I just bought a new Home Theater system (Rico HT 2030), and when I play DVDs on it, I seem to have a visual problem.

Full screen stuff (like music videos/concerts etc) are fine.

However, widescreen is getting....compressed? Not sure if that's the right word. If the ratio is 1.85:1, then it's compressed and becomes fullscreen. If the ratio is 2.35:1, then it's compressed somewhat, I think to the size of 1.85:1, but is not completely fullscreen.

Basically, any widescreen movie is getting crunched so people seem rather skinny. The further away they are from the camera, the more noticeable it is. I figured maybe it was automatically set on some zoom level for the "average joe" who wants fullscreen, but upon pressing the zoom button, it just got closer and closer etc....but did not correct the problem, just eventually returned it to the above situation.

What's going on? Is there any way to correct this?

EDITED to add: Crap...upon posting this, I realize it's not in the right forum. I guess someone will move it at some point.

Your dvd player thinks you have a 16x9 tv. You need to get into the setup mode and tell it that you don't.

Your DVD player is set to 16x9 output. If you don't have a 16x9 display you will get this effect.

Set your DVD player to letterbox.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I'm not exactly sure where to do that...but I'll start poking around. If I have no luck, I'll check back here in a few minutes and see if someone can point the way....I assume it's something accessible via the remote control....or maybe it's on the back of the DVD/VCR combo thingy itself?

The humanity of it all I tell ya!

Go thru the on screen set up on the dvd player, read the manuel it will tell you how to do it.

Finally figured it out....I thought in that set up it was asking if I wanted movies to BE widescreen, so I selected it, not realizing I was saying that was my tv screen shape....

Again thanks to those who helped out. Consider the thread a close.

Oh yeah....I'll also give the system itself a thumbs up. I'm new to HT, so for all I know, it's low on the scale, but still...for my living room, it works wonderfully.

Can this be a hijacking of the thread if it's by the threadstarter?

I'm just curious, what movie/DVD do you fine folks like to use to demonstrate/test the power of your Home Theater set up?

Why do I get this strange feeling that just as I posted this original thread in the wrong forum, that now that it's in the Hardware section, that I should be starting a new thread in the DVD or movie section?