Movie zoomed, stretched or squished

[Mike-Denver]

I assume this must be in the forum, but I cannot find anything current. I have PMS running on Ubuntu. I’m watching it through a new Firestick 4k. Mostly it’s great. I’ve been using Plex just for my DVR, but now that I’ve had time to rip my disks, I’m trying to watch movies. Today, I discovered a movie I just ripped was zoomed in quite a bit on the Firestick. Then when I checked it playing on the browser in the PMS box, it was full height, but had wide black bars on either side – like the picture was about 1/3 of the screen width with a third on either side being blank. The Bluray player seems to do fine.

Everywhere I can find, I see either highest quality, or original quality. I assume I have a setting tweaked somewhere, but I cannot find it. Any suggestions? What other information should I be providing?

Thanks,
Mike

[nx6]

I’m not seeing a setting on the Fire Stick app for aspect ratio override/zoom, or on the Fire Stick’s own settings. I would suggest you just check your TV’s own aspect/zoom controls. These are set per-input.

[Mike-Denver]

I sort of figured it out, but have other questions now. It turns out the movie is 1.33:1. I should have thought of that since I was excited it finally came out on BluRay. In the Firestick app, under Playback Settings --> Display Mode --> Stretch, what Plex plays approximates what the Bluray does and what VLC does.

So now I have two new questions:

1. Why is “original” display mode the same as “zoom”? Is that a bug, or can someone explain the thinking so I can understand how it is working? Plex tells me the movie is 1920x1080.
2. How can I watch this directly from the PMS box? When I try the menus, I don’t find a setting to stretch. I don’t find any other ways to widen the picture.

Oh, and to nx6, thanks for poking around . Do you think the TV settings matter if everything comes into the tv through the same HDMI input via a receiver which does all the switching?

Thanks,
Mike

[Mike-Denver]

I’m back again. With an FYI for people no seeing what I’m seeing.

It looks like those settings to zoom or stretch in Firestick are in the new video player only. When I went back to the old one to see if it dealt with things differently, there was no display mode setting.

Can someone tell me what “aspect ratio” means when Plex uses it? The box on the BluRay claims to be 1.78:1 and Plex insists it is 1.33:1. The originial movie is 1.85:1, so there should be material to work with. I just re-ripped it to see if I missed some other file, but not any that I can find.

For what it’s worth the movie is “Shakes the Clown (1991).”

[BigWheel]

Zoom and original looks exactly the same? That is a bit unusual. Do you have media info from the XML?

1.33.1 same as 4:3 width:height 1.33.1 means it is 133.1% wider than it is tall. (slightly wider than a square). old tvs and monitors the way old tv shows were filmed

Most current TV/monitors are 1.78:1 (or 16:9) which is the ratio for the most common HD resolutions like 1920x1080 (1080p)

1:85.1 is ratio that is slightly shorter than 1.78.1 (assuming the width is the same ofcourse) many older movies will filmed with this ratio

I’m guessing it is an anamorphic file. the image was recorded in a way which generally squishes the width when saved to film/disc. the projector/player needs to un-squish it.

Stretch is stretching the width and height to of file dimensions separately till they hit the edges of screen.

Zoom increases the file dimension by width and height but proportionally till the smaller side hits the sides. This will result in either some of the top&bottom or more commonly the Left&Right to be cut off.

original should be showing the actual width and height pixel resolution as compared with the resolution of the screen. So if you had a low resolution file like 640x480 on a 1920x1080p screen it would show up small in the middle of the screen with black on all sides.

I’ll admit that Plex often has issues with anamorphic files for direct play. Not sure what apps you are using to rip your DVDs but some a setting to fix it in the rip so the file output is the intended aspect ratio removing the anamorphic nature of it. (and crop out any black bars in file that are part of image)

[Ekomax]

@BigWheel
Got aspect ration problem with PAL content, spqusched, stretched, using the new player. With the old one it works correctly.

