Did I make a compatibility mistake?

[carsonie]

Thank you for the warm welcome. I am at peace now. lol My wife and I shall begin to enjoy our new HDTV and BD player for the next 20 years without concern that we made wrong equipment choices. Thanks to the patient and knowledgable posters in this forum, especially jermwhl and californiajay, I understand a lot more about aspect ratio, the importance of OAR and why the "black bars" are my friend. I also read the network of previous topical threads to which I was referred, so I really do mean it when I say 'thank you for your patience' as yet another newb fluttered into the forum before using the search function!

As for the store where I received the "expert" advice, let me be kind and just say that (knowing what I know now) Best Buy's sales people probably gave me pretty good advice while the young man at Circuit City tried hard but seemed to be sort of learning on the job and spoke with a tone of authority from a pre-packaged salespitch, shall we say.