How to strech/zoom video eliminating black borders

[dpriest]

I'm not sure if this the appropriate forum for this question since it is more computer technical but here goes. I am watching 1080P and 4K HDR movies on my Sony XBR-85X950H 4K TV connected to the Yamaha RX-a2a receiver using the Apple TV 4K and Nvidia Shield Pro with Kodi/Plex to stream from my NAS drive and would like to eliminate the black borders, utilizing the full picture screen. I noticed when watching a 1920x800 cropped movie file instead of the 1920x1080 file I can use the Apple TV remote to zoom the picture in to full screen without any distortion. I noticed it only to be possible to to this with cropped files. The same goes for 4K 3840 files cropped to 3840x1600.

I am using Vidcoder to encode these movie files and am contemplating cropping the 1920x1080 and 3840x2160 files if needed.

It really boils down to being able to take advantage of an 85" picture instead of a smaller video picture with black borders. I would like to understand more about any potential drawbacks to cropping such as a loss in clarity/picture quality, pixels, etc.

Thanks for your help in advance.

 

[Trebdp83]

Try using the TV's Picture settings to adjust for Black bars. Some settings may work on certain images but not others and you are just adjusting the way the TV displays the image and not altering any files. Good luck.

https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00031431

 

[lovinthehd]

I had some friends who when they first got a flat panel tv also wanted to use the "whole screen" as they were used to with their older 4:3 tv. Using the tv's controls to do so they lost picture quality and realized that for themselves soon enough. Not sure if your vidcoder does that without loss, hard to believe. With a projector there are some tricks to it but with a tv not so much. If the blacks are black enough it shouldn't be that annoying

 

[dpriest]

I had some friends who when they first got a flat panel tv also wanted to use the "whole screen" as they were used to with their older 4:3 tv. Using the tv's controls to do so they lost picture quality and realized that for themselves soon enough. Not sure if your vidcoder does that without loss, hard to believe. With a projector there are some tricks to it but with a tv not so much. If the blacks are black enough it shouldn't be that annoying

I'm going to leave it alone. I just get excited when I see a screensaver in Hi def fill the entire screen and then when I watch a movie, see it cut off in the middle.

 

[lovinthehd]

I'm going to leave it alone. I just get excited when I see a screensaver in Hi def fill the entire screen and then when I watch a movie, see it cut off in the middle.

LOL give it a chance....but watching screen savers is a whole nuther issue

 

[BMXTRIX]

There is a huge frown which you will get from enthusiasts who will tell you over and over and over... You aren't watching the movie the way the director wanted you to see it when you chop off a quarter of the image by zooming in on it. You definitely are losing detail... when you chop off a quarter of the image and just chuck it away. When directors shoot for 2.35, they often fill the entire frame, edge to edge, with content. You may see it more heavily in the center, but people will have their bodies cut in half, etc.

Still, if this is something you want to do, then your TV may allow for a 'zoom' aspect ratio, which does exactly what you want. This may not be allowed with an HD source, but I've seen it on many televisions to this point. So, change the aspect ratio, or zoom control for your specific TV and see if it is allowed. This used to be a dedicated button on the remote control, but it looks like Sony may have moved this into the 'Picture Settings' of the on screen menu.

There are also outboard video scalers/processors which will perform a zoom of any incoming content and chop off the top/bottom/sides and zoom in on that center content as you desire. They tend to be a bit expensive as not a ton of them are sold.

I will reiterate though... Don't zoom in. It's bad form.

Certainly worth knowing HOW to do it and if you CAN do it, even if you should never do so.

 

[dpriest]

Agreed. I let go of the zoom thing days ago.

 

[Trebdp83]

Have we all forgotten all of the movies we watched in Pan&Scan until laserdics came around? It’s funny because movies were in 4:3 until TV made its way into homes and the studios started cranking things out in wide ratios to give folks something they couldn’t get from TV.

Now, TVs are a very nice 16:9 ratio and even some of what is made for TV is still in a ratio wider than the TV itself. Silly. Some theaters now have smaller screens that letterbox wider movies and don’t bother to put in fabric covered panels that can be raised and lowered to cover the bars so it’s just like watching on a very big TV.

Frankly, it’s a waste of real estate on nice TVs when watching wide aspect ratio movies on them. And, if the story, action and acting are good, a wider ratio adds nothing and certainly cannot make up for s#%t productions like SW EP I, II and III. Who’s cares how it looks if it stinks?

Zooming in is one thing but many TVs will also allow “stretching” of an image as well. I’ve used the feature on occasion to get rid of black bars from movies if the ratio wasn’t too much wider but things get too stretched out on say a 2.35:1 movie. I can also stretch it from side to side or move the whole thing up or down or right or left if there are centering or edge issues.

I don’t think too highly of James Cameron’s writing, directing and casting choices sometimes but I do respect his technical decisions. He did two things of interest regarding his movies. When the Abyss was released on laserdisc, he put out a letterbox edition and a director’s pan&scan edition in which it was open matted and then carefully scanned from side to side. This was for folks who hated letterbox bars and most TVs at the time were 4:3 and smaller in size. Later, he would open up Avatar so folks would not have black bars on their new 16:9 TVs, many of which were Plasma and would have image retention if not burn in from long running letterbox movies. Both cool moves he doesn’t get much credit for these days.

 

[dpriest]

I've gotten used to the black bars and have come to accept that it is a 2.35:1 aspect ratio which was filmed for movie theater projector screens trying to fit on a 16:9 TV screen and trying to stretch or zoom in is going to result in a degradation of quality.

 

[Trebdp83]

Well, that depends on the movie.

 

[Trell]

Well, that depends on the movie.

Some movies are better with no dialogue at all