I have an xbox 360 and also a pioneer dvr-310 that I can use for watching movies, and the following happens on both. When the 360 is set to HDTV, it displays the movie in 480p, but it displays black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, and this cuts off the display menu's at the bottom of movies and you can't even see, Play Movie, or Special Features or whatever options you have. If I switch the 360 to just TV, then it displays the movie in 480i, and the whole picture can be seen. This also happens when using the pioneer and switching between interlaced, and progressive.
The dvd players are hooked up to both a 50" Panasonic plasma and a Infocus 4805. I have switched them between widescreen and 4:3, and still whenever I try to watch in 480p, the top and bottom are cut off.
I also have the 360 HD-DVD player and HD-DVD's play fine on it, but if I put in a regular dvd and it displays in 480p, top and bottom are cut off again.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Mike

Are both your displays set to "normal" (no zoom, stretch, etc)? 480i and 480p should look the same. It's just who does the deinterlacing that is different. Make sure both players are set to be connected to a 16x9 TV. And make sure the displays are not doing anything to the input. Once you figure out what's going on you may have to change a display setting depending on whether of not the DVD is anamorphic or not. What DVD are you trying?

larry

I have them both running right now, and the plasma is fine.

So I guess the problem is just with the projector. I've used both Gone in 60 Seconds and Beerfest, and am having the same problem with both. I can set the projector to Native, 4:3, 16:9, and Letterbox. In each mode, the top and bottom are cut off.

Sounds like the projector is "zooming".

larry

What exactly do you mean by "zooming?" This only happens in 480p. It's fine in 480i, 720p, and 1080i.
Any suggestions on what I should try to figure this out?
Thanks

Zooming showing 680x420 (for example) of the 720x480 image in the same size output "window". Yes, it is strange why only 480p.

larry

Is there any way to change or check to see if it is zooming to 680x420 in 480p?

680x420 was an example resolution but if you don't have a zoom function on your PJ then it shouldn't be "zooming". I'd check over the the PJ forum and ask other 4805 owners.

larry

I'd suggest that you look at the back of the DVD wrapper and see what the film aspect ratio is. The 16:9 screen is 1.78:1. Most films are 1.85:1 and you may not really see any top and bottom bars if there's overscan. But, action films are often 2.35:1, so no matter what display you are viewing, you'll see top and bottom bars. If you are seeing side bars, then I'd figure you were in the wrong mode.

Also, if the "chopped off" part is not much, it may just be overscan. The Panny should have a way to reduce the vertical size of the image. Same for width. The PJ may have vertical and horizontal size and positioning adjustments also.

larry