Why do DVD's not fill up my new HD television?

Question

I am the new owner of a 42" HD LCD TV. I have an older (3 years) DVD player that I connected to the TV via component. While my DVD's play in widescreen, they're still letterboxed. I thought that widescreen DVDs are supposed to fill up the entire 16:9 screen.

Answer 1

Many movies are made in a wider aspect ratio than the 16:9 (1.8:1) that HDTV uses. When a DVD is made, the producer may decide to retain the original aspect ratio (OAR) of the movie, and does this by letterboxing the picture. Some producers (in particular HBO movies) will crop the sides of the picture so that it fills the screen. Movie aficionados object to this because you are losing some of the picture.

Although you may be getting letterbox bars at top and bottom, they are much smaller than the ones you would get with an old 4:3 TV screen. If you really want to avoid the letterbox effect, look at the specification of the DVD movie on the back of the box, and get only those that say 16:9, and not OAR.

Answer 2

becouse the tv has a higher reulation than the dvd. there should be a setting in the tv to correct it. hd is high res. u haft to make it show in a lower res and the the show will fill up the screen. good luck. the dots on the hd are smaller and u have more dots than a normal outdated tv if that helps.

Answer 3

Until the Movie Producers get the format the same as 16:9, we are stuck with it. Try using you TV's different formats of wide sreen to try and fill it in, then if that doesn't help, use the DVD's zoom button.

Answer 4

Try finding the setup menu in your DVD player and telling it that you are using a widescreen TV. You may also be able to have the TV make the image wide in it's menu's.

Answer 5

Look in your owner's manual. There should be a button on the t.v. remote that allows you to change the viewing aspect ratio to adjust the image to fit the screen the way you want it to.