Blu-Ray question - not really a problem - just curious.

[Link]

Hello,

as you can see, i'm new here - I just bought a Blu-Ray player about 3 weeks ago and my question does have to do with those black bars I know everyone loves talking about. I understand them - i've been reading this site for a while - but there is something I don't get and I thought i'd ask.

When watching a BD on my 32' Sony flat screen LCD (yes, I know it's small but it's not in a large room) I have my player set to 1080i (since my TV is 768p - so I understand) - with my TV receiving a 1080i signal, I have the option to watch the movie in "Full", "Zoom", and "Wide Zoom" (these options vary depending on the signal as i've read in my tv's manual - I can use "Normal" with a Non-HD source). I always watch my Blu-Rays in "Full" and most of them are 2:35:1 - and the black bars aren't big - AT ALL. I have the same movie in Widescreen DVD, and decided to put that in to see how much better the BD was and what I found interesting is this:

When I used to watch this movie on my TV with my old DVD player - I would watch it in "Normal" mode as that was an option due to the signal my TV was receiving - it was not an HD source (there is no "Full" option here). The picture was quite small and the black bars took up a majority of the screen on the top and bottom. Now when I playback this movie and upscale it with the BD player, it is identical to the BD in terms of picture size when selecting "Full" - Bigger. I like this, but why would it change? I just want to make sure I am getting the full picture, that's all. I tried downconverting to get the "Normal" view but it wasn't changing it back to what it used to look like. What it all comes down to is the fact that I'm getting a bigger picture with an upscaled DVD and BD than I did with Standard DVD on an old DVD player. I am using an HDMI connection where as my DVD player was hooked up with component cables if that helps at all.

Another test I did was put in another standard DVD, with the same aspect ratio, naturally upconverting it, and it was just like it used to play in my old DVD player - pretty small picture - mostly black bars on the top and bottom. I would think movies with the same OAR would look the same?

Any ideas? My question might not be clear and quite confusing, so if you need me to answer a question in order to help, please ask.

Thanks in advance!!