Screen size in Media Player and Nero show time

I just got my D150 a week ago and I am having an issue with it. I connected a DVD drive and tried watching a movie to see what it would be like on the small screen. Didn't work, no decoder. So, I installed Nero Showtime since I have the disc and do not use the software on my other computer. This made it so I could watch the movie but the screen seems a little off. I have bars on the top and bottom of the screen like I am watching a Wide screen movie on a full screen monitor. Is the 1024X600 not true wide screen?

Secondary question. When watching in WMP, I get the same screen thing as above but it also does not play sound. Any ideas?

If this is a common issue and I did not find the answer during my search, please direct me to the correct thread.

Thanks
Sean

 

DVD widescreen is shown in the 16:9 aspect ratio. (1024/16)*9 = 576, meaning that what you call "true wide screen", the size of the screen should be less in the height direction.
Since the screen is 600 pixels in the height direction, it means that to maintain a 16:9 aspect ratio, the 34 extra lines of pixels of the screen will be letterboxed.

So you could say that the screen on the AAO A and D series aren't true 16:9 wide screens, but then again you can say that they are true 16:9.375 wide screens.

 

OK, so there should be some black bars on the top and bottom? Should they be 15-20mm each?

 

depends on the aspect ratio of the movie... is it 4x3, 16x9 or (i can't remember the other one )

either way , yes, a widescreen movie on the aao will have bars on top and bottom.

 

OK, thanks. Any thoughts on the no sound in WMP thing? Sound works fine playing music. I would prefer to use WMP for all media.

Sean

 

sounds (!!!) like it's surround sound (or 5.1 etc) - WMP doesn't like that unless you have correct sound drivers - Google for KL Codec pack, or try VLC - I use that for stuff that doesn't work in WMP (and I've videos that only do WMP not VLC so I can't just ditch one).