hdmi out video not full screen (e.g. netflix)

[heov]

I have an iPhone 4S, and the Apple HDMI Digital Oout adapter.

I have a 1080p HDTV.

I can connect my phone no problem, and mirror the screen as expected.

If i play a video I recorded in HD in the camera app, it will play 100% full screen at 1080p, no problem.

However, when I play netflix, it's ALMOST full screen. It's definitely NOT mirroring my screen- netflix has been coded to support TV out, and it is definitely in TV out mode because all I see on the screen is a red netflix logo until i pick my movie.

When I say "almost" full screen, the TV is definitely displaying "1080p video), but the video does not go all the way to the edge. I'd say the video is like 1700 pixels wide and maybe 900 pixels tall (instead of 1920x1080).

This is true for all video apps. Goodplayer, AVPlayer, and Netflix. It's not filling the entire screen, just 90% of it (and again, it's not mirroring my display).

What's weird is the Camera app can output full HD, edge to edge on my TV.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Anyone have a solution?

 

[lordofthereef]

Try putting your TV in "PC Mode" if it has that option.

 

[heov]

Try putting your TV in "PC Mode" if it has that option.

No, it doesn't have that option.

Of course I could mess w/ advanced settings on my TV and probalby make it stretch to be edge to edge, but there is a clear issue here. The point is it's not displaying 1920x1080 pixels of the video.

To be clear, the iphone is ALWAYS outputting 1080p to the TV.

How come the camera app can output a full 1080p video, edge to edge, but a program like Netflix has a small black border around the entire thing (even when it's in tv-out mode, not mirroring mode.

If others w/ the HDMI digital adapter could verify this, that'd be great. Basically, only the camera/video app can output edge to edge, everythign else has a small border (but like I said, it's definitely tv-out, not mirroring the screen, cause a mirror would have a much smaller border).

 

[lordofthereef]

No, it doesn't have that option.

Of course I could mess w/ advanced settings on my TV and probalby make it stretch to be edge to edge, but there is a clear issue here. The point is it's not displaying 1920x1080 pixels of the video.

To be clear, the iphone is ALWAYS outputting 1080p to the TV.

How come the camera app can output a full 1080p video, edge to edge, but a program like Netflix has a small black border around the entire thing (even when it's in tv-out mode, not mirroring mode.

If others w/ the HDMI digital adapter could verify this, that'd be great. Basically, only the camera/video app can output edge to edge, everythign else has a small border (but like I said, it's definitely tv-out, not mirroring the screen, cause a mirror would have a much smaller border).

The reason I was asking is because I had a similar issue on my home theater PC. It would do full screen fine on some things but not others. Changing the television to PC input (I thought I didn't have it either until I looked deeper) fixed this. My suspicions were that certain apps are treating the output differently than others on the iPhone. That was clearly the case with my the HTPC.

 

[adamlee]

sounds like a issue to suggest to apple. Have you ever tried connecting it to an apple cinema display?

 

[Small White Car]

I did some tests and, yep, Netflix doesn't go to the edge of the screen. But neither does almost everything else that comes out of the phone.

Jetpack Joyride? Nope.
Photos app? Nope.
Safari? Nope.

All slightly shrunken.

So it's pretty much how it is. My suspicion is that it doesn't go to the edge because you never can tell how large the plastic edges on TV screens will be and Apple's giving some safe room to make absolutely sure that nothing gets cut off no matter what TV you own.

Allowing safe room on video intended for TV screens is a pretty normal practice. You just happen to have a really good TV that sees more than some other TVs. That's good for you.

The ONE exception to this story is that the official Apple video app DOES blow the image up to cover all pixels. Go figure. So after deciding to give everything safe room, the video app is the one thing Apple decided to NOT do it for? I can't explain it, but this seems to be the deal.

In other words, if your TV can't zoom, I think you're out of options.

 

[Vegasryn]

The Netflix app on the iPhone does not grab 1080p ...the output is application specific

 

[heov]

To be clear, safari and most apps dont' go to fullscreen because it is just mirroring the iphones display. When it mirrors the iphone dispaly, it just does 960x640. Safari is just mirrored, it should never be "full screen". Same with most games and other apps. So this is completely understandable that it's not full screen. I'm talking about apps that are specifically designed for TV ouptut (such as NetFlix, GoodPlayer, AVPlayer, etc.)

It's not a TV issue. Trust me on this. Netflix is the best app to demonstrate this, and someone has confirmed it above. But it's not just netflix... any video app (such as GoodPlayer, AVPlayer, etc) but a border around it as well.

