16:9 Widescreen Output on the PS2 - Please Help!!!

Does anyone know if it is possible (and if so how) to get PS2 games that support widescreen to fill the entire 16:9 screen?  I have a 42" Samsung HPS4253 Plasma, and both the PS2 and the games (RE:4, EA Sports games) set to widescreen mode, but there is still a 1" vertical black bar on each side of the screen when playing.  I'm afraid that I'll start to see ghosting if I have any extended playing sessions.

Please help.  Thanks.

My TV disables the "zoom" feature automatically whenever using high definition components...so, I can't zoom to resolve the problem...anyone have any other ideas?

Okay here is the answer to why this happens.  Traditional standard defintion TVs, the tube type, have an area of the screen that is called overscan.  The tube's screen surface is actually bigger than the visible portion with in the framing.  This is so that we don't see the edges of the picture, as with a tube TV it doesn't look perfect.  With plasma and LCD screens however, the every pixel is visible within the frame, there is no overscan portion of the screen that would be hidden in a tube TV.  So developers of PS2 games try to maximize performance, by not rendering anything in the pixels that are over scanned on SD tube TVs, since that portion of the screen will most likely not be visible.  So even after you adjust your game to widescreen, those thing black bars at the sides of your plasma TV, are the portions that would have traditionally been over scanned and not in the visible portion of a tube TV.

Now with games on the 360 and PS3 in HD, running in 720p or 1080i/p they are designed to use the full resolution, and on plasma and LCD TVs there is no need for overscan.

Okay here is the answer to why this happens.  Traditional standard defintion TVs, the tube type, have an area of the screen that is called overscan.  The tube's screen surface is actually bigger than the visible portion with in the framing.  This is so that we don't see the edges of the picture, as with a tube TV it doesn't look perfect.  With plasma and LCD screens however, the every pixel is visible within the frame, there is no overscan portion of the screen that would be hidden in a tube TV.  So developers of PS2 games try to maximize performance, by not rendering anything in the pixels that are over scanned on SD tube TVs, since that portion of the screen will most likely not be visible.  So even after you adjust your game to widescreen, those thing black bars at the sides of your plasma TV, are the portions that would have traditionally been over scanned and not in the visible portion of a tube TV.

Now with games on the 360 and PS3 in HD, running in 720p or 1080i/p they are designed to use the full resolution, and on plasma and LCD TVs there is no need for overscan.

Jamibung

im assuming all technology back then was made like that, then why does my old vcr, and new dvd play fill up the entire screen?

Additionally, if you were to get your hands on a broadcast monitor, for studio use, it would have a mode called underscan, where the entire picture signal is displayed within the monitor's visible border.  This is a tool for broadcasters to see the entire image picked up by the cameras, and then they can switch back to overscan mode, to ensure that their on screen graphics, and name-keys, will appear in the visible portion of home television sets.