I've been testing new plasmas and was recently playing with a Maxent 5020.

Unlike every other plasma (or LCD) I tinkered with this one seemed to "add" even more horizontal black bars to 2.35:1 DVDs.

In fact, my demo DVD menu that normally appears full screen (16:9) on every other display I've ever owned or demoed even has small black bars above and below it.

Then, when you actually watch something on the DVD which is in 2.35:1 it adds even more black bars.

The Maxent only has two options (4:3 and 16:9) and even zooming with the DVD player never gets the image to go full screen.

Any ideas?

Quick follow up.

I tried using zoom player to see what possible aspect ratio could be causing this. When I hit custom (2.35:1) it looked just like the tv.

So, my menus are in 2.35:1 with black bars above and below. Then, when I play a clip - say Star Wars - the 2.35:1 DVD video plays within the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

This is very small.

Normal?