Actually, an anamorphic movie is "pre-squeezed", and is "unsqueezed" upon playback. This originated in film so a wide-screen movie could 'fit' on standard film width.

Un-processed anamorphic looks like tall, skinny figures, squeezed in horizontally.

I personally prefer the bars so I can see the entire horizontal picture, even though the images are smaller.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com