Anamorphic with ReplayTV - here's how it works...
Well, I found out in the resolution settings on the voom box, you can "squeeze" 16x9 video into a 4x3 format (called Anamorphic).
It actually works great. It allows me to record the entire 16x9 image on the 4x3 replaytv. Then, when I play it back using the Replay, I use the "zoom" function on my sony widescreen, and it stretches it back to 16x9. This is exactly what I wanted.
As for the resolution, it is still 480i. However, when I stretch widescreen movies recorded in Anamorphic, they look much better than just scaling the 16x9 to fit on a 4x3 screen (scaling both the vertical and the horizontal), then playing it back using the "full zoom" function on my tv. It's just sub-DVD quality to me - so it is acceptable.
One issue though, is that when you set the Voom receiver to output in Anamorphic it only squeezes 16x9 video - 4x3 video is left untouched. So, when I watch programs using my replay, I need to constantly switch between zoom and regular (as the programming switches between anamorphic and standard 4x3 video). Somewhat of a pain, but acceptable until the PVR comes out. Also, the funny thing is that regular OTA signals are "squished", even though the majority of the programming in upconverted 4x3. So, it gets a little confusing once it's recorded.
Obviously, it's not a HD solution - but one that will make the recording of 16x9 look much better.