FP and aspect...a question (1 Viewer)

I'm sure this is a dumb question, but I haven't figured it out yet...
I have a Yamaha DXP-1 projector. I'm very happy with it except for one annoying problem. Whenever, I start a movie, I have to scroll though the available aspect ratios to find the proper one. The projector has an auto setting, and it works, however, it doesn't fill the screen completely...after I find what the auto says the aspect should be, then I have to go into the corresponding zoom or a stretch mode to fill the screen to the edges.
My first thought was that I needed to adjust the manual zoom on my lens to expand the picture. But when I bring up the internal test patterns in the projector(not dependent on aspect ratio) they fill the screen completely. Should I ignore the test patterns and zoom in so that the auto setting fills the screen? Or am I missing something obvious? How does everyone else's projector work in this regard?

Thanks in advance for the responses,
Steve

look into movie aspect ratios and see if that is the problem

It's on all movies. They don't fill the screen unless I use either zoom or stretch mode.

Some movies are wider than others. A 2.35:1 film like The Lord of the Rings wont fill a screen that a 1.85:1 film like Jurassic Park will.

Is your DVD player setup to output to a 16:9 display? If not you're looking at letterboxed 4:3 and you will have problems. What aspect ratio is your screen?

Understand that not EVERY movie should fill your screen. Movies are filmed in varying aspect ratios and you will have black bars on movies that are 2.35:1, 2.40:1 or greater. Anything that is 1.85:1 or less should fill your screen UNLESS you have zero overscan in which case 1.85:1 movies will have very small black bars.

Understand also that using stretch and zoom will reslut in a degraded image.

From my understanding, Steve has black bars on the top and bottom as well as both sides. The image is windowboxed wiwthin the screen, is this correct? Definite setup issue then.

Most movies are shot at either 2.35:1 or 1.85:1. Your projector has a 1.77:1 aspect ratio. Unless you distort those movies to make them fit, there are going to be bars at the top and bottom.

On a 4' high screen, 1.85:1 movies will have bars about an inch high. On the same screen, 2.35:1 movies will have bars about 6" high.

This is normal.

Thanks for the replies guys. I think I need to explain it a little better. I understand the difference between 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 etc...My problem is that it is "windowboxed" as one person put it. The picture is in the middle of the screen with black bars all around. I can zoom or stretch it to fill the screen, but I think I should be able to leave it on auto and at least have the picture fill the screen horizontally, right? What am I doing wrong? I know for sure that my projector is set up for a 16:9 screen, because I set that myself and have checked it since. Could the DVD player have anything to do with it? I'm getting annoyed at this problem and it's taking away from the enjoyment of my HT. I set up macros, to control equipment, lights, etc. but I can't make everything work right without getting this picture size problem fixed.
My screen is 16:9, btw.

Thanks again for helping,

Steve