DVD Playback Issues

While watching a DVD on my V2311us laptop, I noticed something: there were black lines at the top and bottom of my screen, about an inch thick. I figured since this screen was a widescreen, it would fill up the entire screen real estate. I am using WinDVD. Is there a setting I have to change or something, as I thought it would make sense to fill the whole screen up.

If the picture covers the entire width of your display, but not the vertical portion, the aspect ratio is different than your display.

Is the aspect ratio of the screen not 16:9?