WoW! That is steep! I guess I'll have to make do for a while until I can figure out something that is reasonable!

So once the DVD is burned it will then box?

"I was sending over firewire using either component or s-video output. Then I dug out a long s-video cable and ran it to my 4:3 TV in the next room. No letterbox there either. Wierd. I guess you actually have to burn to disk for that to work? Didn't try cause I don't have extra disks handy, nor do I have any I recorded on hand. But if I put in a commercial anamorphic DVD it properly letterboxes it on a 4:3 screen. So maybe that's something it can only do on playback?"

Yes, a DVD player will letterbox your video automatically IF the following two
criteria are true:

1) the video and disk are authored in 16:9 (meaning the 16:9 flag is ON)

2) the DVD player has been setup that a 4:3 "TV" is attached

This is why most movie DVD's coming out of Hollywood are in 16:9 anamorphic
widescreen. The disc will letterbox if people have a 4:3 system (and the DVD
player is setup properly).

Josh: yes, this seems to be how my RDR-GX7 behaves. It doesn't letterbox anamorphic video during the record process, but when you burn a DVD with the widescreen menu option selected it will be letterboxed upon playback.