Black bars on all films top and bottom of screen

[321Camel-]

I am new to virgin and have a 360 box. When watching films on TV  sky cinema, netflix and prime. There is always a black bar on top and bottom of screen  and will not play in wide screen  or fill the screen. I have changed all the settings on my TV as advised by the Virgin tech. On the 360 there is no option to change the screen to 16.9, and the option for full screen and zoom do nothing to the picture. I have tried all sef help and after having a text chat with Virgin the couldn't help and said they would send a tech out which I had already had out. I have a samsung smart TV. Is anyone else having this problem Thank you

[deans6571 · Accepted solution]

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@321Camel- wrote:

I am new to virgin and have a 360 box. When watching films on TV  sky cinema, netflix and prime. There is always a black bar on top and bottom of screen  and will not play in wide screen  or fill the screen. I have changed all the settings on my TV as advised by the Virgin tech. On the 360 there is no option to change the screen to 16.9, and the option for full screen and zoom do nothing to the picture. I have tried all sef help and after having a text chat with Virgin the couldn't help and said they would send a tech out which I had already had out. I have a samsung smart TV. Is anyone else having this problem Thank you

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.....you can't change this on some films as this would be the format which the film was filmed in for a showing at the cinema.

[keithse]

Most films are in 1.85:1 or 2.39:1 aspect ratio, whereas most TVs are in 16:9 (which is equivalent to 1.77:1) - the films you're looking at are not in 16:9 ratio so have the black bars top & bottom on your screen.

If you zoom in to remove the bars top & bottom then you'll lose some of the image left & right, and if you stretch the image to remove the bars top & bottom then you'll end up with people and objects looking oddly out of proportion.

Keith

[joebloggs]

In the cinema world these black bars are how the movie is meant to be viewed and is how it is shown in the cinemas, this aspect ratio is called Scope in the cinema industry, and the majority of movie channels broadcast the bars so the 360 box will see it as a widescreen movie.

Zooming in is possible in some TV settings but would cut the sides off, also could affect the quality as the picture will be zoomed.

[321Camel-]

I understand about the way/ratio the films are filmed in. I didn't have this problem with sky, the films automatically fit to the screen without having to change any of the tv or box settings. But the settings for fit to screen on tv settings are now greyed out and I don't understand why the 360 box doesn't give the option to change to 19.6. I have looked at YouTube and all the settings are on the older style virgin boxes. 

[deans6571]

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@321Camel- wrote:

I understand about the way/ratio the films are filmed in. I didn't have this problem with sky, the films automatically fit to the screen without having to change any of the tv or box settings. But the settings for fit to screen on tv settings are now greyed out and I don't understand why the 360 box doesn't give the option to change to 19.6. I have looked at YouTube and all the settings are on the older style virgin boxes. 

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So which would you rather watch - a movie filmed and screened as the director intended (widescreen with black bars top and bottom) or a movie filmed in widescreen and screened on your tv, zoomed in to remove the bars (so you lose picture detail top, bottom, left and right) ?

I know which one I would prefer....

[321Camel-]

You don't have to be so condescending. I am not a technician or a film maker. I would like to see films that fit a wide screen tv. As previously stated sky automatically fit to screen without losing content. My son has an old virgin box a samsung tv with the tv settings the same as myself and his films show full screen. He thinks it is something to do with 360 box. Before anyone says go back to sky. I was informed nothing would change with my package or viewing with virgin and I also received a great deal by switching. I am too far into contract to cancel without paying a penalty!

[roy247]

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@321Camel- wrote:

I am new to virgin and have a 360 box. When watching films on TV  sky cinema, netflix and prime. There is always a black bar on top and bottom of screen  and will not play in wide screen  or fill the screen. I have changed all the settings on my TV as advised by the Virgin tech. On the 360 there is no option to change the screen to 16.9, and the option for full screen and zoom do nothing to the picture. I have tried all sef help and after having a text chat with Virgin the couldn't help and said they would send a tech out which I had already had out. I have a samsung smart TV. Is anyone else having this problem Thank you

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I have a Samsung connected to my mini box and just tried this and I could get the picture to fill the screen, mini box setting is pillar box, depending on the model of your Samsung you may not have all these options if I go to menu, Picture and go down to Picture size there are Auto Wide (greyed out), 16:9 (normal setting), Wide zoom, Zoom, 4:3, Screen fit, Smart view 1, Smart view 2, if I select Zoom it fills the screen, you can see the effects each on has as you go down the list, only Zoom filled the screen.

[Rufus57]

Before we get all snooty with the OP about watching films as the director intended perhaps I should point out the manual for my Sony OLED TV actually advises me to remove those black bars by using the wide option in the TV's picture settings to avoid possible burn in. So sometimes people have their reasons for altering the aspect ratios settings.