Insert the DVD in your player, and set your TV for DVD playback.
Change the aspect ratio setting of your DVD player to "Wide Screen." Although most DVDs have separate versions for a full screen movie and a wide screen movie, if the DVD you are playing actually has two versions placed in a single DVD, make sure you select the "Wide Screen" option. This option is used when you intend to watch the movie using a HD TV.
If you have an old TV set, using CRT technology, the "almost square-shaped" type of TV, choose the "Letterbox" option in your DVD player so that the movie properly retains its wide screen format. The "Letterbox" option will show black bars on the top and bottom of the screen so that the wide screen footage is shown properly. Since this TV is almost square-shaped, the black bars fill the empty spaces not used by the horizontally longer and rectangular wide screen footage. If you don't use the "Letterbox" option, your wide screen movie would look abnormally squeezed, and the actors and the rest of the elements on screen would seem thinner than usual. This is because your footage tries to compensate the shape of your TV screen by filling the entire screen with the wide screen footage.
Check the settings of your HD TV. In most systems, changing the aspect ratio setting of your DVD player suffices. There are certain cases though, where you should also select "Wide Screen" option in your TV set, so that it plays a wide screen DVD correctly. A wrong aspect ratio selected in your TV screen results in a distortion of the visuals in our TV. For instance, if your TV is set in "Full Screen," instead of "Wide Screen," your wide screen DVD may show stretched visuals on screen. This makes the actors, and the rest of the elements, on screen look abnormally fatter than usual.