I don't ever have side bars on my TV unless they are grey bars when I set the TV to 4:3 mode, which I NEVER do. I really don't understand how people come up with this black bars on the sides thing. It you watched a letterbox movie on a 4x3 tv, that's the exact way it looks on my widescreen TV. Black bars top and bottom, no streching. I also keep my DVD player in letterbox mode.