VLC window size-black bars?

[ratgirl71]

I have recently started having an issue with videos in VLC not filling up the screen of the player. I'm not talking about full screen, although it does it there too,-just regular size on my monitor. It played just fine for the longest time, but now it doesn't, and black bars show up at the sides of the video. Not the top and bottom, but the right and left sides. And it does this with every video. The only way to make the bars go away (which are incredibly annoying) is to crop or change the aspect ratio-which can mess up the picture. Anyone else having this problem? And is there a way to fix it?

I am using Windows 8.1 and VLC 2.2 (although this started happening on VLC 2.1.5, so it's not just this version of the player.)

[Lotesdelere]

Well, this is normal if you are trying to play a 4:3 video on a 16:9 screen, for instance.
On the opposite if you play a 16:9 video on a 4:3 screen you'll get horizontal black bars.

[ratgirl71]

Which I understand-it's just that until recently it wasn't occurring and now it is-and it's with all videos. But I appreciate the response.