Just came across this discussion and I'm wondering about some things. Putting mattes on an open frame 4:3 image to make it, say, 1.66:1 will not reduce picture quality. The quality will stay the same - only the unintended visible parts of the picture have been removed. It's possible that subsequently making it anamorphic will mess with the quality - but if that's the case they could just abstain from doing that and release a standard letterbox 4:3 disc. It's beyond me why they chose to release it open matte if they know that was not the intended aspect ratio.