I’m operating an Apple TV 4th gen with current OS. Connected to 1080p Samsung 50” smart tv via hdmi.
i find when I watch movies via itunes movies, they do not display in full screen. Yet when using Netflix or Plex they do.
I have checked settings in Apple TV and the tv settings and cannot find a solution.
Does anyone know why?
Most modern movies are shot in Panavision or similar, with an aspect ratio of between 2.25 and 2.4 to 1. In order to display these without cropping the sides, it's necessary to have the black bars top and bottom.
Similarly, if you watch an old film shot in 4:3 (the standard up to 1955 and for many films after) it will be shown with black bars at the side to preserve the correct appearance. The smaller number of films shot in VistaVision are usually displayed in 1.85:1 with very small bars top and bottom. Only films specifically made for television are shot in 16:9.
Some channels - such as ITV and Channel 5 in the UK - zoom Panavision films up to fill the screen, thereby losing some of the picture on each side: evidently Netflix does as well (though many of their films are likely to be made for TV). The BBC and Channel Four do it correctly, as does Sky and the Apple TV (and The Amazon Fire TV for that matter).
If you are really determined to lose the bars, at the cost of also losing some of the picture, many TVs have a 'zoom' facility which will fill the screen.
Most modern movies are shot in Panavision or similar, with an aspect ratio of between 2.25 and 2.4 to 1. In order to display these without cropping the sides, it's necessary to have the black bars top and bottom.
Similarly, if you watch an old film shot in 4:3 (the standard up to 1955 and for many films after) it will be shown with black bars at the side to preserve the correct appearance. The smaller number of films shot in VistaVision are usually displayed in 1.85:1 with very small bars top and bottom. Only films specifically made for television are shot in 16:9.
Some channels - such as ITV and Channel 5 in the UK - zoom Panavision films up to fill the screen, thereby losing some of the picture on each side: evidently Netflix does as well (though many of their films are likely to be made for TV). The BBC and Channel Four do it correctly, as does Sky and the Apple TV (and The Amazon Fire TV for that matter).
If you are really determined to lose the bars, at the cost of also losing some of the picture, many TVs have a 'zoom' facility which will fill the screen.
Hi. How do they display? Black bars at top and bottom? Black bars at the sides? Black all around?
If it's black top and bottom, you're probably seeing the full wide-screen movie. Movies that display full-screen on an HDTV have been "edited for television", since the 16:9 aspect ratio is not a standard film format.
This aspect ratio thing causes a lot of confusion. In the late '50s or early '60s non-widescreen films tended to be shot, and therefore shown, in 1.66:1. Many cinemas used 1.66:1 for older films, thus often cropping the tops of people's heads. In 1964 when the Academy Cinema showed the newly restored version of Les Enfants Du Paradis, in the correct 4:3 ratio, they had people complaining to them that they'd cropped the sides of the picture... you can't win.
No new television is now shot in 4:3 but there's still a lot of older stuff being shown. Many viewers used to force the picture to fill the screen because they 'didn't pay their licence fee to have a third of the screen black' - thus of course producing short fat actors and newsreaders. They may still be doing it on SD transmissions for all I know (you can't on HD).
The bars are top and bottom.
So how does 1080 fit into all this then.
I assumed a 1080 movie displayed on a 1080 tv would display fullscreen?
Can't see why I would buy a 4k apple tv then or have I got it all wrong?
Cheers
Thanks, Roger. Great explanation, illustrated. Di
Apple TV screen view
