PLEX Desktop Full Screen is Too Big

[smduerr]

Server Version#:1.19.4.2935-79e21ead
Player Version#:4.29.2

I’m not sure if anyone else is running into this issue as I was not able to really find anything in other posts about it, but for some reason while playing videos in full-screen from the desktop player (PC hooked to a 46" TV at 1920x1080), the video is too big. Things get cut off on the sides and to a lesser extent, on the top and bottom.

I’ve tried everything I can possibly think of. I’ve changed the resolution of the PC to several different ones, even circumventing the default options and setting it to something like 2560x1440. My TV does have an Overscan setting, but disabling that squashes the screen so it’s a square in the middle of the screen, leaving large black boxes on the left/right sides, which is less than ideal. I’ve dug through the setting in PLEX, but I see no way to compensate for the videos playing in more than full screen.

However, playing the same video files in Kodi allows for the full video to be shown. In some cases, this does mean that there’s black bars on top and bottom of the screen. But, nothing is getting cut off, which is perfect.

Attached screenshots showing what I’m talking about. First one is in PLEX, while the second one is from Kodi.

Is there any way to fix that? I’d really rather use PLEX, especially now I have a PLEX Pass, but if I have to, I’ll just switch to using Kodi.

[tom80H]

That doesn’t really look like Plex Media Player. Which app is that exactly? Something older like Plex Home Theater or Plex for Kodi?

Knowing which exact app it is will help identify the potential culprit in your settings.

PS: if the TV is otherwise showing your full screen, this has nothing to do with the resolution.

[smduerr]

It’s Plex Media Player, the desktop version, at least the first screenshot is. As I stated in the post, the second screenshot is Kodi. Kodi will show the full video, but Plex is zooming in so there is no black bars on top/bottom but cutting off the sides of the video.

[tom80H]

Ok… the mix of screenshots had me confused
In Plex Media Player… make sure you’re in TV mode and go into Settings. What option do you have selected for Video > Video Aspect?
Default should be Display normally but it sounds like yours might be set to Zoom (can cut off video).

PS: sorry… translations might be a bit off; I translated those on the fly from my non-English user interface
Edit: found the correct settings/options in the related support article

Settings: Plex Media Player | Plex Support

[FordGuy61]

@smduerr

It’s Plex Media Player

Check the video settings when in TV Mode.

Select the box with “TV” inside → Select Username → Settings → Video → Video Aspect

When you change to TV Mode, the TV Box changes and looks like a computer. Select it to return to desktop mode.

[smduerr]

Oh. My. God.

I feel so dumb. I’ve been struggling with this for months, and even though I work in IT, I never thought to look in the settings in TV mode. I was always in the other mode.

Took two seconds to fix and now it’s working beautifully. Thanks!