Page 1 of Difference between widescreen and fullscreen

Can someone explain very briefly the difference between widescreen and fullscreen. I want to order Star Wars Episode II and I have the choice, which one should I go for? Many thanks.
J

Buy the widescreen one if you want to see it as you did in the cinema, this will have black bars at the top and bottom of the screen unless you have a widescreen tv. When you go to the cinema to see a movie look at the screen it`s a rectangle not a square like your TV so widescreen recreates the film as it was meant to be shown. Pan and scan is where the picture is condensed to fit a square tv chopping off the sides of the image, which defeats the entire object of DVD and should never be released. Sometimes when you see a film on TV (it`s usually pan and scan on ITV and ch5) they will have a conversation between 2 people where it cuts between 2 people, in the widescreen version these 2 people may well be on screen at the same time. Also if you are thinking of buying ep2 don`t bother with region 2 go for the australian one they are region 4 / 2 (will work on a uk region 2 player), the UK one has a slight cut it in it, you can get this from cd-wow who are very reliable

Go to www.thedigitalbits.com and click on the anarmorphic widescreen logo for the most detailed and well layed out explanation around. You will understand it all fully after reading it I guarantee it.

Actually check out this page and see pics of which Star Wars you prefer from the widescreen and full examples given. WIDESCREEN RULES HOWEVER unless you want 40% of the film missing from the viewing.

There are 5 comparisons on the first page: enlarge them to look more closely. The 3rd comparison (Nat Portman) is probably the clearest example.

http://www.starwars.com/episode-ii/feature/20020925/

Widescreen has a picture ratio of 16:9 i.e nearly twice as wide as it is tall.
Full screen is 4:3 ratio i.e. the traditional TV set.

Although i`ve noticed on terrestrial TV some of the broadcasters seems to be going in between, so you get a gap on an ordinary TV now. Channel 4 seem to be doing it a lot and BBC definitely are broadcasting a lot of movies in 16:9. This is gonna get more common now that widescreen TV`s have finally taken off.

Even if you have a widescreen TV you get a gap at the top and bottom (letterbox) on many movies. For instance panavision leaves a bigger gap as I think the aspect ratio of this transfer is 2.35:1 some other movies are 1.85:1 I think they tend to fill the widescreen TV, perhaps someone else knows?

Many thanks to all of you for your help, so widescreen it is going to be.

Thanks
J