Something i can provide?
Latest Player on my Fire Tv Stick 4k (Amazon Store)
Latest PMS Beta on my DS918+

best regards

[Mike-Denver]

Thanks for that. Let me restate my question. When Plex says aspect ratio of a movie, does it pull from metadata? Does it calculate it?

I took some photos of the screen at each setting and it certainly is the same (or pretty close) for original and zoom when using the Firestick.

I rip my disks with MakeMKV. As I said above, I started this for DVR function, so I haven’t watched many of them, but spot checking, this seems to be the only file with a problem.

Here’s the data. I’ve stripped out things that seem obviously irrelevant, but I’m pretty ignorant about the rest of it. I don’t know how to make it look pretty, sorry.

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionTitle="Movies" librarySectionUUID="36709d31-fc40-412f-9331-654a9b8060e8" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1574417695">

<Video ratingKey="54480" key="/library/metadata/54480" guid="com.plexapp.agents.imdb://tt0102898?lang=en" studio="IRS Media" type="movie" title="Shakes the Clown" librarySectionTitle="Movies" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/1" contentRating="R" summary="Shakes plods about his duties as party clown, and uses all of his free time getting seriously drunk. Binky, another clown, wins the spot on a local kiddie show, which depresses Shakes even more, and his boss threatens him with unemployment if he can't get his act under control." rating="3.8" audienceRating="4.9" viewOffset="574000" lastViewedAt="1575954318" year="1991" tagline="Loved by children. Desired by women. Adored by bartenders everywhere." thumb="/library/metadata/54480/thumb/1575765552" art="/library/metadata/54480/art/1575765552" duration="5218964" originallyAvailableAt="1991-08-28" addedAt="1575765386" updatedAt="1575765552" audienceRatingImage="rottentomatoes://image.rating.spilled" chapterSource="media" primaryExtraKey="/library/metadata/54482" ratingImage="rottentomatoes://image.rating.rotten">

<Media id="56342" duration="5218964" bitrate="41105" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.33" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="pcm" videoCodec="mpeg2video" videoResolution="1080" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" audioProfile="pcm_s16le" videoProfile="main">

<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="56680" key="/library/parts/56680/1575689425/file.mkv" duration="5218964" file="/disks/c/plexmedia/movies/Shakes the Clown (1991).mkv" size="26820992321" audioProfile="pcm_s16le" container="mkv" deepAnalysisVersion="4" indexes="sd" requiredBandwidths="41112,41104,41083,41078,41078,41078,41078,41078" videoProfile="main">

<Stream id="64297" streamType="1" codec="mpeg2video" index="0" bitrate="38000" language="English" languageCode="eng" anamorphic="1" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" colorRange="tv" frameRate="23.976" height="1080" level="4" pixelAspectRatio="9:16" profile="main" refFrames="1" requiredBandwidths="37994,37987,37966,37964,37964,37964,37964,37964" scanType="progressive" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p (MPEG2VIDEO)"/>

<Stream id="64298" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="pcm" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="1525" language="English" languageCode="eng" profile="pcm_s16le" requiredBandwidths="1535,1535,1535,1535,1535,1535,1535,1535" samplingRate="48000" title="Stereo" displayTitle="English (PCM Stereo)"/>

<Stream id="64299" streamType="2" codec="pcm" index="2" channels="2" bitrate="1536" language="English" languageCode="eng" profile="pcm_s16le" requiredBandwidths="1535,1535,1535,1535,1535,1535,1535,1535" samplingRate="48000" title="Stereo" displayTitle="English (PCM Stereo)"/>

<Stream id="64300" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="3" bitrate="44" language="English" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="46,46,46,46,46,46,46,46" displayTitle="English (PGS)"/>

</Part>

</Media>

<Video ratingKey="54482" key="/library/metadata/54482" guid="iva://api.internetvideoarchive.com/2.0/DataService/VideoAssets(4126)?lang=en&bitrates=80,212,450,750,1500,8000&duration=48&adaptive=1&dts=0" type="clip" title="Shakes The Clown" summary="" index="1" year="2008" thumb="/library/metadata/54482/thumb/1575765408" subtype="trailer" duration="48000" originallyAvailableAt="2008-09-04" addedAt="1575765408" extraType="1">

