Server Version#: 1.43.3.10861
Player Version#: 2026.15.0
Hi, this is a new one for me, which is weird as I don’t think the app was updated.
Context: display mode is set as “Letterbox”.
Bug: when I launch a movie, the aspect ratio is correct, but when I seek, it stretches when the video plays again. When I go to the display mode setting, it’s still “Letterbox”.
(bad) solution: to fix the aspect ratio, I switch the display mode from letterbox to zoom or stretch, then I set it back to letterbox.
I think that’s “good news”. This happened to others as well that I read on reddit, recently too, so it’s not on our side. I guess it will be solved at some point.
Confirming this here as well. Same player version, same behavior, started about three days ago on my side.
Symptom: letterboxed content (2.39:1) plays with correct aspect ratio, then at some point the black bars disappear and the image is stretched vertically to fill the 16:9 frame. Pausing reliably triggers it for me, and it also happens when bringing up the OSD. The display mode setting still reads “Letterbox” while the image is clearly stretched.
Workarounds that work: stopping and relaunching playback restores the correct ratio, and so does toggling display mode to Zoom or Stretch and back to Letterbox, as described above.
What I ruled out before posting, in case it helps narrow it down:
Not the TV. It happens on a TCL and on a Samsung, both fed by the same Fire TV.
Not the server or the media. The native Plex app on the TCL TV plays the exact same files from the exact same server with the correct aspect ratio, every time.
Not Fire OS display settings. Video Resolution is Automatic (up to 4K UHD), Calibrate Display is set to “Do not scale”, and I disabled “Match Original Frame Rate” in Fire OS with no change in behavior.
Not Plex app switching settings. Refresh Rate Switching and Resolution Switching are both disabled in the Plex app.
Since the setting reports Letterbox while rendering Stretch, this looks like the display mode not being reapplied to the video surface when playback state changes. Happy to provide logs if that helps.
I can reproduce this consistently on my Fire TV setup.
Device / software details:
Plex for Amazon Fire TV
Client version: 2026.15.0 (9710550368)
Platform version: 11
Device: Fire TV Stick 4K Plus
Fire OS: 8.1.8.0
With Display Mode set to Letterbox, the video initially displays correctly with small black bars at the top and bottom.
Pressing D-pad Down to bring up the playback controls/time remaining immediately causes the video to stretch vertically. The top and bottom black bars disappear, and faces become noticeably taller.
The important part is that the Display Mode menu still reports Letterbox after this happens.
I can then reproduce the following:
Video is displaying correctly in Letterbox with small top/bottom black bars.
Press D-pad Down to display the playback controls.
Video immediately stretches vertically and the black bars disappear.
Open Display Mode — it still says Letterbox.
Select Stretch — there is no visible change.
Select Letterbox again — the correct aspect ratio and top/bottom black bars are immediately restored.
Press D-pad Down again — the issue returns.
So it appears that displaying the playback controls causes the actual video scaling state to switch to Stretch, while the UI continues to report Letterbox.
Further testing suggests this may be content-resolution dependent. I can reproduce it with HEVC files encoded at 1920×800, 2.40:1, SAR 1:1.
With Display Mode set to Letterbox, playback initially looks correct with small black bars at the top and bottom. Pressing D-pad Down to display the Plex on-screen controls causes the video to stretch vertically, making faces appear taller and causing the top and bottom black bars to disappear.
The Display Mode setting still reports Letterbox after this happens. Selecting Stretch causes no visible change, but selecting Letterbox again immediately restores the correct aspect ratio and the black bars.
This appears to be a case where displaying the OSD causes Plex to recalculate the video viewport incorrectly for 1920×800 content, while the UI continues to report the original Letterbox setting.
I’d be happy to share the logs directly with Plex.
