full-screen video: right vs. wrong way

[Gary02468]

When I toggle into full-screen mode on Netfix, eliminating the side bars, the video zooms in and often crops off the tops of characters' heads, which is annoying.

On Amazon Prime video, the behavior is much better. The non-full-screen mode has (very thin) black bars at the top and bottom, not at the sides. When I toggle into full-screen mode, the video zooms in slightly to eliminate the top and bottom bars, thereby cropping a (very thin) sliver from the right and left edge of the screen, which isn't really noticeable.

The Amazon Prime behavior is what should happen when the original recording is in full 4k or 8k, as professional video has been for years. The non-full-screen mode is displaying the full 4k field of view, with black bars at the top and bottom because of the slightly different aspect ratio. The S8's aspect ratio is much closer to the 4k aspect ratio than the 16:9 ratio is.

But with Netflix, the non-full-screen view has already been cropped (on the sides) from 4k to a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is incorrect for the S8 and S8+. Then, zooming in with full-screen mode, the already-side-cropped view is cropped again on the top and bottom.

This difference may be why Netflix, unlike Prime Video, is listed in the Full Screen Apps settings as incompatible with full-screen mode (but you can still enable full-screen mode there). Hopefully Netflix will catch up soon and stream properly to the S8.

One caveat: I compared different content on Netflix vs. Prime Video, so it's possible that the different full-screen behavior was due to the content rather than the platform (though the content was recent in both cases, so probably originally 4k or 8k). If anyone has more definitive information, it'd be appreciated.

 

[tcdude]

My experience with Netflix is when I use full sceen it doesn't actually cut anything off I compared it to another device with 16:9 ratio, it doesn't look like it's cropping it's just using the full screen

There are ever so slight black bars from top bottom but I assume that is because s8 ratio is actually 18.5:9 and not 18:9

 

[jeffmd]

keep in mind most of today's cinema content is closer to 2.35:1 which is just perfect for ultra wide screens. If the video source is anamorphic then it can scale very well. Sometimes however the video is instead transfered to a 16x9 image with bars at the top and bottom added. Youtube does not support anamorphic content so movie trailers and such will have the black bars added to it that cannot be removed.

So depending on how the streamed video is formatted, how the S8 crops it can appear differently. One thing that is for certain, there is no way around cropping out a significant amount of video footage by zooming a 16x9 image on the s8. Just live with the black bars and welcome to the world of ultra wide screen.

 

[theelite1x87]

Cropping with Netflix will depend on the video. When I hit the button to crop The Last Samurai, I lost nothing. But that's because the film was shot in a wider than 16x9 aspect ratio. Making it fit the so screen just brought it closer to how it was shot. Now, do that on movie shot in 16x9, and hitting the button will cause the very tops and bottom to be lost. So the result will very much depend on what content you are watching