Digital AV Connector Does Not Fill TV Screen!

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Level 1

16 points

Digital AV Connector Does Not Fill TV Screen!

I just used the digital av connector with my iPad 4 today and a very strange thing happened. When I initially connected it to the TV using the HDMI input, I am positive it filled the screen perfectly watching a YouTube video. Then, all of a sudden the next video and everything after was compressed in the center of the screen, with black bars top and bottom and both sides. I can't find any settings in the iPad to adjust the output and don't understand why this would happen if the digital av adapter is truly outputting a 720p signal (the TV is set for 720p). Any hints?

Posted on Jul 9, 2013 9:06 AM

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Answer 1

wrench75 Author

Level 1

16 points

Jul 9, 2013 7:51 PM in response to Phil0124

What is interesting is that the screen measures 19.65mm x 14.9mm, which works out to 1.31:1 aspect ratio. An old NTSC TV was 4:3, which works out to 1.33:1. It's a bit misleading when Apple claims it can display 720p or 1080p because it can't truly do so to the ATSC spec.

That said, the much more significant thing I see is that with the older iPad 2, when the AV cable is inserted into the iPad port the screen grey's out and indicates it is connected to a TV, and it seems to output a 16x9 signal so o black bars. I was always incredibly impressed with Apple at doing this, making connecting to a TV simple and yet flawless, with no fooling around with settings required to get a proper picture on the TV. Now with the iPad 4, Apple have "improved" it with what they refer to as "mirrored output" so it is supposed to reflect what is on the iPad screen. Which is a 4x3 aspect ratio image, and which for some ridiculous reason it adds black bars to the top, which means the black bars on the side are even larger. There is no logical reason for the black bars on top. So, it's a double problem.

Steve would not have allowed this crap.....

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Answer 2

Puch7524

Level 1

4 points

Oct 14, 2017 2:45 PM in response to Texas Mac Man

Due to the different aspect ratios between the iPad and an HDTV the screen should be filled in the horizontal direction and not in the vertical direction when the iPad is in landscape mode! Unfortately there are no settings on the iPad to do this.

Thus, when playing a movie on the iPad, both should stretch appropriately in the horizontal directions on the iPad and on the HDTV, the only difference should be the sizes of the black bands on top and bottom of the two devices.

Now, you get black bands on the HDTV on all four sides while only on the top and bottom on the iPad. So you see that with 1080p HDTV and 1080p on the iPad, the signal to the TV is such that it does not stretch the horizontal direction appropriately.

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Answer 3

Kurtosis12

Level 9

62,176 points

Jul 9, 2013 9:12 AM in response to wrench75

I doubt it completely filled the screen. The iPad has a 4:3 aspect ratio while a flatscreen TV has a 16:9 ascpect ratio. Try playing the first video again, does it at least fill in the top and bottom?

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Answer 4

Jul 9, 2013 9:17 AM in response to wrench75

It depends on the video resolution and apsect ratio, a full 1080p 16:9 video is going to fill the screen of a normal HD TV, while a 720p or 480p video will not at any aspect ratio.

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Answer 5

wrench75 Author

Level 1

16 points

Jul 9, 2013 9:56 AM in response to Phil0124

According to Apple's specs, the output resolution of the iPad 4 with the digital av adapter is "up to 1080p". Now, I was assume that resolution is a function of the content. For example, a movie resolution will be based on the resolution of the file. The iPad won't "up convert". But, for viewed the iPad screen itself or the browser or mail, I would expect the iPad to drive a 720 or 1080 resolution, but it does not seem to. And there does not seem to be a setting to even see what it is doing.

FYI, the TV is set to auto, and it is saying the input res is 720p. Yet, it has black bars all round, which makes no sense why the iPad would add bars. Yes, I could zoom the TV but that is super-dumb in this day and age. The iPad is sold as having 720p or 1080p output. In the world of ATSC standard, that means a very specific screen res. I am offended if Apple decides to mess with that and add blck bars.

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Answer 6

dilbert41

Level 5

6,530 points

Jul 9, 2013 10:19 AM in response to wrench75

If you touch the screen during playback you should see a double-headed arrow almost at the top right of the screen. Touch it to change the size of the output.

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Answer 7

Jul 9, 2013 10:25 AM in response to wrench75

The iPad output is 1080p, the Video you are watching on youtube may not be. Youtube videos are notorious for having varying resolutions. Youtube will also now tend to adapt the reoslution provided bvased on your connection speed. So you may very well be getting a smaller video.

And while the output may fill the screen the video may not, leaving black areas.

Also the iPad screen is very close to being a square, so no matter what resolution its output at there will be black areas. You just can put a square in a rectangle and expect it to cover it.

It can be stretched, but it will look horrible.

This is not Apple, this is just the way TV's and video output works everywhere.

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Answer 8

Rossmco

Level 1

4 points

Feb 1, 2014 2:56 AM in response to wrench75

I am also experiencing the same problem on new iPad Air. iPad1 has no problem connecting streaming TV via HDMI to full screen TV, and resizes the image with only a small mismatch, and no menu bar or other artefacts. However, the best that the iPad Air can do is a miserable mirrored image in the centre of the TV screen.

External screen viewing of streamed TV via Safari leaves menu bar at the top and uses significantly smaller portion of thebig screen.

I'm using Digital AV cable to HDMI input on TV directly with iPadAir.

Same set up (with standard dock to HDMI cabling) on the old iPad works near perfectly.

Is this an extremely disappointing backward step, or is there some 'smart' switch that I'm missing.

Also, on old ipad, embedded videos play full screen direct from Safari, while now they leave the menu bar at the top. Same symptoms.

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Answer 9

Feb 2, 2014 6:53 PM in response to Rossmco

iPad one does not mirror, as such any video output it delivers is at the videos native resolution. Which more often than not is 1080p.

The iPad screen regardless of generation is not wide enough to fit in a wide screen TV. What exactly do you expect the image to look likie. Its either going to be squished and horrible, are square with black bars on the sides.

Its still at 1080p output. But the physical shape of the image prevents it from filling a wide screen TV.

If you view any video from the iPad such as netflix or even iTunes movies the aspect ratio is correct, and will be 16:9 at 1080p. At least for HD video from both sources

You do understand that if the video in Safari does not go full screen, you are still just mirroring the iPad "squarer" screen? There is no way to make a square fit in a rectangle without modifying it. The Video source is the one that needs to go full screen. If the Video source does not do this, there's nothing Safari can do about it.

Try a Video say from Dailymotion on Safari. Those go full screen, and you'll see when you go full screen, it will fill the TV. and the Safari toolbars will go away.

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Answer 10

Feb 2, 2014 6:56 PM in response to wrench75

Using Apple TV, mirroring won't fill the TV screen because the iPad has an aspect ratio of 4:3 and the iPhone 4S or prior an aspect ratio of 3:2. Neither of these will fit exactly into a TV screen which as an aspect ratio of 16:9. Also, the Apple TV will not zoom the mirrored image.

Suggest you try Settings > Audio & Video > Adjust for AirPlay overscan

 Cheers, Tom 😉

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