HTPC (Black side and top bars)

[donigodinho]

Hello everyone, i´m new here, bu i hope you can give me a help with my HTPC

MB - MSI Chipset Intel G33
Processor - Core2Duo 2.4 Ghz
Memory -2 Gb Kingston DDr2 800
Graphics - ATI 2400 PRO
Harddisk - 500 GB Samsung
Case -Chieftech Hi-Fi Series (HE-02B) with Imon remote

The HTPC is connected to my Plasma Panasonic 37 PX70, via HDMI.

I have the Windows XP Professional, and I use the Median HD as my media center, for streaming my contents from my Server.

Everything is ok, except for:

I can´t get a screen resolution that fills the entire screen. I´m always get slight black bars on the sides, and on top and bottom. Already try several resolutions, 720p, 1080i, at 50Hz/60Hz......1280X720 etc....
Theres is one resolution the fills the entire screen, but it´s too big and theres parts that i don´t see..

Is theres anything i can do?

Also I have rips of BlueRay and HD-DVD, and i have always 2 big black bars on top and bottom of the screen..... if a choose a resolution to fit the screen, it make a image distortion, and you notice an streched image....
Is theres any software that allows me to watch my rips without theses black bars?
Or it´s normal because the source of the rips is like that? Is the way that they where made?

Hope you can help me, and sorry if my english failed......

[hulinning]

I think you should not try to get rid the black bar if not you get a poor video quality or undesired screen aspect ratio. You should make sure that your video output resolution matches your HDTV native resolution and it really depend on the video source you will have a black bar or not when playing it back.
You can try to verify this by playing on a regular dvd. If you have it when playing dvd then you should also have it when playing it from your htpc, and vice versa.

This is my experience with my htpc and networkable dvd ziova cs-505

See

[jagabo]

It is normal for TVs to overscan the HDMI inputs. This is why the edges of the desktop are cut off. See if there is a non-overscan mode for the HDMI inputs (Samsung calls this "just scan" but I don't know what Panasonic calls it, and not all HDTV have it). You may have to resort to VGA instead of HDMI. The VGA port is usually not overscanned.