# Amazon Video aspect ratio issue



## whiteshaft (Jul 15, 2003)

Hello all,

I rented a film on Amazon this weekend through the app on Roamio and noticed an annoying quirk with the way it handles aspect ratios in relation to the ZOOM button setting.

The film is Deathgasm, which is listed with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio on IMDB but it filled the frame on my LCD meaning it was displaying at 1.78:1 (16:9). We noticed the opening titles and text graphics (which were close to the edges of the frame) were getting cut off. After we finished the movie I did some troubleshooting and realized the culprit was the ZOOM setting I had enabled.

I usually don't have issues with aspect ratio on the Roamio, especially with HD content. My TV (a Sharp) is set to "Dot by Dot" so it takes it's cue from the devices feeding it and I never have to touch the aspect button on that remote. For SD channels we normally have the Roamio set to ZOOM as it's the least annoying and we only lose a little bit of image at the top and bottom; PANEL is just too small and FULL is useless. On HD content, the Roamio displays it properly and locks out the ZOOM control so that the settings don't matter.

That did NOT happen in this case. The Amazon movie was locked into the ZOOM setting so that's why it was getting cut off. When I changed it to PANEL it displayed properly -- but, as you know, pushing the ZOOM button kicks you out to Live TV! So not only was the Amazon app displaying HD content incorrectly, it couldn't be easily fixed without stopping playback and exiting the app.

Has anyone else seen this behavior? Was it a fluke? I've watched a lot of Amazon (and Netflix) content and I've not experience this behavior before - or if I did I didn't notice. Only the cropped titles clued me in that the ratio was off. I plan on opening a ticket with Tivo but I wonder if I should tell Amazon about it first? Which service is at fault here?


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## upxtech (Jan 11, 2016)

Same issue here. Watched two rentals and both were stretched vertically. TV ratio is correct. Switched from TiVo Amazon to baked-in Samsung Amazon app and it was fine. Definitely exclusive to the TiVo.

The zoom button on the TiVo didn't resolve anything.


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## whiteshaft (Jul 15, 2003)

upxtech said:


> Same issue here. Watched two rentals and both were stretched vertically. TV ratio is correct. Switched from TiVo Amazon to baked-in Samsung Amazon app and it was fine. Definitely exclusive to the TiVo.
> 
> The zoom button on the TiVo didn't resolve anything.


The ZOOM button didn't work? Ouch.

Did you report to TiVo or Amazon?


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Apps keep the ratio the box was set to when the app was launched. It has worked that way for a long time. Can be confusing when launching as you found zoom has no impact on HD content.


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## whiteshaft (Jul 15, 2003)

jrtroo said:


> Apps keep the ratio the box was set to when the app was launched. It has worked that way for a long time. Can be confusing when launching as you found zoom has no impact on HD content.


That makes no sense to me. If the ZOOM button has no effect on HD content, then why did that setting affect the HD movie I was watching on Amazon? And it's not like the Amazon UI was affected by the setting, only the film once I started playing it.

And I could be wrong but I don't think this happens on Netflix.


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## Odds Bodkins (Jun 7, 2006)

This happens with Plex. Only quirk is you have to set to PANEL when you're not in the app. Changing from ZOOM/PANEL while you're in Plex does nothing. jrtroo is correct.


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## whiteshaft (Jul 15, 2003)

Uggggh. 

Regardless I've still opened a ticket with TiVo. That's just bad design.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

I just keep my Tivos set to Panel and the TV's aspect to full. I prefer not to lose the content at the top and bottom of the screen just to fill it completely. The exception is for the OTA QVC channel which I had to set to full to stretch it to the proper aspect.

If you constantly change the aspect setting, you can run into issues such as what you describe.


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## whiteshaft (Jul 15, 2003)

To clarify, I've only lost a little image when Zooming in on a few SD TV channels. Most of them now have HD options and TWC automatically switches to that version of the channel (one of the few things they do right). The other channels we watch the most are SD movie channels and most of that content is already 16:9, so selecting Zoom just fills the screen proportionally without cutting anything off. I can't stand to watch something in Panel mode with all that black around it, it's maddening.

