Picture being squashed

[PsychoJester]

I just bought my first 16:9 HDTV so i'm a complete newbie and this question may be incredibly simple and answered somewhere else, but i couldn't seem to find it. I got a 26" Olevia LCD and have it hooked up to my DishNet DVR. After messing around i found the setting on the DVR to tell it i have a 16"9 TV, but when i changed it nothing seemed to change. I know that normal pictures would be squashed a little to fit on the screen and it is hardly noticeable, but the thing that bothers me is that even when something comes on that is in wide screen it still has the black bars on top and bottom. Is there something I am missing, or am I pretty much stuck with that?

EDIT: I feel even dumber now, when i was looking i thought this forum was for TV's and stuff too, but i guess its just for computer stuff... sorry about that

[Des]

THe Olevia's have a showroom and a home mode so you may want to check which mode you are in. SHowroom doesn't allow you to change anything and home mode gives you full access to tthe settings.
I run my 37" in 'full screen' mode using the aspect button on the remote. Generallly the options are 'Full screen' 'Panoramic' 'zoom 1' 'zoom2' '1:1' and 'aspect'.

Some programing will still have the black bars even in fullscreen mode. Their is no set standard as to which aspect ratio a director or producer wants to work in but the 16:9 is the most common.

You get used to it. Basically with technology come too many choices all around.

--dES

[guns1inger]

Anything shown in Original Aspect Ratio (OAR) where the OAR is wider than 16:9 (most movies, for instance, are 1.85:1 or wider) will still have black bars. This includes most widescreen movies on DVD. The only way to get rid of the bars is to zoom the image in with your player or TV, and therefore cut the left and right edges off.

In short, you should still get black bars on your widescreen TV with most movies. It is normal, and not bad.