OK i checked the FAQ and my manual but i cant find the answer and someone was nice enough to help me last time with the setting on my dvd player to get my dvds to show up in the proper mode but i have yet to get it figured out for regular digital cable.Im getting black bars for TV(ie Six Feet Under) and i was thinking they are in the same ratio as my 16:9 Panasonic TV? I understand some movies are letterbox and i know about the different ratios but i think im missing something here with my settings.

Usually most, if not all TV shows aren't anamorphic, so you'll have the black bars regardless of the tv you have. I could be totally wrong and way off base, but I think that's the answer.

I wondered about that but then i thought whats the benefit of them being widescreen?

If you own a widescreen HDTV you will only be able to view widescreen 16:9 images from HD broadcast sources. If you're watching a letterboxed TV show on a standard definition channel it's a 4:3 SD source that is letterboxed. This means that the black bars have been added to fill in the unused space in the 4:3 frame at the source. You'll need to treat these shows like you would a nonanamorphic DVD and choose the appropriate formatting option on your TV to either stretch, zoom or windowbox it.

My tv is widescreen and HD but i dont have an HD box yet so i guess that will be next on my list atleast when they drop in price Thanks again for the help chipmac