The bars come from your TV provider. Your TV is only displaying the image that it was sent. These are the most common possibilities that may be causing the bars: If the camera used to film the program wasn't a widescreen camera, your picture will have bars on left-and-right. Even if the camera was widescreen, your cable provider may not be transmitting the picture to you in widescreen, resulting again with sidebars. If your program was originally made to fit a theater screen with a 21:9 ratio, which is wider than your 16:9 TV, you will have bars on top-and-bottom. Most TV manufacturers give you the option to stretch the picture to fill the entire screen with a button on the remote control. This button has many names, and is commonly one of the following: 'Pic Size', 'P. Size', 'Wide' or 'format', etc...