Aspect Ratio 1920x1080, 3840x2160 Questions

[dpriest]

I have the Sony 85" XBR85X950H TV and am playing movie rips stored on my hard drive (MKV/MP4). I would like the entire screen of the TV to be filled with the picture without black borders if possible. I have the Apple TV 4K and the Nvidia Shield Pro with using Kodi and also Plex as I'm a newbie to the Shield. On the Apple TV remote if I double tap the center button the Apple TV stretches the picture to fit the screen without distortion with 1920x800 and 1920x1040 but with a 1920x1080 it cannot stretch and there are the black borders. I encode these files on my computer using Handbrake and can change the picture size to either of the above.

Questions:
1.) Is 1920x1080 higher resolution than 1920x800?
2.) What benefits are if any to keeping a movie file 1920x1080?
3.) What is the equivalent ratio from 1920x1080 and 1920x800 to 3840x2160 4K movies because I want to strech these movies as well?
4.) Anybody familiar with Plex and Kodi on the Shield, how can I stretch the picture of the 1920x800 similar to the Apple TV? I tried doing this in video settings on Kodi but couldn't do it without distortion.

 

[Spigot]

If a widescreen film is encoded at 1920x1080 (or the 4K equivalent) that includes any black borders. This is no higher resolution than if encoded at 1920x800 which cuts off any black borders. Media players think the screen is full of information so there's nothing to scale when it sees a 1920x1080 file. If the encode cuts off the black borders (1920x800 etc) then a media player can just scale the vertical resolution up to 1080 (and also proportionately the horizontal resolution so as not to distort).

I use a Dune media player, there is a fit to screen option which works with media that doesn't encode the black borders. For media that does encode the black borders I use a manual zoom function that I can tap a few times to get the size I want. For a 1920x800 film you would need to zoom by 35% to fill the screen. I typically manually zoom by 25% (only takes a few seconds).

I don't know if there is a media player that recognises black borders when they're encoded, I think all cropping has to be done by eye using a zoom function in that case.

I think the benefits to encoding in full screen are that you don't accidentally crop off any pixels, also the display ratio is guaranteed to be correct. I've seen a streaming version of a film that cropped off the black borders that was slightly stretched vertically compared to the blu-ray (which always encodes any black borders). Probably a rare error, though.

 

[dpriest]

If a widescreen film is encoded at 1920x1080 (or the 4K equivalent) that includes any black borders. This is no higher resolution than if encoded at 1920x800 which cuts off any black borders. Media players think the screen is full of information so there's nothing to scale when it sees a 1920x1080 file. If the encode cuts off the black borders (1920x800 etc) then a media player can just scale the vertical resolution up to 1080 (and also proportionately the horizontal resolution so as not to distort).

I use a Dune media player, there is a fit to screen option which works with media that doesn't encode the black borders. For media that does encode the black borders I use a manual zoom function that I can tap a few times to get the size I want. For a 1920x800 film you would need to zoom by 35% to fill the screen. I typically manually zoom by 25% (only takes a few seconds).

I don't know if there is a media player that recognises black borders when they're encoded, I think all cropping has to be done by eye using a zoom function in that case.

I think the benefits to encoding in full screen are that you don't accidentally crop off any pixels, also the display ratio is guaranteed to be correct. I've seen a streaming version of a film that cropped off the black borders that was slightly stretched vertically compared to the blu-ray (which always encodes any black borders). Probably a rare error, though.

Thank you for your response. The Apple TV does stretch a cropped video only. I tried doing the same in Kodi and Plex with the same video with no success however. In Vidcoder, there is never anything cut off from the video because I use the automatic crop setting with anamorphic checked. Vidcoder selects 1920x800 and sometimes 1920x804 depending what it senses about the video. Forget about continuing to encode at full screen. I can't seem to stretch a cropped video successfully with the Nvidia Shield using Kodi or Plex.

 

[dpriest]

The video picture on the screen is stretched horizontally with no black borders. It is just the black bars on the top and bottom that are the issue for me. Is this normal and is this something that I should just get used to?

 

[Spigot]

Kodi seems to have a minimise black bars setting according to this video, which can be set to 20%:

I only used Kodi briefly a couple of years ago, found it very awkward to use compared to a Dune. Hopefully a current user can be more helpful. If there isn't a zoom option on your TV, and no one provides a solution for your current setup, I suppose your only option would be to get a media player more suited to playing offline files.

(ps annoyingly with the new Dune models they've removed the zoom button from the standard remote so you have to use the menus, or pay for the premium remote, which is inexpensive: Media Players)

 

[dpriest]

Kodi seems to have a minimise black bars setting according to this video, which can be set to 20%:

I only used Kodi briefly a couple of years ago, found it very awkward to use compared to a Dune. Hopefully a current user can be more helpful. If there isn't a zoom option on your TV, and no one provides a solution for your current setup, I suppose your only option would be to get a media player more suited to playing offline files.

(ps annoyingly with the new Dune models they've removed the zoom button from the standard remote so you have to use the menus, or pay for the premium remote, which is inexpensive: Media Players)

What is going on in home theater land??!! I was looking for a new media player in addition to the Apple TV 4K and it was narrowed down between the Shield TV Pro and Dune. I chose the Shield because there is a lot more information out there on the web about the Shield with setup, etc. and any videos on the Dune were by people who did not speak English so I couldn't understand anything they were saying and there was a back order for the Dune but now Dune has the same issue with zooming. This is the universe's way of telling me to let it go.

 

[iamsludge]

Let’s say you have a video where the total image to be watched is 1920x800. This is a common scenario.

That could be created as a 1920x800 size video file or it could be created as a 1920x1080 size file with black borders top and bottom as part of the image.

It sounds like you want to use Handbrake to crop a 1920x1080 file to a 1920x800 file, thereby removing the black borders present in the video file.

If you then played the 1920x800 file and zoomed it to fill the height you would lose the left and right sides (cropping it horizontally as you play). This is probably what you are wanting to do. Personally I would live with the top and bottom borders rather than lose the sides.