Initial Portable DVD Player.
 

I bought one of these at walmart a few weeks ago. I bought the 7 inch widescreen version. One thing that makes me mad is that it wont use the whole screen. Of course when vewing a 4:3 it puts the black bars on the sides, but when I view a widescreen film it puts black bars on the sides and top. So I switched the monitor to use the full screen and what does it do? It just stretches the film horizontally, still leaving the black bars at the top and bottom. I read Initial's web site and they say that some dvds won't let you view them real widescreen, only letterboxed. But I have tried all my widescreen movies and none of them work right. They all do the same thing. So I'm thinking that I just got ripped off by paying more for a bigger screen that never gets used. Anyone have any input on this?

Black bars to the left and right is a bit odd (but my widescreen LCD monitor does this in one of its "zoom modes"). But remember 16:9 works out to a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Theatrical films are in a variety of flavors such as 1.85:1 and 2.35:1. Both of these require letterboxing on a 16:9 screen. Then there's 1.66:1 which would need to be pillarboxed. Check the package of the DVD, or look at the technical specs on imdb.com to find what aspect ratio was used.

But then again, you did choose to buy a no-name Wal*Mart product.... ;-)

Yeah, you gotta watch those Wal-Mart Third World products sometimes.

See if your remote has a ZOOM feature, put it on 4:3 with the black bar on left and right and "zoom in" I've done this on mine and it makes it seem like normal. Initial is actually sold at BestBuy and Circuit City...so its not a completely cheapo brand