# the recent update has screwed up Hulu aspect ratios for older shows



## tivoknucklehead (Dec 12, 2002)

old 4:3 shows used to show perfectly well. now everything is zoomed and cannot be adjusted. Hulu on my Roku still lets me letterbox, Tivo does not now
specifically, Dawson's Creek opening credits are unwatchable on Tivo due to the zoom
thoughts?


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## mrizzo80 (Apr 17, 2012)

Experiencing the same thing. 

On the positive side, the "freeze" bug may have been resolved.


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## Clemenza (Jan 4, 2003)

Same problem on my Roamio Pro. Hulu no longer respects the 'panel' display mode and will not letterbox 4:3 shows. (The Amazon app does not exhibit this problem, though, which is interesting.) Hulu worked fine with letterboxing 4:3 shows before the 20.7.2 update. I tried changing the default mode from 'panel' to 'zoom' then back to 'panel' before re-launching Hulu, but the problem persists. Also tried changing available video formats, deselecting 1080 p 60 and 24, trying the 'auto' setting, etc. No luck. Interestingly, my 2 updated Minis do not have this problem. Very strange...


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## MichaelCoffin (Nov 28, 2014)

Got the firmware update this morning and have the same Hulu problem! SD content is now zooming in and chopping top/bottom of screen, regardless of your Aspect Ratio settings (I tried Panel and Zoom, had no impact). Pressing the Zoom button on the Tivo remote kicks you out of the Hulu app all together. 

I don't know if the firmware update improves the long-standing "buffering" problem, I doubt I'll find out since the "zoomed" content is unwatchable!

Doesn't anybody at Tivo test these fixes before pushing them out? And how do you back off a buggy firmware push? I asked this question the LAST time they did a firmware push that mangled my audio, never did get an answer! As a paying customer I should be given the CHOICE of whether I want to keep the changes, or reject them (kind of like Windows updates, I NEVER allow Windows to do automatic updates, they might fix one thing while breaking 10).


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

MichaelCoffin said:


> Doesn't anybody at Tivo test these fixes before pushing them out? And how do you back off a buggy firmware push? I asked this question the LAST time they did a firmware push that mangled my audio, never did get an answer! As a paying customer I should be given the CHOICE of whether I want to keep the changes, or reject them (kind of like Windows updates, I NEVER allow Windows to do automatic updates, they might fix one thing while breaking 10).


You can't revert to an older version. Your best bet is to be sure to submit a ticket to TiVo to get the issue fixed.

And you really need to apply Windows security updates. Companies and users *not* doing this is what allowed the Petya ransomware to spread as Microsoft had already released the security update for that a month or 2 before it was out.

Scott


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## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

it's not Tivo. It's Hulu. Doing the same thing on my Amazon Fire TV on some shows


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

I do not use Hulu, but this sounds like a well-known problem with Amazon on the TiVo, where you cannot adjust the aspect ratio of the displayed video while it is playing. The solution for the Amazon app is simply to make sure your aspect ratio is set to "Panel" BEFORE you start the app, then all programs are displayed in the correct aspect ratio.


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## Kintaro (May 2, 2016)

V7Goose said:


> I do not use Hulu, but this sounds like a well-known problem with Amazon on the TiVo, where you cannot adjust the aspect ratio of the displayed video while it is playing. The solution for the Amazon app is simply to make sure your aspect ratio is set to "Panel" BEFORE you start the app, then all programs are displayed in the correct aspect ratio.


It seems like they are setting it to Panel before launching the app and it is still zooming. I don't subscribed to Hulu so can't test it myself.


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## whm (Jul 30, 2010)

I have the exact same problem on my Bolt +. Zooms on 4:3 shows in Hulu even when system outside the app is set to Panel. Zoom button used in Hulu just exits the app. However the aspect ratio in Hulu on my Premiere XL is just fine. 

It's late November and this is still occurring (I noticed these posts were August).


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## PSU_Sudzi (Jun 4, 2015)

Does anyone still see this issue even on non-TiVo Hulu? Tried playing an old TV episode on my Samsung TV Hulu app and it’s full screen zoomed same as my TiVo app. Checked to see if I have the latest app version for the tv and I do.


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## jth tv (Nov 15, 2014)

Dawson's Creek S1E1 and Hunter S7E1 are fine on AppleTV4 but are Zoomed on Roamio even though Panel.

The picture quality looks better on AppleTV4 so I do Not use Tivo for Hulu anyways.


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## wbrightfl (Oct 31, 2013)

PSU_Sudzi said:


> Does anyone still see this issue even on non-TiVo Hulu? Tried playing an old TV episode on my Samsung TV Hulu app and it's full screen zoomed same as my TiVo app. Checked to see if I have the latest app version for the tv and I do.


yes we watched 2 episodes of Golden Girls last night and both were zoomed in and a little blurry. Newer shows look normal though.