At the very least, TiVo should update their software to allow the ZOOM button to be used in the apps if they're going to let it affect the aspect ratio.


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## upxtech (Jan 11, 2016)

whiteshaft said:


> The ZOOM button didn't work? Ouch.
> 
> Did you report to TiVo or Amazon?


Let me clarify. The zoom button did cycle through the options, it's just that it was quite clear that everyone's heads were still stretched vertically. It's almost as if the source material was stretched. First saw this while playing The Scorch Trials for my Son, but then saw it again on Terminator Genysis, so it's not isolated to one film. I've only had my Tivo for 2-3 months, but didn't have this problem when I first started. I presume it happened with the last update. As I mentioned originally, it's isolated to the TiVo. Playing the Amazon App directly from the Samsung Smart Hub displayed it fine.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Have you backed out of the app, changed the settings, and verified that fixed things? It has worked that way for years and years, but you may just have not seen it with the setting on anything but panel.



whiteshaft said:


> At the very least, TiVo should update their software to allow the ZOOM button to be used in the apps if they're going to let it affect the aspect ratio.


Hard to say- is this Tivo locking it out, or the app writers not enabling the function, or something else?


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

I'm guessing that the app writers are essentially being given environment variables of the current setting at app startup.. and do not get informed of any of the "Tivo specific" changes while they're already running.


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## Patrickcg (Jul 15, 2003)

At least your Amazon app is working. My has nothing but a blank screen when I launch it since last weekend. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## dbtom (Feb 14, 2002)

Patrickcg said:


> At least your Amazon app is working. My has nothing but a blank screen when I launch it since last weekend.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I just ran into this issue renting a movie. When I backed out and switched the zoom to panel it was fixed.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## HoTatII (Sep 21, 2016)

I'm still confused as to why a streaming program's format delivered by the AIV app should behave any differently than with other delivery methods, live TV or otherwise?

That is, whenever a received program's native format matches the one in the TIVO's setup, the specific Zoom control setting ("Panel," "Zoom," or "Full," for the 16:9 setting) should be locked out and have no effect on the format of the displayed video.

Sent from my LGMS550 using Tapatalk


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## spocko (Feb 4, 2009)

I ran into this recently too. Tried to watch Indiana Jones Temple of Doom using the Amazon app in my Roamio. It was stretched vertically, and I couldn't find a way to change it in the Amazon app. I gave up on the Tivo and used the old Amazon app that is built into my 2011-era Panasonic TV, which displayed the correct aspect ratio. The Tivo Amazon app should allow you to change aspect ratio within the app.


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## kedori (Mar 7, 2018)

The same thing happens when I watch Amazon video from Tivo. When I watch Amazon from my smart TV, Amazon squishes the image into letterbox. When I watch it via Tivo, Tivo stretches the picture so that people/objects seem unnaturally taller than they should be.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

kedori said:


> The same thing happens when I watch Amazon video from Tivo. When I watch Amazon from my smart TV, Amazon squishes the image into letterbox. When I watch it via Tivo, Tivo stretches the picture so that people/objects seem unnaturally taller than they should be.


TV aspect settings are independent from Tivo's. The TV may also have independent aspect settings for each of the inputs.

Tivo aspect settings need to be set *Prior* to entering any of the apps. They cannot be set within.

The best settings are: Tivo to Panel, TV to Full.

When you watch Amazon from the TV, that is independent from the Tivo. (That is one input).
Tivo would be on another input, so..... there are independent aspect settings for each input.

Added: Some TVs have a "Master" aspect ratio setting that will override the setting for those inputs, if it does, turn it off.


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## srbbass (Aug 7, 2008)

Thanks for your help on this. Confirming that
TiVO: Panel
TV: Dot by Dot (No full mode on my old Aquos TV)
solved this problem for me when watching Amazon videos


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