How come My HDTV display is distorted?

Question

I bought some HDMI cables and plugged one into my TV and when i went to the HD channels the picture did not fit the screen was black all around the outside of it. So i had to zoom it in to see the picture in full screen but it wasn't in very good quality and was too large..How do i get the picture to fit the screen normally. i have a verizon fios HD-dvr box and this Vizio http://www.vizio.com/productDetails.aspx?id=1550&pid=1506 tv. My PS3 hooked fine with no problems

Answer 1

It depends on the station that you are watching.  Some say that they are broadcasting in HD, but they are just upconverted of regular analog channels.  So the channel will show black bars on the sides, but if the show was shot using widescreen aspect ratio then you will get black bars all the way around.

Most channels will be in "widescreen" which means the image will fill an entire widescreen and sometimes you may get black bars on the top and bottom (but that's rare).

Stations like TBS are notorious for broadcasting "simulated HD" images and so you get the black bars all the way around.  Try another HD channel, to see if the issue persists.  You telling me it looks fine for PS3 tells me, it's a station issue.