I went through this debat with myself as well. I found that masking systems--both manual and automated--added extra cost and extra fiddling around when you simply wanted to sit and watch something. What about variable aspect movies like The Dark Knight and Tron: Legacy? What happens when you want to audition a concert shot in 16x9 then switch to Star Wars? The extra set-up gets old quickly. I decided to just go with a 1:78 screen because as much a I love cinemascope films, the vast majority of stuff I watch will be 16x9. Video games, TV on Blu-ray, the ocasional sporting event. I found that by going with a projector with excellent black levels (JVC RS25) the black bars almost dissappeared and the extra-big size of my favourite TV series like Doctor Who, Battlestar galactice, Spartacus and Deadwood looked amazing. Good luck trying to spot the black bars in 1:85 films on my Carada screen.
