Full screen DVD

What's up with 'full screen' DVD playback on the Acer Aspire 5020 series. I just bought a 5024 and am largely very happy with it. However, when putting in a DVD to watch on it's widescreen monitor I don't get the full glory of the screen.

I press play, in either Windows Media Player or the supplied Arcade, and the image is in the correct widescreen ratio. Great. However, there is about an inch gap at both the left and the right of the screen, it's like the imaeg has been scaled down. How on earth do I sort that out? It's not utilising the widescreen aspect of the screen, and to be honest, DVD's in widescreen is why I went with a widescreen monitor laptop in the first place.

What am I doing wrong here? How do I sort this out?

 

Try using VLC - www.videolan.org

alternatively try some of the 'aspect ratio' settings in media player, as that is the issue you are having.

 

I'm not sure - the ratio of height to width seems fine, the image is just smaller than it should be.

I'll check out what happens with VLC and PowerDVD but I won't hold my breath.

 

Try more DVDs.
I have at least 2 in my collection that play like that, and there seems to be no easy fix.
But 99% of my DVDs play in full, and I mean proper full, screen.

 

Ok, perhaps I've just been unlucky in that the two I tried were like that. I'll do a proper check tonight. You say no "easy" fix - does that mean there is a tricky fix?

 

LOL - sorry, no easy fix meant that I ripped them to avi files and then played them at full screen, or played them on my modded Xbox. NOT worth the time and trouble IMHO. One was Blade Runner, the other I forget.
Please try vlc, it really seems better at zooming to full screen than most commercial DVD players, and certainly better then Acer Arcade or Windows Media Player.
Good Luck!

 

Thanks - I'll try it out, though I have never fallen in love with it when I've used it before.

 

If i'm not wrong there are a few formats for dvds. most widescreen laptops have a 16:10 aspect ratio when the proper dvd one is 16:9 or 1.85:1. some dvds have a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. so its very hard to find dvds that will fill the whole screen.

 

That's not the issue they're talking about, there are vertical black bars on the left and right sides, not just the normal horizontal bars above and below.

Media Player Classic works fine with DVDs as long as the Video Frame is set to 'Touch Window from Outside'

 

VLC seems to have sorted it out for me.