without dredging up the entire aspect ratio scenario over again ..
Don't worry!
A small amount of 'black bars' on a 1.85:1 movie should be expected since the aspect ratio of your PDP is only 1.77:1.
The amount of 'black bars' on a 1.85:1 movie displayed on a 1.77:1 television will vary - from none at all to a small amount - based on the display's, internal scaler, overscan %, and probably lots of other reasons. A fixed pixel display like the panny plasma you mentioned will probably have not much overscan at all, which is why the bars may be more evident to you than say .. vs. the same movie on a 16:9 crt rptv.
If you are talking about a large amount of real estate having black bars, you are either watching an even wider aspect ratio movie like a 2.35:1 or you are possibly watching a non widescreen enhanced dvd and are having zoom/scaling mode issues displaying the letterboxed 4:3 signal.
- pink