Plex for Tivo - wrong aspect ratio, stretched picture

General Discussions
1

I am having a problem with stretched picture on Plex for Tivo when playing back media that has an aspect ratio other than 16:9 or 4:3. If the movie is not one of those aspect ratios, plex for Tivo is stretching the image to fill the screen, when instead, I expect it to use black bars to maintain the pictures proper aspect ratio. One example is the movie Falling Down. It has a resolution of 1920x800 with an aspect ratio of 2.40:1. If I play this movie on Amazon FireTV, or Xbox One, it plays it properly with black bars on top and bottom. If I play it on Tivo, the image is stretched out. I encode my media with Handbrake, in MP4 format with the setting of Anamorphic: Loose, Modulus: 2. Cropping set to Automatic. Here is the Media Info of my example file:

General
Complete name : Z:\Movies\Falling Down (1993)\Falling Down (1993).mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 1.34 GiB
Duration : 1h 52mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 1 709 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2012-12-21 05:06:51
Tagged date : UTC 2012-12-21 06:50:49
Writing application : HandBrake 0.9.8 2012071700

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 1h 52mn
Bit rate : 1 543 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 800 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Original display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.034
Stream size : 1.21 GiB (90%)
Writing library : x264 core 120
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=300 / keyint_min=30 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=25.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=3 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date : UTC 2012-12-21 05:06:51
Tagged date : UTC 2012-12-21 06:50:42
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 1h 52mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 160 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 238 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 129 MiB (9%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2012-12-21 05:06:51
Tagged date : UTC 2012-12-21 06:50:41

2

I’m having the same issue, did you find an answer or solution?

3

BTW I found an answer to this issue on streched image on my Tivo App. After getting my feet wet with Plex for a few months I started trying my movies on my Tivo, my Smart TV’s and my Apple TV. I concluded that each device has different settings related to aspect ratio. But the answer I was seeking was specifically how my Tivo app for Plex handled my widescreen movies. I had to fiddle with the TIVO > Audio & Video settings each time I watched a 16:9 movie in this area of the menu on my Tivo Mini’s or my view of image was stretched vertically. It was a combination of the TV Aspect Ratio and the Aspect Correction Mode that resolved the issue.

4

Thanks! I I’ll have to experiment with this again. I’ve just been using the Plex app on my Sony android TV and avoiding the Tivo plex app. Figured they would have made an update to the app by now to sort this out. Glad you found a way to fix it. If you have time would you be able to say which combination of ratio settings is working for you? (TV and tivo)