Hi, I used to have this amazing application on LG TV called Playz. It did one thing that Plex doesn’t do on any platform and that is an option to remove black bars. How it worked was once you played a movie if it had black bars you could scroll right (next to play forward etc) and select a button that could remove black bars.
It is truly an amazing feature and I really think we should have this integrated across all Plex applications. I share my plex with multiple people and since the recent update Playz doesn’t work for me or any of them and we all miss it quite a bit.
On the LG TV there used to be an app called Playz someone created it when Plex wasnt available on LG TV’s but he added an option in that zoomed only the black bars. It literally removed it in 1 second. It’s like a stretch
I’ve attached a picture to show a standard windows player doing it wouldnt it be cool to have this built in without loosing any actual playback video screen?
You can’t “remove the black bars” without ruining the content. Either you stretch the video (as shown in your screenshot) which makes everything look wrong, or you crop the sides which results in losing a significant amount of the viewing frame. Neither is desirable. I’d suggest learning to appreciate your uncropped, unmangled movies the way the director intended. TVs are 16:9 aspect ratio, movies come in many. That’s life.
What about situations with old SD movies that have black bars on four sides. You could definitely crop into that without f*cking up the aspect ratio. Is there a way to do that in Plex?
Plex does no cropping whatsoever.
You need to prepare your content outside of Plex. It is recommended to remove all black bars.
That way Plex will be able to fit the video onto every screen with any aspect ratio (without distorting the picture.)
If you have SD content in the old 4:3 ratio, you will get a picture with black bars on the sides.
If you have a cinemascope (2,35:1) movie which was ripped from a DVD, you have to crop the black bars from top and bottom. Otherwise you will end up indeed with a picture that has black bars on all sides.
I love Black Bars. It’s the first place I look when I can’t find my Black Friends.
@bradstyle said:
What about situations with old SD movies that have black bars on four sides. You could definitely crop into that without f*cking up the aspect ratio. Is there a way to do that in Plex?
What Juice said. Sometimes the best solution is to just pick up a non-trashed version of the movie on eBay or Amazon Marketplace and re-rip. It’s been a non-issue with blu-rays, but with my DVDs I went through a period of upgrading a ton of mine that became apparent when I got my first widescreen TV.
I know this is an old-ish thread, but I recently updated my Plex player and noticed there was a new option under “Aspect settings” to CROP on the “TV optimised” view.
I don’t like the black bars and so manually ZOOM using the TV anyway - I would rather fill my complete 65" with the movie, all be it sacrificing a bit of content from the sides.
I haven’t checked, so I’m unsure if ALL movies are cropped by default, or whether it is just letterbox movies that are cropped.
If it is the former, then thanks Plex, awesome feature!!
A Feature that allows Aspect Ratio Murder and/or the removal of content so it can fit on your screen.
Absolute madness, IMO, both for the Feature and Plex dedicating resources to develop this crap while they can’t match a TV Show using the name TVDB uses.
In the end if it stays on PMP and behaves exactly as intended via the controls provided - fine.
Plex has a bad track record in this area however and the first time this crap breaks out of it’s cage and starts terrorizing the neighborhood there’s going to be a ****storm of Epic Proportions during the Mother Of ALL User Uprisings.
I kind of get what you are saying, but I actually prefer to sacrifice content in order to fill my screen.
I specifically wanted a big screen, so it really annoys me that I’m only filling 75% of it!! Ideally I would have a projector, but it just won’t work with my setup, so 65" is the biggest realistically available at the moment.
I also watch a lot of movies on Sky HD, where they routinely must zoom/crop because all of the screen is filled without stretching the image.
Back to Plex…
I’ve just check and actually aspect option is called ZOOM, which I guess will crop ALL videos - black bars or not.
Personally I would like that feature, because it would negate the need to keep changing the zoom on my telly
…plus it is an option, if you don’t like/want it then I guess you wouldn’t need to use it
@phillil said:
…plus it is an option, if you don’t like/want it then I guess you wouldn’t need to use it
Famous last words - like:
Popular Tracks - that for at least 18 months came blistering in for everything despite the control being OFF!
TMDB Collections - blistering in despite it’s control being OFF! (this one is new, as yet unconfirmed, but recent posts indicate it’s happening and I have NO PROBLEM believing it!)
Design time spent on this while my AFTV can’t run for two hours without locking up so hard I have cycle the power on the unit to get it back in service,
The aforementioned TVDB TV Show Name Disaster,
and so much more.
Not hard to find a bug - just read down the forums… they’re stacked up like cord-wood.
Oh yea, it’s easy for me to imagine this beast slipping it’s chain to run amok.
Extremely Easy.
Like I said…
if it stays put right where it is locked behind that full screen Noob-View of PMP I’ll never even see the control.
When/If it kicks the cage door off it’s hinges and starts ripping my media asunder - there’s going to be big trouble and there will be THOUSANDS of Villigers lined up behind me as we storm Castle Plexenstein. Plex better buy some fresh Gators for the Moat 'cause we’ll deep fry those old slow ones in House Autry Medium Hot Chicken and Fish Breader.
That’s all I’m sayin…
