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Aspect Ratio Issues with Apple TV and iTunes Movies!

I am having trouble with my AppleTV and my Samsung HDTV when playing some iTunes Movies. I have a Samsung DLP 720P HDTV, and I use an HDMI to DVI cable to connect my AppleTV to the TV Set and it looks great overall. The startup screen looks crisp and perfect and most everything works as expected except the first Movie I just downloaded from iTunes. Even the HDMI low settings really make the picture have nice deep contrast. So overall everything seems to be perfect.

I even ripped my copy of "Cars" which is a Anamorphic wide screen movie using Handbrake and it played at the correct aspect ratio. That movie actual size is 1011x360, but the AppleTV scales the video correctly and still respects the Aspect Ratio.

I just purchased Pirate of the Caribbean: At World's End via iTunes which is also a wide screen, but it's not playing at the correct aspect ratio. Instead it is stretching the video to be full screen. So it's being squished horizontally and it's drawing the full 720 pixels vertically. Simply put, it's is NOT playing at the proper aspect ratio. That actual size of the video is 853x356. Both vids are Mp4's using H.264.

Eitherway, this seems to be a bug. I hope that this is either a content issue, or a bug that will be fixed in the upgrade. I have iTune 7.6 (latest) and the latest QuicktimePro 7.4 and AppleTV Software Version 1.1

AppleTV, Mac OS X (10.5.1), PowerBook Pro

Posted on Jan 23, 2008 1:15 AM

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11 replies

Jan 23, 2008 2:22 AM in response to Omita

I assume you don't have some kind of auto aspect ratio adjustment set on the Samsung - these things often get it wrong and zoom/stretch movies wider than 16:9 because of black bars at the top.

Odd it doesn't do that for cars though.

What aspect ratio is cars supposed to be on the box?

The image dimensions of movies often do not logically follow on for the actual aspect ratio as other flags in the files can set the type of aspect ratio.

If you have a video iPod how does the movie look on that?

Sorry can't comment on movies rentals/purchases , I'm in the Uk.

Ac

Jan 23, 2008 10:36 AM in response to Alley_Cat

I haven't tried the video on my iPod. I'll try tonight, but it does play correctly on my MacBook.

The TV is a 16:9 aspect ratio and the movies seem to be at 2.35:1, or around that size. Once in DVI mode the TV can only draw in two modes. Standard, and Digital. Standard lets you see the boarders, and Digital is the correct pixel perfect format to draw 1280x720 pixel. The TV only support the various stretching modes when you are using Analogue inputs.

The only mistake I made is that "Cars" is ripped to a Mp4, not M4V.

Feb 3, 2008 6:37 PM in response to Omita

I have the exact same problem with my Sony Wega TV.
When watching HD broadcasts in 720p/1080i, it will always display it in "full screen" mode (the other modes are deactivated). This means 16:9.

I just bought Ratatouille on iTunes and the resolution is 853x356 so the ration is 2.4, just like Pirates of the Caribeans.

When I watch the movie on my TV, the ratio is wrong and this is annoying.
I'd rather have the black bars like when I watch a DVD.

If anybody has any thought...

Feb 3, 2008 9:13 PM in response to Laurent Droin

Any thoughts?

Yeah I have thoughts of returning my newly purchased Apple TV for this problem.

I downloaded a TV episode from ITMS. On the iMac the show is cropped, I know this because a text name displayed is 'chopped' at the bottom of the viewing area.

Playing this on my Sony TV, the name that was chopped on the iMac was completely cut off.

My viewing area is surrounded by a black border for TV shows and all other " Full Screen " shows.

I know if I call Apple they will blame Sony, and if I call Sony they will blame Apple.

Solution ( 2 choices )

1) Return Apple TV
2) Buy new TV set

Leaning towards option #1

Feb 4, 2008 6:49 PM in response to freakshow1

As I mentioned, in DVI mode there are no aspect ratio settings. My HDTV is just like a computer monitor (its DLP). If you have a 640x480 LCD monitor you can't just change the number of pixels it has, you change the video output to match the monitors resolution. I can understand that some TV support multiple inputs like CRT's did, but any Pixel based technology like LCD, Plasma, and DLP shouldn't post process your image for you.

AppleTV should let you choose how you want to display movies. Cropped, Letterbox (fullscreen), or Scaled. They need to support more TV sets. They support HDMI dark and light, 480p and 720p but nothing else.

What baffles me is why does an widescreen iTunes movie play incorrectly on AppleTV, yet a ripped widescreen movie plays correctly? I hope that the delay in the AppleTV is getting some of these aspect ratio and display issues resolved. But I have a bad feeling they are just ripping more movies and working on their back-end server/distro framework and not the actual software that runs on AppleTV. Or maybe the current update is bricking AppleTV's. 🙂

My third option, other then returning my ATV, or buying a new TV is to just continue to purchase DVD's and rip them. My AppleTV is still smaller then my current HTPC. I am tempted to return my AppleTV but I think I got rid of the packaging and it's wasteful (shipping, etc). Selling the TV isn't and option because it's more wasteful, and there is nothing wrong with the set. I am already considering getting a PS3.

Last of all, Steve Jobs mention that AppleTV don't sell well and that this update is try two. If they actually want AppleTV to do well then possible they should fix these really basic issues.

-H

Feb 10, 2008 9:15 AM in response to Omita

It's not your TV.

I have a new Vizio and apple tv plays 2 movies from ITMS just fine (pirates3 and spongebob). Yet, plays the pixar masterpieces nemo and ratatouille in an awful scaled mode.
This scaling just takes a couple clicks on an ipod/mac or taps on an iphone to jump back and forth between scaled and true size. So is it hidden in some click scheme that no one figure out or what?

A weeks time will tell.

Feb 12, 2008 9:49 AM in response to Omita

There may be an issue with how iTunes reads aspect ratio info. This is from the Handbrake support page ( http://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/SupportFAQ#wide-load):

-"Recently, Apple updated QuickTime so it could read aspect ratio information from the video track. This is good, except it also still reads aspect information from the MP4 container surrounding the video track. Then it applies both, which produces an extra-wide picture. We had added the information in the MP4 container just for QuickTime's benefit -- VLC has always read the the video track information.
To complicate matters, the AppleTV and iPods have not been updated with the same capability. This means that for the time being, we cannot issue an update to remove the aspect information in the MP4 container. If we did so, anamorphic videos would display with distorted ratios on those devices. Hopefully, Apple will settle on a single method soon."-

Aspect Ratio Issues with Apple TV and iTunes Movies!

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