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A monitor wider than 16:9 will leave side space when showing ordinary 16:9 video without distortion. Wider films may fit differently, particularly if their black bars are encoded into the source. Player fit modes determine whether the full picture, a crop or a stretched image is shown.
Explore guide ↗A portrait video is taller than it is wide, while a television is usually landscape. Showing the complete vertical frame therefore leaves large side areas. Stretching it to fill the television distorts the image, and cropping can remove much of the scene.
Explore guide ↗Fit normally keeps the whole picture visible while preserving its proportions. Fill covers the screen and may crop edges. Zoom enlarges the image, while stretch may alter its shape. Exact labels vary, so check faces, captions and borders after changing the setting.
Explore guide ↗Caption position, player zoom and television overscan can each hide text. First confirm that the entire video frame is visible, then inspect subtitle size and position. A caption track can also contain its own placement instructions, so one programme may behave differently from another.
Explore guide ↗Pixel aspect ratio describes the intended width-to-height shape of one stored image sample. Square pixels have a ratio of one to one. Non-square samples require appropriate display scaling, which is why a source’s stored dimensions do not always describe its final on-screen proportions.
Explore guide ↗Bars can be encoded into the video frame or added by the player to preserve its aspect ratio. Media dimensions and a careful crop comparison help distinguish them. The difference matters because a display may treat encoded bars as ordinary picture content rather than unused screen space.
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