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+--- Thread: Minimise black bars setting messes up 4:3 videos (/showthread.php?tid=357778)
Minimise black bars setting messes up 4:3 videos - asprinwizard - 2020-10-17
Hi there, I have a simple requirement or so I thought. I want to remove the narrow black bars that appear at the top of all 16:9 videos. As far as I can see these should not appear - the videos are 1920x1080, the same as my TV screen and Kodi itself are set to. Plus the bars are only there when video is playing so I know it's the Kodi player that is doing it. It happens on all videos in that aspect ratio - my own video collection AND any streams I play through Kodi. So I googled the problem and most of the solutions suggested setting the 'minimise black bars' setting to 20%. This worked a treat (although it didn't explain why it was happening in the first place). However a lot of my video collection is old TV porgrammes, Sport and home movies in 4:3 aspect ratio. I much prefer to watch these with the sidebars displayed and thus preserving the aspect ratio - I hate the picture being stretched. Kodi does this out of the box but when I set the 'minimise black bars' setting to 20% this then stretches all my 4:3 videos to display as 16:9. I have looked everywhere for a solution online but it seems this combination of settings is not possible, or desired by many people. However surely it's not too much to ask - can anyone help with this? My own view is that the issue really is with the black bars showing on 16:9 videos, i.e. the original problem, I just don't see why these should not show correctly out of the box. They just need to be displayed pixel for pixel.
Please help if you can. It's much appreciated.
RE: Minimise black bars setting messes up 4:3 videos - whysoserious - 2020-10-17
(2020-10-17, 19:10)asprinwizard Wrote: I just don't see why these should not show correctly out of the box. They just need to be displayed pixel for pixel.
They do show correctly, out of the box. It has to do with "aspect ratios". The 1920 x 1080 file (16:9 aspect ratio) may contain visible video information (the movie or tv show) that was produced at a 16:9 aspect ratio and will fill the screen pixel-perfectly.
Other 1920 x 1080 (16:9 aspect ratio) files may contain video information that was produced with a different aspect ratio, such as 2.35:1 (sometimes known as "letter-boxed"). When Kodi plays this in a pixel-perfect manner, there *will* be black bars at the top & bottom of the screen. Any attempt to eliminate the black bars will prevent pixel-perfect display and will stretch and / or crop the video.
It can seem complicated, but once understood it all makes sense. Search for aspect ratio in your favorite search engine and spend a few minutes/hours?
RE: Minimise black bars setting messes up 4:3 videos - tjay260476 - 2020-10-18
To quote myself in an earlier post regarding this subject...
The simple reason for those black bars is that 16:9 was chosen for HD content was that a 4:3 signal and ‘CinemaScope’ could both showed the FULL image at the right aspect ratio, although both sizes have black bars where there is no image, this is a ‘feature’ and not a ‘bug’
Zooming in, you are losing parts of the image, and possibly something that the director viewed importantly - or in your instance, stretching a 4:3 ratio
16:9 is a compromise, as with any screen ratio you go for, you will simply not please all of your video footage all of the time, watch the curtains in the cinema, not the red ones, the black ones that cover the sides of the screen.... especially between adverts, trailers and the feature. If you went with a TV with an aspect ratio that is similar to Cinemascope - you will still end up with black bars.
The TV is correctly showing the right image, as is Kodi - if you want someone to blame for the black bars - blame Hollywood for using too many aspect ratios - and if you are of a certain age - the guys who thought Pan and Scan was a good thing to do with movies from the 70s' - 90's.
The compromise here was done when we went to HDTV's were they had tio decise on an aspect ratio that showed all pre 90's TV footage, whilst at the same time show all Cinemascope movies.
