[agentgonzo]

When watching video that's been recorded from live TV (DVB-T in the UK), the video stream makes use of (AFAICT) Active Format Description to change the aspect ratio between 16:9 and 4:3 for advert breaks and between different shows. From what I can see, Kodi doesn't support this flag. If I watch a recorded program and it starts in 16:9 (because the start of the recording was an advert break broadcast at 16:9) then the display format stays at 16:9 for the rest of the video, meaning the main program (which _should_ be displayed at 4:3 resolution) is stretched. 

Players like VLC will detect this flag/change and switch the aspect ratio during the playback of the program, but the builtin video player for Kodi (18.5) doesn't do this. Is there a flag/toggle that can be set somewhere in kodi to support the aspect ratio changes during video playback?

[agentgonzo]

If it helps, the video is recorded from MythTV and is an MPEG .ts video file

[FernetMenta]

Aspect ratio is detected by the decoder (ffmpeg or some hardware decoders like Android Mediacodec) and should be honored by video player. You haven't given any info about the platform you run Kodi on. Have you tried with hw decoders disabled?

[agentgonzo]

Aspect ratio is detected by the decoder (ffmpeg or some hardware decoders like Android Mediacodec) and should be honored by video player. You haven't given any info about the platform you run Kodi on. Have you tried with hw decoders disabled?

Good point. This happens the same on an Android (Sony) TV and an Amazon Fire Stick. Both running Leia 18.5.
I'll do a quick check on a Windows machine and report back later today.

[agentgonzo]

If it helps others in the same boat, the way that I workaround this is to:
* Start watching the relevant program. Fast-forward to the start of video where it changes from 16:9 to 4:3. Pause for about 10 seconds, then stop the video. This creates a bookmark in kodi
* Start the video from the bookmark. 
* This has the effect of the decoder reading the 4:3 aspect ratio at the bookmark, rather than the start of the video. The rest of the video will play at (the correct) 4:3 aspect ratio. Adverts will be displayed "incorrectly", but I fast forward those anyway ;-)

[agitate]

Disabling Mediacodec hardware acceleration fixes this. Looks like changes in ratio are not detected by that decoder. I can live without Mediacodec acceleration on my Shield as I only watch content recorded from a TV tuner (mpeg2 and h.264) but I'd imagine some other HD formats might stutter without it.

[Teronn]

Hi, while watching DVB-T2 H.265 has KODI 19.1 bad settings site Ratio Format 4:3. The problem is in the codec surface when it turns it off the aspect ratio is OK but Playback is not fluent, freezes. The player is AmLogic S905x3 Android 10. If I play through Live Channels in Android, there is no problem.