I have 2 TV's that are in 16:9 aspect ratio, one is Bravia, and other one in my room is Schneider CRT.
PC is connected to Schneider.
When I play movies that are 16:9 or close enough, only aspect ratio that can fill TV screen is 5:4 setting in VLC.
Then TV stretches that 5:4 to fill screen, but it doesn;t fill it fully. I have black bars about 1 finger thick on left and right side.
Actually custom aspect ratio (right click on video/video/aspect ratio/) would come in handy because we have various "widescreens" from 16:9 to some idiotic values.