One thing when you rent movies (of course if you go in to rent, and don't use Netflix or BBonline, and even then they let you know if it is WS or FS) most of the time they have two different versions of the movie, one wide-screen and one full-screen, if you look at the back of the DVD it will say what aspect ration, 1.78:1 and 1.85:1 (anything above this or anything that says Letterbox or LB will have black bars--though not as bad as on a 4:3 TV) both should work just fine on your wide-screen TV, in other words, those two formats won't show black bars. Anyways, if you look at the aspect ration and it isn't one of those two then look for the full-screen version--the 1.33:1 aspect ratio version. The picture quality is just as good, though you will notice a difference in how much of the picture is there--i.e. wide-screen shows a wider camera angle, or more of the background.
I'd say at least 50% (really, I'd say that is higher, like 70%+) of the movies--new releases and older ones--either have two different versions or one disk has both versions on it--both wide-screen and full-screen versions on same DVD. PQ is just as good for the full-screen, and you don't have to use your TV or DVD players zoom/expand functions--which lowers the PQ. The deal with wide-screen is, they don't care if it will fit your WS TV, they are just leaving it in the same aspect ratio as it was filmed in. That is why on the full-screen version, they always say something like "the aspect ratio of this motion picture has been changed to fit your TV."
Now about burn in, really, your not going to cause burn in unless you have those black bars up on your TV screen most of the time. Just make sure you let those areas (the areas that are not lit because of the black bars) get used as much as possible. In other words, if you have to play a movie with black bars on it (or network logos, white bars, video games with still images, etc.) make sure you rest your TV screen and play different stuff without the black bars, logos, etc. on it. In other words, if you can, get the 1.85:1, 1.78:1, and/or the 1.33:1 aspect ratio version of a movie, if none available, then watch your movie--with the black bars on the screen, but make sure you play something on it that doesn't have black bars for a while after, and you shouldn't have anything to worry about.
I personally don't worry, and never have, and I have a CRT RPTV, and I've had other CRT monitors and TV's in the past with no burn in--including while I played the original Nintendo system games, Atari (about 20 years ago Atari and Nintendo were played on the same TV just 7 or so years apart, that 25" Console TV finally quit working after it was about 15 years old, and it still didn't have ANY burn in images, and that was a TV made 20+ years ago, I think TV's are even better today), Xbox, etc. for hours and never once had a burn in problem. Not to say it isn't possible, it really isn't a big deal to me personally, and really I wouldn't concern myself with it.
