[GTL]

you understand how to solve the problem. what you don't understand is that movies are shot in different aspect ratios. most movies are shot in either 16:9 or 2.35:1. tv shows are shot in either 4:3 or 16:9.

Now, 4:3 is the shape of old school tv's. so if you are watching a show that was shot in 4:3 on a widescreen tv (which has a screen that fits a 16:9 aspect ratio) there will be black bars on the left and right side when you are displaying it properly.

if you are watching a tv show or movie shot in 16:9 it should fill the widescreen tv completely.

if you are watching a movie shot in 2.35:1 then there will be black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. When you can't see the subtitles it is because you are zooming in on a 2.35:1 movie. you not only miss the subtitles which appear in the black bar, but you distort the movie and/or chop off the left and right edges.

not all tv shows and movies are going to fill a 16:9 screen. it doesn't work that way.

as for the HD channels, some of them do screwy things. and as other posters have mentioned, it's only HD if it was shot in HD. otherwise they're just sticking old crap on an HD channel.

my dad never changes our tv out of wide screen mode and is always watching 4:3 shows stretched to fit 16:9. i don't understand how he can do that. The picture looks terrible.