Hi all. Pretty much a novice here, as I just got my first HDTV and am still learning the ropes. So apologies if this is a basic question, but after multiple google searches I can't figure it out.

Have a LG plasma tv, 16:9 720p - with the HD cable signal & video games the picture is great.

But when trying to play widescreen DVDs in 16:9 I'm getting those pictures scaled *only* horizontally, i.e. if I change my tv mode to 4:3 the picture is the exact same height. So the picture is strangely wide yet short, leading to a bit of distortion. There is a Zoom display setting on the tv but this appears to cut off the edges of the picture (and most importantly cuts off subtitles at the bottom).

I understand that there may be some black bars at the top/bottom as many movies are 2.35:1 or whatever, but how do I make it scale length & height rather than just length? The newer DVDs I've tried are 2.35:1 widescreen anamorphic. My player is progressive scan, connected with a red-green-blue component cable. Was under the impression that anamorphic DVDs should scale to 16:9 correctly with this setup, am I missing a step here?

Do you have your dvd player set to output in 16:9?

Also, 2.35 movies will still have black bars, if you're trying to "fill the screen", that will distort the picture also (apologies if that's it, but it's a common complaint...)

He wrote that he knows there is supposed to be black bars at the top and bottom of 2.35:1 movies, so I doubt that's it. I think parrot is on the right track asking whether the DVD player is set to output a 16:9 image.