Format for phone with wide screen

I'm not sure if this has been addressed, but I'm having trouble properly viewing recordings on my phone. Initially videos are stretched to fit which is terrible on the extra wide phone screen. The problem is that when 'stretch to fit' is turned off, the image is proportionally correct, but it is zoomed to a point where the top and bottom of the video are partially cut off. I know in other video apps I've used in the bast (possibly Spectrum TV or Netflix) you could double tap the screen while the video was playing and it would alternate between sort of a zoomed in video and a video that fit perfectly top to bottom with black at the sides of the screen. That is the format that seems to be missing from Channels. Anyone else have this issue?

Which phone?

Galaxy S21 Ultra.

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When I view the movie/show through Plex, it displays perfectly. I would rather view it through Channels as with Plex I don't get the extra features like commercial ID and such. If you need examples of how each is displaying the videos, I can upload screen shots.

I'm having this exact same problem with my Galaxy S23 Ultra. The top and bottom of the content is cutoff. It's really noticeable when I watch The Weather Channel.

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On my S23 ultra I use playback HYBRID.

I'm seeing this on pixel 8 pro too. Landscape I can either stretch to fit which breaks the aspect ratio or the default which is fit to width which keeps the aspect ratio but crops the top and bottom.

Would love to see a fit to height option for landscape where the height is fit to screen and the width keeps the aspect ratio.

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I've also been seeing this cropping issue for a while when using the hardware video decoder (which seems to work very well) on a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.

@tmm1 When using the hardware video decoder, if playback is started while in portrait orientation and then the phone is rotated to landscape orientation afterward, the top & bottom edges of the content are cut off. However, if the phone is already in landscape orientation when starting playback, then the content fits the screen correctly without cropping.

Note how the lower thirds overlay is cropped out:

Whereas with the workaround of starting playback in landscape orientation the content fits correctly:

Running latest v2024.04.08.0931 Android beta with "Stretch Video to Fit" off.
Client diagnostics submitted under 1d7c3fe7-b0f5-43b5-bd78-e4109d9de14c

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@tmm1 I can confirm that I am having this exact same issue with my Pixel 8 Pro. I use "Hardware" decoder.

If you start in Portrait mode then rotate your phone to Landscape it's jacked!

If you start in Landscape it works as it should!

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Have you guys tried stretch to fit under playback advanced .. That works om my S21 Ultra.

This screws up the proper aspect ratio. Not good.

It all depends on type of recording MPEG2 or H264 .... If you have both test them and see ... also depends on what decoder you are using I use HYBRID.

I use Stretch to Fit and Hybrid.

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Is there somewhere we should be submitting this as a bug?

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Since this is just a Community Forum and not an official Support Forum...
See this thread Acknowledgement of bug reports, which will automatically close one month after the last post, and become part of history.

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I've tried this on the last few things I've watched and it seems to work. Will report back if there's an issue. Thanks

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thanks for reporting back it helps other users that experience this problem. Always nice to see users reply back when things work.

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So Hybrid is NOT a working solution for me. Noticed that what I was watching today was squeezed and didn't look correct. Hardware ALWAYS works but you just have to start the program in landscape. I would say it's definitely a bug with Channels DVR as you should be able to start a program in landscape or portrait mode then spin it to how u want to view it.

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