Squashed & cropped 4:3 on streaming services
#1

Not sure if this is the right place to talk about this, so if not, mods are welcome to do their thing.

I have Fire TV sticks in the house, and I've ruled out ever watching 4:3 content on All4, owing to the fact that the picture was both stretched to 16:9 *and* cropped with pillarbox bars on the screen. I just figured this was down to incompetency on the part of the tech folk uploading the content with the wrong settings. I'd flagged this up to All4 from time to time and got no response. I tried looking online to see if anyone else had similar issues, and the results were very thin on the ground. I know people's pickiness over picture quality varies rapidly, but surely, there can't be this many people who are content having their content distorted *and* cropped?

Anyway, earlier this week, I decide to download the STV Player app to indulge in Brookside. I knew as soon as the adverts started that there would be trouble - the STV Player promo was formatted in 4:3 letterbox, but stretched across to fill a 16:9 image, *and* the dreaded pillarbox bars were cutting off the sides of the already distorted image. I brought this up over on the Brookside thread to see if anyone else had this issue. Unless the post was ignored, I can only gather I'm alone in my experiences once again.

I've just gone to play the most recent episode that's available at the time of posting, and to my delight, the STV Player promo was formatted to 4:3 letterbox, *but* it wasn't stretched! Low and behold, when Brookside started to play, I could see the overscan areas on either side of the picture. Rejoice! STV must've noticed the issue and fixed it. I went to check if they'd fixed the earlier episodes - they hadn't. So I went to see at what point the episodes were fixed... I got up to the episode I'd just played and found to be displaying correctly, and it was suddenly distorted and cropped again!

I can only assume this is something happening to me? I haven't come across any settings on either the STV or All4 apps, nor the system settings on the Fire TV stick, that could be having this affect on 4:3 content. Does anyone have the faintest idea what might be going on? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.
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#2

If your Firestick is being powered by the TV USB port (or you happen to be very jammy and it runs on its own HDMI power), use the power brick that came with it. 

Otherwise if you're using some sort of HDMI extender (I don't think the Firestick comes with one but I know it comes with a power block) then eliminate that.

The Fire TV family comes in about a dozen different flavours - which one do you have?
www.amazon.co.uk 
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#3

I probably should've been more specific about the models, sorry! I've got a Fire Stick 4K in one TV and a "current gen" Fire TV Stick 1080p in another.

Both sticks are being powered by their official AC adapters that they came with. They are connected to both their official extenders and third-party extension leads, but I've just plugged the 4K Stick directly into the HDMI port to see if it makes a difference, and the 4:3 content is still cropped and stretched.

For what it's worth, any 4:3 content on other apps such as Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video display without any issues at all (pillarboxed but the 4:3 is native and not stretched "behind" the pillarboxes). So far, the only apps I'm having issues with are All4 and the STV Player.
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#4

I recently upgraded from an older HD firestick to the 4K Max (it was only £5 more once you included the cashback for recycling the old one).

I definitely think the extra money for the max is worth it. Just so much more responsive with no lagging any more. The remote with tv volume and alexa button is also a nice touch.
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#5

Ah, didn't know they did a recycling thing. I figured I'd save a bit of money seeing as I was never going to upgrade to 4K for my bedroom TV, but as you say, the lag was something I didn't expect.

I'd definitely upgrade if it fixed this ruddy cropping business though!
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#6

(16-02-2023, 12:29 AM)Larry the Loafer Wrote:  Ah, didn't know they did a recycling thing.

www.amazon.co.uk 

It's a little small but its just under the price where it'll show you if you have any eligible items. Although it's full price atm so I'd wait for it to go on offer again.
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#7

Yeah, I have a Firestick 2nd Generation, which lags like hell now and it has done ever since they upgraded the interface a couple of years ago. Presume that's Amazon code for get a new one. My 4k stick is still happy two years on.

(I got £15 off the 2nd generation firestick when I bought it in 2017 as I used to be a member of Lovefilm, before Amazon bought the company out, and they closed the DVD Rental service, but we all got £15 off a Firestick, so I got it for £25 as opposed to the then full price of £40)

At the moment I can see a 20% trade-in offer for my 2nd Gen, so might wait until it drops again. The TV its on isn't Smart or 4k so I may just replace it with a Lite instead (but can't trade the 2nd gen in for that)
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