I just got a DVD player for my sister, and finally hooked it up to her rather old (but huge) TV. It worked fine, but when I played a DVD of “24” (which had a moderate amount of letterboxing, I think) everyone looked skinny and squished. Not really bad, but noticable. I then put in a DVD of “Training Day”, which has an even more dramatic letterboxing, and there were black bands on the top and bottom of her TV screen, but these black bands were not as wide as they should have been. (I just saw this movie last night on my own TV and DVD player.) And everything looked slightly squished.
I then put in a “fullscreen” version of “Lord of the Rings” (which is supposed to fill the whole screen) and it looks fine.
I am apt to blame the TV. Am I correct? What can I do? It’s too late to return the DVD player (though of course it’s under warranty). This isn’t a huge deal because my sister won’t watch a lot of DVDs anyway (it’s more of a convenience for her to have the player) and I think she’d prefer the fullscreen version most of the time anyway. But I am curious as to what is going on. Any help would be appreciated!
What are the make and models of your dvd player & television? (Especially the player.)
When I got my DVD player, I had the same problem: you have to play around with the settings a bit. Take a good look at your DVD owners manual and follow the directions.
Oh. Thanks Enola. I will (gasp!) read the manual! 
(Something I am often loathe to do.)
Larry: TV is a Zenith “System 3” SEq Stereo (whatever that means). It’s a pretty big TV. And pretty old, I think (7 years or older?).
DVD is a Samsung DVD S221. Brand spankin’ new.
Hey, I thought the same way…“I can figger this shit out by myself; I don’t need no steenkin’ manual!” and don’t I have a funky picture for three months.
What you’re looking for will be in the DVD player’s settings. In mine, the setting is marked “TV Type”. Odds are, your player is set for “16:9”. Change that setting to “4:3 Letterbox” or whatever the equivalent is on your player, and you’ll be golden.
Bingo! Thanks everyone! Opening the (gasp!) user’s manual told me all I need to know. All DVDs play fabulously now. I also noticed that there is a nifty “zoom” feature that my sister will like. She’s visually impaired and likes to get up REAL CLOSE to things to see them. (My DVD player may or may not have “Zoom”, I never checked.)
Thanks much, again!