Black bars when AirPlay Mirroring

I'm not sure what it is that you are displaying when you are using the mirror feature, but the only time that I ever have black bars top and bottom is when the iPad itself has them. (such as when I'm watching a widescreen movie on the iPad)

I have not experienced this myself. Only black bars on either side as a result of the iPad's 4:3 display or on top and bottom with a widescreen movie. May want to check your TV settings.

Hello just a little input here. AirPlay mirroring is different to AirPlay video streaming. Of course when you stream a video to the tv you get black bars top and bottom and no black bars down the side. Mikecreates is talking about switching AirPlay mirroring on so it replicates what he sees on his iPad 2 on the big tv. When this feature is activated you get black bars all around. I have the newer retina display (iPad 3 as such) and I'm experiencing the same problem. When I watch a video there is no problem. But when Airplay mirroring is switched on and I play a game like Asphalt 7: Heat, I get black bars all around the game that gets mirrored onto the tv. My iPad shows it full screen and even shows something different to what's on the tv while the app is running.

So it's got nothing to do with TV settings!!

I've mirrored that very game and it fills the screen so yes I would check settings

On my TV you can't change the zoom settings. It will not change to any other setting when in HDMI mode. I can change the settings while watching TV but it won't change when I change to HDMI input (being the Apple TV 1080p model). What TV do you have? What do you change? Can you provide a link to a photo for proof. My TV won't scale the picture up. Videos from iTunes store play full screen fine, but apps like Asphalt and iPhoto do but only with black bars all the way round. This is all with the same TV settings (because the TV won't allow me to change the mode).

I am using a Samsung TV, there are settings via my picture options but I never change them. TVs are different so you may want to refer to your manual

From Real Racing 2 HD

I have the same problem. I have tried today with the relese of Mountain Lion. When I mirror I get black bars arround the picture on my HDTV even if I have manually set resolution on iMac to 1080 and on Apple TV to 1080p. When I watch a video from AppleTV picture is whole size. I did zoom in on my TV but that is not it. How can I get Apple TV to show mirrored picture whole size?

I posted a couple of hours ago on these Apple forums about the same problem without realising this thread existed. I have an Apple TV 3, iPad 3 and a Samsung D5000 series HDTV (last years model). When the Apple TV is set to 1080p or Auto resolution, I get black borders all the way around the AirPlay mirrored image. However, if I set the Apple TV to 1280x1024 resolution, it fills the screen in a proper 4:3 aspect ratio. I don't really want to leave it at this setting though so have tried all sorts without any success. The Apple TV is connected to the router via Ethernet and the iPad is connected via WiFi N in either 2.4GHz or 5GHz bands with Bluetooth turned off and nothing has resolved the issue. I've tried different TV settings too and none fix it either. The only thing that came close was changing the screen mode from 'Screen Fit' to '16:9', this reduced the black borders top and bottom on 1080p mode but they were still there, the image isn't lush with the edge of the screen, that only occurs on the 1280x1024 resolution.

I suppose that airplay mirroring is not capable of full 1080p streaming! Apple does not say a word on that does it? It only says "airplay optimised"...

THAT SUOKS!!

• AirPlay Mirroring to Apple TV (2nd and 3rd generation) at 720p
• AirPlay video streaming to Apple TV (3rd generation) at up to 1080p and Apple TV (2nd generation) at up to 720p
• Video mirroring and video out support: Up to 1080p with Apple Digital AV Adapter or Apple VGA Adapter (adapters sold separately)
• Video out support at 576i and 480i with Apple Composite AV Cable (cable sold separately)

http://www.apple.com/ca/ipad/specs/

mikecreates, did you find the solution to your problem? I know exactly what you are talking about because I have the exact same issue as yours.

I have a newly purchased LG 47" LCD. I connected both my new ipad and the AppleTV (3rd generaion) to the same router, when viewing AppleTV everything looks fine and full screen, but when mirroring the ipad on the HDTV I'd get the black bars around the TV screen (top/bottom/left and right) when running apps, viewing photos, checking emails, etc. The only exception is mirroring a movie in which case it shows full screen on the TV.

I found a way to get around this by changing the Aspect Ratio to Cinema Zoom 3 on my LG HDTV, then the ipad mirroring looks normal on the TV screen (no black bars on top/bottom screen), but doing this will cause the video to be overscan and out of proportion on the TV. So this is really not an ideal solution since I'll have to switch the aspect ratio back and forth when doing different things (running apps or watching movies) in order to make the mirroring look full screen on the HDTV.

Did anyone know the proper fix?

vazandrew wrote:

I am using a Samsung TV, there are settings via my picture options but I never change them. TVs are different so you may want to refer to your manual

From Real Racing 2 HD

did you get full screen with every app/game on ipad mirroring or just this game? what about home screen? does your ipad home screen fill your HDTV screen fully when mirroring?

The app has to be enabled by the developer for it to fill the screen. The iPad's display is 4:3 so simply mirroring things like the home screen will not fill a 16:9 display.

Another thread also discusses the issue of "black bars." Please see: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2806158

My set up:

TV: Vizio 32 inch 1080p Model Number: VOJ320F1A

Apple TV 2nd Generation

iPad 2 Wi-Fi running iOS 5.1.1

I have had "black bars" surronding the video when viewing anything using AirPlay Mirroring. I have gone into the settings of my TV, and I can adjust overscan, underscan, but when I stop AirPlay Mirroring, the Apple TV menu and the AirPlay Video are not correct.

I also understand there will be black bars to the left and the right of the video when using AirPlay Mirror. HOWEVER, certain apps allow for dual screen, like Hulu Plus, Crackle, iPhoto, MetalShaft. In these apps, while in AirPlay Mirror mode, there are black bars all the way around also. I can try to correct like I said in the previous paragraph, but the other views (like Apple TV menu) are then messed up.

I believe there needs to be a setting in the new iOS 6 that adjusts overscan/underscan.

Apple has already done this with the new OSX Mountain Lion. If you enable AirPlay Mirror using Mountain Lion, there is a box you can check/uncheck to ulitize overscan. For my set up, unchecking the box enables the screen to be "fullscreen" with NO black bars around. That means overscanning is turned off. No such function exisits within iOS 5. I am unaware of such feature for iOS 6

Apple, please allow for such feature in future releases of iOS 6.