"1.85:1" Aspect Ratio difference between Blu-ray and DVD question

[groove93]

I made and argument about 1.85:1 films displaying properly on my display in the Saving Private Ryan thread. I've come to the conclusion that other contributors to the conversation, and myself are both correct, to a point.

Last night my shipment from Amazon came in. One of the movies was "The Terminator" which is a 1.85:1 film. I had a copy of this movie on my DVR from when it aired on HDNet Movies last year, but since I dropped Direct TV and the newer DVRs are locked down when the service is cancelled, I decided to purchase the movie on Blu Ray.

Anyways, for the first time I noticed black bars on the top and bottom of the screen which to me was rather odd and it makes me wonder about the actual aspect ratio of 1.85:1 films on DVD. DVD Releases, such as Finding Nemo, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Aliens, the first Spider Man, all appear with no black bars on my display, so I'm wondering why all of a sudden these movies are scaled more accurately ( I guess that's a way to put it) with Blu Ray.

I'm not a black bar hater so don't get me wrong because I love scope films, but I want to see what the film maker intended for us to view in with regards to Original Aspect Ratio.