1080 center, 720ish middle, SD? outside

[AWS]

On some shows (broadcast and BD) it appears that the center of the TV is crystal clear then as you move outward the clarity gets worse.

I was watching Rambo: First Blood ( yeah, I know!) on BD and when the movie is first starting and Rambo is going to find some of his old friends it's very noticeable. The center of the screen is very clear but as you look further out from the center the resolution seems to degrade.

This behavior seems to happen far and few times between occurances, but none the less, I notice it.

Am I imagining it or are some pictures not HD for full frame? Is it a codec issue? If I navigate in Windows, say a web browser, everything is crystal clear from center to edge so I think it has to only happen during video playback.

Thanks.
AWS

[Fuzzy]

Does your TV have any advanced zoom modes? Some tv's provide the capability to stretch pillarboxed content to fill the widescreen with a non-linear stretch. This makes the center of the screen the right aspect ratio, so subjects there don't get distorted, and the edges gradually stretch to the outside.