Netflix not streaming 1080p isn't really an excuse either... it's stretching the 720p video anyway... why not fill the entire screen? why go 90% of the way? Basically, even if I have copied over a 1920x1080 test avi file, it will only be ~1700 x ~900 or so and basically every app except apple's own video player.

Stating reasons such as a border of a tv isn't valid- this is a digital age. It should output 1920x1080. It's called the DIGITIAL adapter. If you have a 1920x1080 video file, it should output 1920x1080. When I watch HDTV, it outputs 1920x1080 (assumign you ahve 1080p cable). If I buy a bluray movie, i expect it to be full screen. It makes no sense to try to factor in a border, especially since their own video player doesn't do this

I believe Apple has done this on purpose- not allow app devs to output full 1080p resolution for some reason or another. If i download a movie from itunes store, IT GOES FULL SCREEN, edge to edge!

I'm following up w/ some app devs (GoodPlayer specifically) to see if they can get around this.

It's not really a "problem," moreso an observation. I'm glad others are reproducing and understanding what I'm talking about. I'm just surprised others haven't posted about this before... why would apple do this?

 

[marc.garcia]

I'm following up w/ some app devs (GoodPlayer specifically) to see if they can get around this.

Hello, could you update this thread in case you had been provided with further information? I'm surprised my iPad mini fills the screen much less than my iPhone 5. I imagine it all is related to the native resolution of the device but this whole thing is very complicated... If this is made on purpose by Apple, I must say its quite annoying. Apple is a great company and I've decided to switch my computers at home and now I have Macs everywhere, but I keep encountering little things that really piss me off like their insistence on using proprietary connectors and now this...

 

[marc.garcia]

Hello, could you update this thread in case you had been provided with further information? I'm surprised my iPad mini fills the screen much less than my iPhone 5. I imagine it all is related to the native resolution of the device but this whole thing is very complicated... If this is made on purpose by Apple, I must say its quite annoying. Apple is a great company and I've decided to switch my computers at home and now I have Macs everywhere, but I keep encountering little things that really piss me off like their insistence on using proprietary connectors and now this...

Quick update, AvPlayerHD manages to fill the screen edge to edge!! I don't really know what it does and I suspect there definitely is some quality drop, but I can live with it!!! It is really cool

 

[Nickyboy180]

I have an iPhone 4S, and the Apple HDMI Digital Oout adapter.

I have a 1080p HDTV.

I can connect my phone no problem, and mirror the screen as expected.

If i play a video I recorded in HD in the camera app, it will play 100% full screen at 1080p, no problem.

However, when I play netflix, it's ALMOST full screen. It's definitely NOT mirroring my screen- netflix has been coded to support TV out, and it is definitely in TV out mode because all I see on the screen is a red netflix logo until i pick my movie.

When I say "almost" full screen, the TV is definitely displaying "1080p video), but the video does not go all the way to the edge. I'd say the video is like 1700 pixels wide and maybe 900 pixels tall (instead of 1920x1080).

This is true for all video apps. Goodplayer, AVPlayer, and Netflix. It's not filling the entire screen, just 90% of it (and again, it's not mirroring my display).

What's weird is the Camera app can output full HD, edge to edge on my TV.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Anyone have a solution?

I found the same using Netflix, but when I use Amazon Prime I get full screen odd that

 

[RogerJoensson]

I found the same using Netflix, but when I use Amazon Prime I get full screen odd that

Yep. Just got me a new iPAD to download Netflix movies to watch on my TV in my mountain Cabin. The TV shows a 16:9 movie inside a 4:3 frame (huge black borders) which I can't override/compensate for with this TV. Stretching the picture with the TV:s setting makes it stretch outside 4:3 frame (into the back borders). I guess that the TV is told to be in 4:3 mode and not to switch to 16:9 by the Netflix app. I tried another TV with the same result. None of these TVs are capable of manually overriding the 4:3 mode.

Amazon Prime works perfectly and displays a full screen. Netflix does not. So the Ipad can do it if the app is doing it right... Its a bummer, because the reason for buying the iPAD was mainly Netflix + TV.

 

[RogerJoensson]

Just found that the Netflix app does "now playing on TV" while streaming which use the full 16:9 width. If I download the same movie and play from memory it only plays by mirroring the ipad 4:3 screen with added wide black borders on the TV.
If this by intent or a bug I do not know.
[doublepost=1502280232][/doublepost]After some discussion with the Netflix chat support I got this confirmed. It has now been reported to the development team and hopefully they will improve the iOS app in the future so that downloads too will use the "now playing on TV" feature for full frame width on a TV with iPAD (4:3) as the source.