Beware of 'widescreen' edition on ORIGINAL US DVD release

I have the first DVD release of Xanadu in the US. This is the one with the original film cover art. If you run across this, I suggest avoiding it. The sound and transfer seems fine, but the "widescreen" aspect is deceiving. They cheated us. The 16:9 screen ratio was achieved NOT by a widescreen transfer but by blocking out the top and bottom of the screen, faking a "letterbox" aspect. As a result, parts of names are cut out in the credits and worse, tops of heads (and sometimes entire heads) are blocked out in some of the performances. Very annoying. I highly suggest the re-release (white box, Kira on skates, iridescent cover art). Also lots more extras are on the newer release.