RE: Minimise black bars setting messes up 4:3 videos - asprinwizard - 2020-11-04
Thanks for your replies but I'm afraid you are missing my main point. I'm not talking about 2.35.1, I'm specifically talking about 16.9. I know movies are often wider but in truth it's not movies I'm watching. Let me clarify:
I'm watching files off my server that I know to be 1920x1080 or 1280x720. Likewise watching sport streams that I know to be 16.9 because I'm comparing with the same coverage on my Sky box on the same TV. In these scenarios narrow black bars (I.e not 2.35.1 letterboxing thickness) are present at the top and bottom of the picture.
The Kodi display settings are 1920x1080 so these videos should display pixel for pixel. Minimise black bars does remove them but causes the issue with 4.3 aspect ratio, and in any case should not be necessary. I've been through tons of threads on here and each time the discussion goes to 2.35.1 and 16.9 being a halfway house but that is not what I'm talking about. These are standard TV programmes from the UK in 16.9 so no need for any letterboxing or aspect ratio adjustments, and definitely not a feature.
RE: Minimise black bars setting messes up 4:3 videos - FXB78 - 2020-11-04
It sounds like something you should be adjusting in your TV settings rather than in Kodi, like an overscan issue.
RE: Minimise black bars setting messes up 4:3 videos - Klojum - 2020-11-04
It has always been problematic to force a square form into a circle one, and it happens with other shapes too.
RE: Minimise black bars setting messes up 4:3 videos - asprinwizard - 2020-11-04
Hello again. Thanks for replying. It's not the TV settings. They are fine. The black bars only appear when video is playing. The interface is fine, 1920x1080 filling the screen perfectly. So it's definitely something in the Kodi player. I just don't know why it adds these bars. I'm away at the moment but when I get home I'll post some screenshots of what is happening. I'm the meantime any suggestions of things to try is appreciated. Thanks again.
RE: Minimise black bars setting messes up 4:3 videos - Klojum - 2020-11-04
(2020-11-04, 18:15)asprinwizard Wrote: 1920x1080 filling the screen perfectly. So it's definitely something in the Kodi player. I just don't know why it adds these bars.
Some of the remuxed movies available on the various torrent sites are given black bars on purpose, resulting in 1920x1080 video displays for whatever dumb reason.
Kodi cannot always 'zoom around' those added bars. One option is to remove the black bars with ffmpeg and remux the file into a new video that has a proper aspect ratio, such as 1920:800 aka 21:9.
RE: Minimise black bars setting messes up 4:3 videos - scott967 - 2020-11-04
Check your system display settings for calibration
Check the full screen video OSD to see what the settings are
Use "o" key in full screen to check the actual dimensions and aspect ratio
Turn on debug logging and see what ffmpeg is reporting for your video
scott s.
.
RE: Minimise black bars setting messes up 4:3 videos - asprinwizard - 2020-11-05
Ok thanks Scott. As I say these black bars are definitely not on the files themselves. They are added to all videos in 16:9; streams, files, etc. I will check the display settings when I get home and see if that offers any insight.
RE: Minimise black bars setting messes up 4:3 videos - asprinwizard - 2020-11-19
Ok guys. I managed to get some photos of the issue. You can see that the interface is filling the screen but the video is playing with black bars. This is a video I made and rendered myself, it's 1920x1080 the same size as the Kodi interface. Can anyone suggest what might be happening here. Thanks.
RE: Minimise black bars setting messes up 4:3 videos - asprinwizard - 2020-11-19
Sorry, the images don't preview but the links should work. Please let me know if you can't access them.
RE: Minimise black bars setting messes up 4:3 videos - FXB78 - 2020-11-19
You need to post a screenshot of your full screen video OSD settings and a Debug Log file, otherwise we are just guessing.
RE: Minimise black bars setting messes up 4:3 videos - Klojum - 2020-11-19
(2020-11-19, 14:55)asprinwizard Wrote: Sorry, the images don't preview but the links should work. Please let me know if you can't access them.
Yeah, the img tag does not work with webpage based images.
The simplest way is to upload them via the i-button in our forum editor menu bar, and you will automagically get a URL in return.