Aspect ratio all wrong on 1080p

Plex Players Streaming Devices
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For some reason, when i play a 1080p video in plex on my nvidia shield. the videos aspect ratio is only a small box in the center of the screen. but as soon as i play a 4k video, the aspect ratio is correct (16:9) again. the only solution ive found so far is to change the aspect ratio to either of the other options (not original), like zoom or stretch when watching 1080p for that specific video im watching.

the tv is a philips 4k tv, and i, as i mentioned, am using plex on a nvidia shield.
everything is updated to the latest available versions (no beta or plexpass versions)
the shield is the one release like a year ago (not the pro version).

for some reason the old nvidia shield (released like 2017 or something) doesnt seem to have this issue, when it was connected to the 4k tv. the new one have been stored in a box for a couple of months. but before the move i used the new nvidia shield too, though then it was connected to a reciever using a projector to watch content. and then it did not have any issues with aspect ratio.

when the move was complete i switched to the new shield on my 4k tv instead, since i no longer have room for a projector screen, and upgraded plex and the shield OS etc… and noticed right away when i started playing a 1080p video that the aspect ratio was wrong.

no other services (like netflix, prime, hbo or whatever) have this issue on the new shield on the 4k TV.

ive been checking all settings on tv and, but since the old shield is working fine on that tv im guessing the issue is on the shield. i also checked the settings on the shield, and in plex. but everything is as it should. (i.e no change since it last worked)

the only thing that has changed (except moving from 1080p projector to 4k tv on the new shield) is the plex versions. but again, that version works fine on the old shield with the 4k tv.

anyone else having this issue or a similar one? anyone perhaps has a solution? or any ideas?
guess im just gonna use the old shield until this is solved, but i really would like to mount my atmos speakers and start using them. no idea doing that until i get the plex to work with the new shield…

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Set the Display Mode to Letterbox. The setting is persistent, so no need to change it for every movie. Also, no need to change to original for 4K movies.

Original displays the video the original resolution. If you play a 1080 video on a 4K TV, you’ll see a 1920x1080 video in the middle of the 3840x2160 screen.

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Not to be rude or anything. By that doesn’t sound like a solution.

How come the old shield can show 1080p correct (over the full 16:9 screen, with or without black borders) with the AR setting to original?
Shouldn’t need to distort the image on the new shield just to get it to show on the whole tv screen and not just a little square in the middle.

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I have a 2015 Shield Pro feeding a 4K TV. The Shield is set to Letterbox. If set to Original, then media is displayed at its original resolution in the middle of the 4K display (which is fine for 4K media, but not for lower resolutions).

Display Mode = Letterbox scales the video to use as much of the display as possible. It does not change the aspect ratio of the video.

See this post from a Plex employee:

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1080p is a 1920x1080 rectangle ( assuming not a "wide screen/anamorphic film). a 4k TV is a 3840 x 2160 rectangle. the small rectangle when shown a “original” size is much smaller than the TV. If your movie was 1920x1080 and your tv was 1920x1080 then you would not see any difference when set to original because they are the same size. if your movie was 3840 x 2160 and the tv was 1920x1080 the it would appear zoomed in.

Letter box increases (or shrinks) the size until it fits the screen with nothing cut off and no distortion. Left/Right in the case of wide screen touching the sides, which is most common, and Top/Bottom in case of things like 4:3 or vertical phone footage and nothing gets cut off. This is the default on all clients so the content fits the screen and you can see all of the image without distortion. if your movie and tvs resolution matched you won’t see any change

Zoom is basically the opposite of letterbox setting in that it zooms to fill rather than fit . On a wide screen movie this will cause the left and right sides to get cut off and and the top bottom to match up with TV. this also has no distortion beside the sides getting cut off. many folks use this when they don’t like the top bottom “black letter box bars” as most of the important image is in the middle of screen anyway. (folks who appreciate cinematography generally don’t do this.)

Stretch fill the tv screen with the image, will not cut off, but will distort. if you have a wide screen image that normally would have the black bars at top bottom it will stretch the height till it fills up the screen. this results in things being skinny. if it was a 4:3 image then it will stretch the width and things look fat.

also some video files have the black bars as part of the image. most dvd/bluray ripping apps crop them out by default for sake of getting the file size smaller and have the tru resolution show in specs. There are also some movies which have part of the movie filmed in IMAX and the other in regular. Examples the Dark Knight opening bank robbery was filmed in IMAX and fills screen it goes into letter box in following scenes. The movie Tron Legacy is another when in the “real world” it is a letterbox widescreen and when they are in the program world of “the grid” it fills the screen.

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