Pulp Fiction CE video question
 

I recently picked up the Pulp Fiction CE recently and have a question about its video. For reference, I'm watching on a standard 32 inch Toshiba.

It's kinda hard to describe, but I'll do my best. It's a widescreen presentation, which is great, of course, except above and below the image it looks as if the image is supposed to be wider, but it isn't.

Instead of above and below the image being completely black, it seems like part of it above and below is gray. It's as if there could be an image in that space, but there isn't. I've never seen this with any other DVD.

Is this the way it's suppose to be, or is it a defect?

Supposed to be; the dark gray bars are what would still be seen letterboxing the film on a widescreen monitor (the difference between the 2.35:1 area and the 1.78:1 aspect ratio of a widescreen set), whereas the completely black bars farther out would be removed on a widescreen display.

Exactly. The lighter black is part of the live image while the darker black is being generated by the player to fill in the unused space on a 4:3 screen.

If you see a difference in brightness between these two parts of the letterbox bars, your brightness is set too high. You should pick up a calibration disc and adjust your settings.

I hear what you're saying, and will try changing my brightness setting, but how could it be my TV settings when I've never been able to see this with any other DVD of any ratio?

The only reason it's an issue to me is, because it's not completely black, I can notice the thin strips above and below the image, because it "flickers" a bit. Not flickering like turning a light on and off, but it's not a constant gray, I can see changes in the tone.

As one versed in OAR, "black bars" don't bother me at all, but gray bars with differing degrees of light do.

Not necessarily. Many discs are authored with the black bars not at the proper IRE level.