re-mastered movies for the standard 4 : 3 aspect ratio, but at present they seem content for Blu-ray releases to keep them in the 2.4 : 1 widescreen format. And even though LCD TV owners don’t need to contend with the burn-in issues, there is still that sensation of emptiness you get when viewing a 2.4 : 1 picture on a 16: 9 screen. Over 25% of the screen is filled with black bars.