DVD movie does not fill screen

[The Trooper]

I have a 20" widescreen iMac G4. Usually, when I play a DVD, it goes into full screen, but since the viewing area is wider than the computer screen, there is black space at the top and bottom, just like if I were watching it on a TV. But right now, the movie I'm watching doesn't do that. It just sits in the middle of the screen with black space at the top and bottom, and the sides. Why doesn't it fill the screen? Is there something I can do to fix this, or does the DVD have limited resolution that makes it incapable of filling the screen?

[trpnmonkey41]

check the ratio on the dvd box to see what it says...some dvd's are set to a ratio different than 16:9 or 3:4

[The Trooper]

Thanks, but that still doesn't really explain why there'd be black space at the top and bottom and the sides.

[trpnmonkey41]

If the DVD is set to a ratio other than the standard widescreen or standard 4:3 ratio then it could be that the ratio the disc has sets it that way. Why a company would do that is beyond me but there are some DVD's that don't use standard screen ratios which would could give you the bars on all 4 sides

[The Trooper]

That sux....any idea how to fix it?

[sivp]

All computer dvd drives have progressive scan (part of the software) so it will read if it's a wide screen or 4:3, try simply double clicking on the actual viewer, or as said before, check your setup option and preferences very carfully.

Edit: Unless the video is a different region code, which may affect something or simply the movie was recorded that way..

Also you may need a codec as a last resort to fix this problem. Most probably an mpeg2 codec.

[brutusmc]

I've had the same problem with a 23 inch cinema display. I think it tends to happen on DVDs from Universal Studios movies if I remember correctly, so I assumed it had something to do with how they were encoding their DVDs. Playing it on a 17 inch doesn't give the same problem.