Weird squished DVD images?

[The Guardian]

Originally Posted by jadafa

Most likely you have bought an old non-anamorphic DVD (do they still make those?) that was letterboxed in a 4:3 ratio movie.

Best to place the TV in a 4:3 ratio to get the perfect ratio size. It's unfortunate but that's how the studios **used to** think widescreen should be offered as until we pushed them to go anamorphic.

So in other words, some of the DVDs which are widescreen have "blank" information filling in a 4:3 space rather than just having a 16:9 space and the TV leaves the rest blank?

I have a TON of DVDs, although specifically I can remember the 1st Harry Potter having this problem (widescreen format). It's not always very noticeable but when Harry looks fat you know there's a problem right hehe. Anyone know of a good disc that actually has some kind of circle display so it would be painfully obvious?