<Media id="56346" duration="48000" bitrate="1500" width="1280" height="720" aspectRatio="1.78" audioCodec="aac" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="720" container="mp4" premium="1">

<Part id="56684" duration="48000" container="mp4" key="/services/iva/assets/4126/video.mp4?bitrate=1500" optimizedForStreaming="1">

<Stream id="64277" streamType="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="1500" height="720" width="1280" displayTitle="720p (H.264)"/>

<Stream id="64278" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="2" language="English" languageCode="eng" displayTitle="English (AAC Stereo)"/>

</Part>

</Media>

<Media id="56347" duration="48000" bitrate="750" width="640" height="480" aspectRatio="1.33" audioCodec="aac" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="480" container="mp4" premium="1">

<Part id="56685" duration="48000" container="mp4" key="/services/iva/assets/4126/video.mp4?bitrate=750" optimizedForStreaming="1">

<Stream id="64279" streamType="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="750" height="480" width="640" displayTitle="480p (H.264)"/>

<Stream id="64280" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="2" language="English" languageCode="eng" displayTitle="English (AAC Stereo)"/>

</Part>

</Media>

<Media id="56348" duration="48000" bitrate="450" width="640" height="480" aspectRatio="1.33" audioCodec="aac" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="480" container="mp4" premium="1">

<Part id="56686" duration="48000" container="mp4" key="/services/iva/assets/4126/video.mp4?bitrate=450" optimizedForStreaming="1">

<Stream id="64281" streamType="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="450" height="480" width="640" displayTitle="480p (H.264)"/>

<Stream id="64282" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="2" language="English" languageCode="eng" displayTitle="English (AAC Stereo)"/>

</Part>

</Media>

</Video>

</Extras>

</Video>

</MediaContainer>

[BigWheel]

@Mike-Denver

When Plex says aspect ratio of a movie, does it pull from metadata?

it’s analyzing the actual file afaik . which does appear to be anamorphic.

anamorphic=“1”

[JuiceWSA]

With 1.33:1 , the first number refers to the width of the screen, and the second to the height. So for every 4 inches (or centimetres, if you’re feeling continental) in width, there will be 3 in height. <—copied that from goople just now.

Also ‘Shakes’ BluRay is supposed to be 1.85:1, but clearly that XML says differently.
Something has gone awry.

The video is MPEG-2. If you aren’t playing on a device that can handle MPEG-2, Plex is transoding it. When/If Plex is transcoding Shakes it could be making a wrong decision (perhaps based on the information it’s being given), or the ‘Rip’ from MakeMKV is fouled up somehow.

Shakes should be displaying at 1920x1080, but it’s displaying at 1440x1080, at least on some devices, and that’s just wrong. If the flags are set properly - and in this case NO FLAG is required (Anamorphic=0) - the video will display properly on every player on the Blue Earth.

Something’s funky in Denmark.

MEPG-2 on this particular item may indicate it’s Interlaced (oh, my) and that will cause problems on some devices and require a transcode. Dollars to Donuts means that on some devices Shakes is transcoding and on others it isn’t. Find out about that by checking the Dashboard while it playing on various devices to see whuzzup.

The Plex App on FireTV has a little known, seldom used, feature (quite handy) called ‘Display Information’ - Video Settings (I think - you’ll find it). When enabled bringing up the player interface with the item playing will display some info about the playback, particularly if the item is in Direct Play or Transcode and if transcoding the reason. The display resolution will also be displayed - all helpful in troubleshooting odd occurrences.

I know people have this quality thing hung sideways in the orifice, but for my money Handbraking Shakes to .264 is a wise decision - considering it was released in MPEG-2 (pure madness). The new Handbrake is idiot proof (Certified Idiot speaking) and can ‘Fix’ Shakes once and for all across all the devices it’s played on.

