USB-C to HDMI Screen aspect ratio

[Suntan]

Does anyone have further information on how to deal with aspect ratio issues when using a USB-C to HDMI adapter?

I periodically use screen mirroring with my S8+. Both wired and wireless.

When mirroring wirelessly, the phone offers an option to adjust the screen aspect ratio to 16:9 so the output fills a standard TV screen, but when using a USB-C to HDMI cable, the option is not provided. As a consiquence, the phone screen presents in it's full 18.5:9 aspect ratio, which results in black bars on all sides if you then watch 16:9 video content with most 3rd party players.

Now if a person uses the Samsung video player, the app picks up that a monitor is attached and plays the video at 16:9 aspect ratio on the TV, as desired. The problem is that the Samsung video player is rather limited on what audio formats it will play, compared to something like MX Player. So a person is left with the choice of either playing the video (with audio) on a 3rd party player, with black borders on all sides. Or else they can use the Samsung video player to get full screen on the TV, but then no audio.

Has anyone figured a better option for getting full screen 16:9 output from a USB-C to HDMI cable, with robust audio format support? Are there possibly other 3d party apps I am not aware of that support outputting video to an external monitor in true 16:9 format?

 

[jeffmd]

Suntan, in the past with MHL, movies would be able to display at proper resolutions when decoded in hardware (personal experience is with evo 3d, the MHL would switch to a true 720p resolution if the video could be decoded in hardware). Try running MX player and make sure it is using the H/W decoding mode.

 

[Suntan]

The S8/S8+ aren't using mhl.

In any case, I've played around with all the settings in MX. HW, HW+, SW, zoom settings, etc. Regardless, the screen is just mirrored with what is on the phone, as opposed to the Samsung player, which outputs a dedicated video to the TV.

 

[tw_]

The VLC player has an option to output 16:9 video without mirror mode and without bars on an external display (VLC calls mirror mode "cloning"). The option is enabled by default. VLC supports a lot of media formats.

 

[TCone]

I've tried the VLC solution. Unfortunately that isn't available on every Android device. However, what I found out is that it is possible to change the resolution and aspect ratio of Android Phones and Tablets with some fiddling around: https://vakago-tools.com/how-to-fix-aspect-ratio-when-connecting-android-via-hdmi/