I backed up a movie that I own and when tried to play it back there were black bars all around the movie when playing back. This is on the computer in Plex and on the Roku Plex app and on my computer apart from Plex. Obviously this means it’s not a Plex issue. I think it’s just how this particular movie is. There are a couple of reasons I’m asking this non-Plex question here. First of all, on Plex on the computer I can increase the size of the play back output. I didn’t see a similar option in Plex for Roku. Is there an option for this? Secondly, since a lot of people back up movies here I was wondering if someone knew if there is a setting I can change when backing the movie up so that the output is traditional wide screen or even full screen. Is there a way to tell by looking at the movie specs if the output I described is how this movie is set to play? What is a good resolution set it at when backing the movie up? Finally, if there are multiple English audio channels showing, which one should I choose? Thanks in advanced for your time and help!
Quite likely the video in question was on DVD and has a 16:9 or 'scope aspect ratio. Which then caused the producer of the DVD to add black bars to top and bottom to fill the then-prevalent 4:3 TV screens.
If you rip such a video, the video file will still technically be in 4:3 aspect ratio.
If you play a 4:3 video in Plex, it will strive to show you every pixel of its picture. Which means it will put the 4:3 picture in the middle of our now prevalent wide screens – thus adding another set of black bars to the sides of the picture.
The only reasonable solution is to crop off the black bars from the original video right after ripping the disc. Handbrake.fr (and pretty much any other video converter) allows you to do that.
Thank you for your reply. How would I clip the black bars from the sides? Also, which audio channels should I pick when multiple English audio channels are showing?
Refer to the manual for Handbrake for the cropping procedure.
My personal recommendation would be to retain a stereo track and a surround track.
If there are several stereo tracks, there might be “commentary” tracks and other “extra” stuff among them. To identify which is which, use a desktop video player app (e.g. VLC or MPC-HC) which supports switching audio tracks.