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## PSU_Sudzi (Jun 4, 2015)

jth tv said:


> Dawson's Creek S1E1 and Hunter S7E1 are fine on AppleTV4 but are Zoomed on Roamio even though Panel.
> 
> The picture quality looks better on AppleTV4 so I do Not use Tivo for Hulu anyways.


Thanks, looks like I need to get an Apple TV also at some point.


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## wbrightfl (Oct 31, 2013)

I am watching Hulu using my TIVOs only because they still have the amazing classic Hulu app. I used to watch Hulu using my Roku, until they launched the new Hulu experience from hell. The UI is so bad and confusing I deleted it off my Roku and went back to TIVO. I am sure at some point they will force the new experience out to TIVOs then we are all up the creek and I will cancel Hulu.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

PSU_Sudzi said:


> Thanks, looks like I need to get an Apple TV also at some point.


I just got an Apple TV 4K and LOVE it. Highly recommend it. (You can get one for free if you sign up for DirecTV Now and prepay for 4 months of service. Cheapest tier is $35, so it comes to $140 plus tax. A new ATV4K costs $180.)



wbrightfl said:


> I am watching Hulu using my TIVOs only because they still have the amazing classic Hulu app. I used to watch Hulu using my Roku, until they launched the new Hulu experience from hell. The UI is so bad and confusing I deleted it off my Roku and went back to TIVO. I am sure at some point they will force the new experience out to TIVOs then we are all up the creek and I will cancel Hulu.


I don't know. You may be in luck (assuming you're happy with Hulu as-is on TiVo). Hulu has only rolled out one significant update to their TiVo app since they originally debuted it years ago. They don't pay much attention to TiVo. I kinda doubt they put the development resources into completely rebuilding their app for TiVo.


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## reneg (Jun 19, 2002)

wbrightfl said:


> I am watching Hulu using my TIVOs only because they still have the amazing classic Hulu app. I used to watch Hulu using my Roku, until they launched the new Hulu experience from hell. The UI is so bad and confusing I deleted it off my Roku and went back to TIVO. I am sure at some point they will force the new experience out to TIVOs then we are all up the creek and I will cancel Hulu.


Sounds like Roku has their own version of Hydra


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

reneg said:


> Sounds like Roku has their own version of Hydra


No, it is Hulu. The new interface is horrible. They just haven't update the TiVo one yet. Hulu is updated on every other platform I have. Very hard to find things because it wants to tell you what you want to watch.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

TonyD79 said:


> No, it is Hulu. The new interface is horrible. They just haven't update the TiVo one yet. Hulu is updated on every other platform I have. Very hard to find things because it wants to tell you what you want to watch.


Visually, the new Hulu UI looks much better than the old one. Functionally, now that I've gotten used to it, I think it's OK. Yes, you're greeted on the initial home screen with a bunch of recommendations in a vertical list you probably don't care to scroll through. But that's kind of like the horizontal row of recommendations at the top of the old home screen.

In the new UI, you have to click 3x to get to your queue, now labelled "My Stuff": up to Lineup, up to Home, right to My Stuff. At that point, you can see your shows and movies. To actually get to them, though, requires 2 more clicks: down to the sortable categories row (Shows, Movies, etc.), then down to the actual content.

In the old UI, you just have to click down 2 times and you're on the Watchlist row. But you can't see as many titles there without scrolling, and the list isn't sortable into shows versus movies from there.

I do think the new UI needs some usability tweaking but it's not, IMO, nearly as bad as lots of people think. It would help things a lot, IMO, if they just placed the "cursor" (i.e. the highlighted UI element) at the Home menu icon at the upper left when the app first starts up. Then you just need to click right once and you're at My Stuff. Or, for those interested in Hulu's curated categories (Lineup, Keep Watching, TV, Movies, etc.), those are on a row one click down.

A bigger issue, though, is why Hulu decided to separate out Keep Watching from My Stuff. With the former, items are automatically added based on your watch history. With the latter, you must choose to add content to your queue. I actually prefer their old Watchlist, which was a combo of the two. You could add stuff to Watchlist without ever having watched any but anything you watched was automatically added (but could be easily removed later if you wanted).

Also, they need to enable wrap-around scrolling in every one of their menus -- whether they're horizontal category choices or (especially) long vertical content lists -- so that when you get to the end of the list, you can click one more time in the same direction and automatically jump back to the start of the list.


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## mrizzo80 (Apr 17, 2012)

On a somewhat-related topic (Hulu, at least) a Hulu SVP did an AMA a few months ago. If I'm reading between the lines correctly, this guy is a TiVo user. Hopefully that will work in our favor. 


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https://www.reddit.com/r/path%3D%252Fr%252Fcordcutters%252Fcomments%252F75ydor%252Fi_am_ben_smith_svp_of_experience_at_hulu_ama%252Fdoa1nix


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