I've gotten used to the "strech".  That Samsung set sucks.  I wouldn't mind if the bars were black, but they are gray and really distracting.  And everytime I turn off the TV, it forgets that I set it to 4:3 mode and then I have to dig ito the menus to change it back.  It's such a pain.  I only got the set for my bedroom because it was an open box model at Sears and was almost half off.  I couldn't pass that deal up.