If one is so inclined - here’s where you start:

That will effectively fix Shakes. There are more handy tips for creating the best quality you can, but whether YOU encode Shakes, or Plex Does in a transcode it makes little difference - at least a small bit of quality will have to be sacrificed - for this particular item and the truth is you probably won’t know the difference - apart from it not feaking out with bars all over the place where they aren’t needed.

[pshanew]

It may or may not be relevant here, but another user had a similar issue a few days ago in another thread:

[HELP] PLEX displaying incorrect aspect ratio

Server Version#: 4.12.3 Player Version#: latest I have a problem with a Blu-ray rip that I can’t seem to figure out. The Blu-ray has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, but Plex thinks that it is 1.33:1 instead. The XML file in PLEX says that the file is 1.33, and I cannot figure out how to fix this issue. The file plays in widescreen in VLC, and MediaInfo shows the MKV file as 16:9 (1.78:1) as it should. I cannot get PLEX to stop thinking that the file is 1.33:1. I have deleted the file from PL…

The resolution in that case, as suggested by @SteveVideos, was to have a look at a thread over on the MakeMKV forums:
https://www.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19234

The last two posts suggest that using MKVToolNix GUI to remux the file specifying the correct aspect ratio resolved the issue in their case.

[JuiceWSA]

Interesting.

I’d still recode to 264 - I have issues with things that don’t direct play, but that fix should at least repair the thing… A transcode on some devices may not throw @Mike-Denver into a tailspin, like it would me.

Incidentally: When/If Plex is transcoding for a device - it may actually be Fixing Shakes from it’s original and boned up condition. Call Ripley…lol

[BigWheel]

I tend to be in the re-encode with handbrake crowd. There is no real reason for digital files to be anamorphic anymore. Generally ones that are anamorphic are old movies that weren’t that high res to begin with and you probably could not actually tell the difference when re-encoded

[JuiceWSA]

@BigWheel

I tend to be in the re-encode with handbrake crowd.

I am a Guild Member…lol

I bust ALL TV Shows down to 480p. When you’ve got a million of something - it’s best to have them as small as they can be - and with that LapSharp Filter in HB I can’t tell if it’s 480 or 720 <—and that’s the God’s Honest Truth.

Movies I HB in 1080 @ 3750kbps (3.7M). I personally stop seeing any improvement above about 3250kbps, so I give 'em 3750kbps and call it a day. They look fine on everything in the Plexiverse from my wristwatch to a 60" Plasma. YMMV.

@BigWheel

There is no real reason for digital files to be anamorphic anymore.

As eluded to previously - with the click of ONE button (the 480 profile) anything in HB is magically converted to DVD storage - and for TV Shows it’s soooo easy and quick.

Anamorphic is required, but HB does it flawlessly every time:

That ‘Custom’ setting is a wonderful invention - right up there with Warp Drive.

Note: I have TWO User profiles, both derived from that ONE Basic HD - all others have been deleted as unnecessary.

[Mike-Denver]

Wow. It seems like there is a whole lot I know nothing about. Thank you to everyone for taking the time to help. I can address some things. Plex dashboard says direct play with streaming to the Firestick. It encodes when using Firefox which I understand makes sense.

The MKVToolNix solution might work, but I’m not seeing the same things they’re talking about. Maybe I’m doing that wrong.

I’ve got Handbrake and have used it, but not without creating a significant worsening of visual quality. It’s another thing I know so little about. All of those settings are meaningless to me. I really ought to find a good tutorial. I’m processing Shakes with Handbrake right now. The first one was just the HQ 1080 preset. It leaves anamorphic set to automatic. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll try different settings this week.

Why do you say 264 instead of 265?

My general philosophy is if I’m taking the time to archive stuff, it should be lossless. The technology is only going to get better and show all the details of compromises I made along the way. My collection isn’t that large, and hard drives are relatively cheap. Shakes is the Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies, but it can probably afford to be in less than perfect quality. In any case, I’ve got the disk. I can always re-rip it later.

I shall report back.

