Apple TV HD Rental Not Showing in Widescreen Format.

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Apple TV HD Rental Not Showing in Widescreen Format.

Hi guys,

I just rented "The Boy in Striped Pajamas", in HD. And the whole movie played full-screen, meaning that no black bars appeared in the top and bottom of the screen.

Now, as far as I know, this means that parts of the movie were not being showed. Is this a default-standard for Apple TV? Other movies (ripped DVDs), do play in true widescreen format (black bars in top and bottom).

Thanks for any help, I'm not sure if I may be mistaken.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on May 12, 2009 9:58 PM

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Answer 1

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,560 points

May 12, 2009 10:24 PM in response to Roco87

The aspect ratio of that film is 1.85:1 (according to IMDB) so only marginally wider than the 1.78:1 of a widescreen TV so you'd only expect a miniscule amount of black top and bottom.
You may not see this if you Tv is overscanning, the encoded movie is cropped to 1.78:1 or your TV is set to automatically zoom to fill the screen.

AppleTV simply plays back a movie as it is encoded, and it itself has no control over zooming/aspect ratio.

Message was edited by: Alley_Cat

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Answer 2

Roco87 Author

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May 12, 2009 10:48 PM in response to Alley_Cat

Thanks, that makes sense. It's just the first movie I download, so I wasn't sure.

But still, the trailers I downloaded (i.e Transformers), in my MacBook they play with black bars in top and bottom, but with Apple TV they fill my HDTV screen. My TV is set to Unscaled format, so I really don't get why this is happening.

Any ideas?

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Answer 3

Roco87 Author

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May 12, 2009 11:00 PM in response to Alley_Cat

Problem fixed. (I suppose)

I moved the TV resolution. It was set to 720p HD, so I moved it to 1080p HD. Should this had been the cause? Or was it something else?

Anyways, it seems to be working now. Thanks Alley_Cat.

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Answer 4

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,560 points

May 13, 2009 5:13 AM in response to Roco87

Another thing to consider is your Macbook screen aspect ratio.

If it's the 1280x800 model then that s a different sapect ratio to a 16:9 TV (less widescreen, so wider movies get scaled to fit and have more black above and below).

Changing from 720p to 1080 shuldn't make a huge difference unless it's something specific to the TV, though I've never directly compared with a rental.

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Answer 5

Chenks

Level 5

7,435 points

May 13, 2009 7:01 AM in response to Roco87

Roco87 wrote:
But still, the trailers I downloaded (i.e Transformers), in my MacBook they play with black bars in top and bottom, but with Apple TV they fill my HDTV screen.

macbook will be a different resolution than what your TV has.
appletv will always play the movie at the correct resolution. whether your TV is adjusting what you see is another story though.

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