Stupid Wii widescreen question

[goofyballer]

I have component cables for the Wii, and I have it outputting at 16:9 and in 480p. However, when I play a game or whatever, my HDTV (Sony 50" rear-projection LCD) still displays it at 4:3 with black bars on the sides. I can use the TV remote to force it to stretch it out, and I guess it looks ok - I guess I just want to make sure that this is what I'm supposed to do. My TV switches between widescreen and 4:3 by itself with every other device I use so I'm slightly confused by the fact that I have to do this manually.