Mike

[pshanew]

MKVToolNix is fairly straight-forward for this application. Once opened, add the file you wish to modify by clicking the “Add source files” button at the bottom. Then, in the “Tracks, chapters and tags” window toward the bottom-left, click the video track. Then, in the area on the right, toward the middle (vertically), select “Set aspect ratio” and select the appropriate value for your media (you can also manually enter a value). Finally, click “Start multiplexing” at the bottom. Just make sure the output filename doesn’t collide with the input and your original won’t be modified.

It should finish very quickly. Handbrake is a great solution too, if you’re interested in transcoding the file (for compatibility and/or storage size optimization).

[JuiceWSA]

@Mike-Denver

I’ve got Handbrake and have used it, but not without creating a significant worsening of visual quality.

Then you aren’t doing something right - but you don’t need a tutorial, use these settings - exactly:

Is it worthwhile encoding to H264? Buffering issues

Sub Titles cause issues when they’re image based subs - like PGS or VOB/DVD. UTF-8 text subs rarely cause issues because they can Direct Play on just about everything. I curate ALL the material in my Plexiverse so it ALL Direct Plays. I am older so I don’t waste a lot bandwidth on quality I can’t see. You just need to test a few files and make an informed decision about what you want to do. DVDs really won’t matter much. You’ll be able to draw them down pretty far before you ever start seeing …

Change the average bit rate from 3750kbps to 38000kbps (extreme overkill, IMO), maintain 2 Pass with Turbo and employ the LapSharp Filter. Discover if the video is interlaced and if so use Yadif default with no detection.

The encode will take hours (days?). Might want to do a Preview before you commit. I would.

[Mike-Denver]

Thanks for all the advice. I’m in the middle of running a series of Handbrake transcodes to see what I think. I sure am glad I bought a video card. Speeds things up considerably since I last fiddles with it. I currently have well over 100GB of “Shakes the Clown.” That can’t be very common. At least on this 1991 movie, I find the 720 versions completely acceptable.

I’ve got one question right now. One version – h.264 hvenc, HQ 1080P Surround preset, increased the file size over the original by about 50%. What’s going on there?
Thanks,
Mike

[JuiceWSA]

@Mike-Denver

One version – h.264 hvenc, HQ 1080P Surround preset, increased the file size over the original by about 50%. What’s going on there?

The madness that is Constant Quality.

Have you even tried using my exact settings? Have you even made a 240 second preview with my exact settings?

If you’re already caving in to “720p is acceptable” - I think a 1080p using my exact settings would surprise ya - if you took the time to give it a fair shake…

For instance:

1080p WEB-DL RAW - 6595kbps:

1080p WEB-Code - 3750kbps 2 Pass/Turbo - my exact settings (No LapSharp on HD):

Now you can put 'em side by side on your own time, and those aren’t the same frame (VLC Hand Grenade Pause), but for my money a knocked down version is a reasonable facsimile thereof and a whole lot easier to throw around on the network/internet. <—focus on that single hair on Dave’s head, backlit by that doohickey on both (sheeeeeeit, Man - it just don’t make much difference! - the lighting is not quite as ‘soft’ in the encode - and half the size)

If you want to impress somebody, and that doesn’t do it - stick the disk in the player.

PS: Cara Gee is my new hottie-fav-0-the-year…
(that Belter accent melts me like Buttah…lol)

[Mike-Denver]

Nope, I had not tried your settings. Super busy week. My screen is different from yours and I don’t know my way around Handbrake, so I just tried miscellaneous presets to set them going and get back to work. I figured I’d get back to it on the weekend. As I’m sure you are aware, when I sat down and looked at it, it was super easy. I think I did what you said. I started with one of the 480p presets, changed the dimensions and the bitrate, and added the filter. It also looks fine. I currently don’t have a 4K TV, but it seems likely that when this one goes the replacement will be at least 4k. It makes me hesitate, but then I also read upscaling is getting better every day.

And to my original question, every thing I have tried all play fine. Any of the conversions solve my zoom problem. Except for the Toolnix. I assume I did something wrong there, but I ended up with a movie one inch tall and the entire screen wide.