How to Get Full Screen Video (Movie) on Asus Eee PC 1000

[drstew]

When I play a movie on my Asus Eee PC 1000, it does not fill the screen in either dimension. It appears as if it is framed (not letterboxed). I cannot get full screen in WinDVD 5 or Windows Media Player. These players work fine on my home computer, filling the screen in at least one dimension. I have tried Alt+Enter, which increases the video size if small, but this will not fill the screen (at least in one dimension). In Windows Media Palyer, occassionally, the screen will fill completely, but I cannot seem to control this.

 

[frozenlead]

You can control this by choosing movies that are in the same aspect ratio as your Eee PC. Your screen resolution is 1024x600, which reduces to 128:75, or about 1.707. Typical videos will be shot in either 4:3 (1.33), 16:9 (1.78), or 16:10 (1.6). Your screen is none of those - so unless you get a movie/video that is native to your aspect ratio, you will never be able to view a movie in "full screen". Your desktop likely has a standard resolution screen, and therefore is able to play certain movies in their native aspects - your Eee pc, however, does not have a standard screen, and won't allow for it.

 

[drstew]

My home computer is 1600x1200. Movies in all sorts of resolutions and formats fill most or all of the screen no matter what I do. Why wouldn't my Eee PC fill one dimension and have black bars in the other? Others have told me resoultion doesn't matter, but I suppose I should experiment. I don't expect to use all of the screen, just more of it. I am wasting 40-50% of the screen. Is there any chance my Eee PC does this to conserve battery power? If so, can this be changed?

 

[frozenlead]

It's not a matter of resolution - it's a matter of aspect ratio. The ratio to the width of a movie to it's height; no matter what the units are. If an aspect ratio is not used to standardize how a video is played, you get either stretched or compressed images as frames.

It's a bit like taking a photo and stretching it out. If you drag a photo's right margin a lot over without changing it's height, you get a really fat stretched out picture that really looks terrible. Locking in video aspect ratio is very important to prevent this from happening.

And I've never heard of any sort of battery saving software that reduces the screen size of a movie.

 

[drstew]

The video is proportioned correctly (not distorted or stretched), but has a frame of black all arouind it, like a picture frame. I get the same result when I watch a Youtube video when choosing full screen.

 

[frozenlead]

Yes. The frame is there to keep the video in its native ratio. If they weren't there, you would see the stretching come into play.

Try setting the screen resolution to different standards, if you can - like 800x600 or 640x480 (for 4:3..try some others for 16:10 or 16:9 - i don't know any off the top of my head lower than your current res). See if you can get the bars to go away.

 

[Guest]

Yes. The frame is there to keep the video in its native ratio. If they weren't there, you would see the stretching come into play.

Try setting the screen resolution to different standards, if you can - like 800x600 or 640x480 (for 4:3..try some others for 16:10 or 16:9 - i don't know any off the top of my head lower than your current res). See if you can get the bars to go away.

OH MY WORD! I feel for the OP. You just don't get it. He's saying that he has black bars in BOTH dimensions. It should always be possible to fill the screen's width OR height, if not both, depending on aspect ratio. The fact that this isn't happening means his problem has nothing to do with aspect ratio. It's probably due to the video drivers or display API incorrectly reporting the available resolution or the codec is choosing not to fill the screen. Heaven knows why. Check drivers and codec settings if you can find them.

 

[frozenlead]

While it's possible drivers have something to do with it, codecs do not.

However, since this is a netbook with a nonstandard resolution, nothing makes it possible to have a video fill the screen. The very fact the video is being subjected to a restructured resolution implies that the video playback algorithm is attempting to make the video appear natural. Just because video is fullscreen on his 1600x1200 desktop (which is a resolution standard) doesn't mean it should be on his nonstandard netbook.

He didn't respond with test results anyway, and this thread is fairly old.