Front projector aspect ratio question

You are doing nothing wrong. Most movies are shot in a widescreen format that will not fill a 16:9 screen without distorting the image..

You have 3 choices; buy the fullscreen format DVD which chops off the sides so you lose information, get a player that will stretch it in the vertical axis and distort the picture, or play the wide screen version and ignore the blank space at the top and bottom.

The latter choice is the best with a big screen as it presents the film as intended by the director.

West99,
Herman gave you the straight scoop. I agree with his answer.

West, check to make sure the aspect ratio is set up properly in your DVD player (widescreen as opposed to 4:3 or pan and scan). If the player and your projector are set up properly, you are doing nothing wrong. On a movie such as Fifth Element, fullscreen is heavily cropped and allows the image to fill a 4:3 screen. Since the widescreen side is shot in a 2:35 to 1 aspect ratio, you will always have bars on the top and bottom of the screen. Widescreen movies are shot in three different aspect ratios: 1:79 to 1, 1:85 to 1, and 2:35 to 1. While 1:79 and 1:85 will always fill a 16:9 screen, the 2:35 ratio will always leave bars on the top and the bottom. Directors often prefer this ratio for a more panoramic picture. Several widescreen movies are shot in this ratio, but there are plenty of DVDs available in the other two aspect ratios as well. The best advice is to follow Herman's last suggestion, ignore the bars on the top and bottom of the screen (you won't notice them after a few minutes of the movie have passed) and watch the movie as the director intended. Hope this helps.

Are these 2.35:1 aspect ration or 16:9 (1.78:1, or so)? If the former, you will still have black bars on the top and bottom, albeit thinner bars that on a 4:3 display.

some other things to check. make sure your DVD player is set to 16:9 output, and not 4:3 or 4:3 pan and scan or 4:3 letter box. Also check that the DVD titles you are testing with are "widescreen anamorphic" or "aka enhanced for 16:9 televisions". else you are just getting 4:3 image with black bars (like back in the laserdisc or VHS days). But most titles made since '99 have been anamorphic (or aka enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions.)

AVS used to have a forum post sticky that covered this topic, but I can't find it right now. It was called "widescreen televisions do not get rid of black bars totally" or something to that effect. Maybe someone will have a link.

I hope you fingure out your problem.

Some PJ's have an image shift funciton. If yours does, you can shift the image up until the top black bar is gone and then raise the screen up to the bottom of the image. Mine does not have that function, but I always raise the screen for the bottom one.