I apologize if this topic is not in the correct forum, I'm just taking a stab at where it might belong, and where I might get the best help. I just bought and setup a new Epson powerlite home 1080 for my theater room. I'll give a bit of background on how everything is hooked up, just in case that helps any.

Currently I have 3 components plugged in to my amp (which is an Onkyo TX-SR575).

Component-1 is my DirecTV DVR connected to the amp through S-Video
Component-2 is my PS3 connected to the amp through a component cable
Component-3 is my xbox360 connected to the amp through a component cable

The amp is then connected to the projector with a component cable for all my video devices. I went through and set the image settings on both the 360 and the ps3 to 1080, widescreen aspect. When the settings took effect, the menu display on both machines went edge-to-edge on both top and bottom of the screen on my 16x9 wilsonart screen, with the aspect ration on the projector set to "normal". I figured I was good to go, since it looked perfect.

Now here is my issue, when I go to play a movie, either DVD or blue-ray, I have to manually select the "full" aspect ratio on the projector, and the projector will then display the image edge-to-edge on the left and right, but I end up with huge borders on the top and bottom. I've tried switching the different aspect ratios manually on the projector, but the other settings make people look fat, or you get that stretched look, and it still won't go fully top to bottom. I understand that some movies are not REALLY 16x9, but rather 1x2.35 or who knows what else. Even with this, I wasn't expecting the black bars on top and bottom to be this big. It feel like I'm losing a lot of real estate on my screen. I believe that one thing that may help a bit, is to use an HDMI cable so the projector will auto-switch to the correct aspect ration, but I haven't tested that yet.

Am I missing something? I feel like a complete noob to all this, but I'm hoping that someone here can shed some light on this. Again, I'm assuming this is a projector issue, not a device issue with my components.

Thanks for the help!

There's some setup you will need to do on your receiver to get the right results. Look on page 38 of your manual.

Unless I'm missing something, page 38 for my onkyo simply describes how to assign the correct video input for the component button on the receiver, which i've done. I can see all the different devices on the screen when the correct component button is pushed, but just not the right aspect ratio when playing a movie.

Thanks for your quick reply!

If you don't configure it correctly, the composite / s-video signal does not get upconverted and you could wind up sending the wrong format out. Reread the config page to make sure that much is correct.

Just for reference -

From page 23:

For TX-SR575
Video equipment can be connected to the AV receiver by
using any one of the following video connection formats:
composite video, S-Video, or component video, the latter
offering the best picture quality.
Composite video to S-Video and S-Video to composite
video conversion only applies to the MONITOR OUT V
and S outputs, not the VCR/DVR OUT V and S outputs.

From page 38:

Component Video Setup (TX-SR575 only)
If you connect a video component to a COMPONENT
VIDEO IN, you must assign that input to an input selector.
For example, if you connect your DVD player to
COMPONENT VIDEO IN 3, you must assign CMPNT
DVD setting to IN3.
If you want to output composite video and S-Video
sources from the COMPONENT VIDEO OUT, select
Upcnv.
IN1:
Select if the video component is connected to
COMPONENT VIDEO IN 1.
IN2:
Select if the video component is connected to
COMPONENT VIDEO IN 2.
IN3:
Select if the video component is connected to
COMPONENT VIDEO IN 3.
Upcnv:
Select to upconvert and output composite
video or S-Video sources from the COMPONENT
VIDEO OUT.
Note:
TX-SR575 only
: When IN1, IN2, or IN3 is selected, the
composite video to S-Video and S-Video to composite
video conversions do not work.

I see what you're saying, but the upconversion from s-video to component is working just fine for my DVR. It's the component connection from the two game consoles that don't seem to be sending the right aspect ratio, using a component connection, not composite.

Ok, just making sure the s-video connection is not messing with the other connections.

I guess my next step will be to hook the HDMI cable directly from the PS3 to the projector bypassing the receiver, and see if that makes any difference. If the image works correctly, then the problem is with the receiver.