When I play back widescreen DVDs with aspect ratios of 2:35:1 or 2:40:1 (the popular formats) on my 55" Mitsubishi rear projection screen, and the screen is in STANDARD mode, I get small letterboxing to the top and bottom of the image, which Im told is normal.

NOW, if I play a DVD with an aspect ratio LOWER than those, say, either 1:78:1 or 1:85:1, the image fills up the ENTIRE screen with NO letterboxing in the same STANDARD mode....I was told that is because my TV may be "overscanning" these other ratios, and just filling the screen. Is this normal? Should I be getting ANY letterboxing during these other ratios, like 1:85:1 or 1:78:1?

And with regard to watching FULL SCREEN DVDs on a widescreen set......when I play back 1:33:1 (full screen) DVDs on this 16X9 set, and keep the mode, again, on STANDARD, the image simply fills the entire screen without any real noticeable "fattening" or stretching of any characters on the screen --- is this normal? Is this because the TV is simply cropping some information off the sides because it's a Pan and Scan DVD image, and then zooming a bit so the full screen DVD fills the screen? SHOULD a full screen DVD FILL a 16X9 screen without any noticeable distortion to the characters onscreen?