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For the passed few days I've noticed that fullscreen'd youtube videos and video games have black borders on the top and bottom of them but I had no idea what the problem was since my monitor resolution was the same as it had always been.

It wasn't until I launched the Steam 'big picture mode' that I saw what was happening:

enter image description here

You can also see the black bars I'm talking about in that screenshot.

I've absolutely no idea how to fix it so any help would be greatly appreciated. Tried updating my graphics card drivers.

Doktoro Reichard
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rabid_J
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1 Answers1

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1680 x 1050 = 16:10

1680 x 945 = 16:9

Widescreen format is typically 16:9, not 16:10. Your monitor size is slightly taller than widescreen. Your content is probably traditional widescreen content at 16:9 (I imagine that's what "big picture mode" is - widescreen 16:9 as opposed to 4:3), and so it pads the top and bottom (this type of padding is called letterboxing).

Edit: Steam's Big Picture Mode is "designed specifically for TV". Most wide TV's are 16:9. For example, HD 1080p is 1920 x 1080, which is 16:9. So I guess that's what they designed it for. If your display has a different aspect, the image will be letterboxed to 16:9.

I'm presuming the YouTube videos and such that you are watching are 16:9 as well (if they are standard HD resolution), and thus, same effect - it letterboxes instead of stretching.

16:10 is not uncommon for computer monitors, the extra vertical real estate helps with document editing and such.

Jason C
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    I would say "taller" ("than widescreen") instead of "narrower" although the net effect is the same. You even mention the extra vertical real estate, and the black bars are on the top and bottom. Also, the "16" is the width, and that number stays the same. – Ken Jun 20 '14 at 23:32
  • Hey - thanks for your response. The problem is that this only happened recently - it didn't used to have black borders. I guess it stretched to fit before now and I did something to change that? – rabid_J Jun 21 '14 at 00:48
  • @Ken You know, that's really funny. I actually also obsessed over that. I originally did write "taller"! Then I changed it to "narrower" because I was talking about "wide". But then I added the vertical bit and didn't reconsider. Haha, I'll change it back, "taller" does make more sense. – Jason C Jun 21 '14 at 00:55
  • @rabid_J There are only really two possibilities: 1) You previously had your video output set to 1680 x 945, and you or something else recently changed it to 1680 x 1050, or 2) You just happen to be watching widescreen videos lately, and just noticed this for the first time even though it may have been happening already; maybe something brought your attention to it when you previously hadn't noticed it. In the former case: Did you run any applications that may have changed your screen resolution, install any graphics driver updates that may have reset it, etc.? – Jason C Jun 21 '14 at 01:03
  • @JasonC Unfortunately for years monitor has been 1680x1050 - I've always played video games in that resolution and watched 720p/1080p videos on youtube free from black bars. I say unfortunately because I have no idea what glitch I must've encountered to cause this. It continues to say my resolution is 1680x1050 but black borders are still present on youtube and video games while fullscreen'd.

    Here's my settings if that helps at all; Monitor Settings

     – rabid_J Jun 21 '14 at 01:19
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    @rabid_J It makes sense that the black bars are there, that's what you should expect to see. The bigger mystery is how your machine has managed to play 16:9 content on a 16:10 monitor without letterboxing up until now. What you are seeing now, with the padding, is correct (for HD YouTube content). What you have gotten used to from the past is not. Perhaps there was a glitch in YouTube's resizing, or your browser, that was corrected recently? – Jason C Jun 21 '14 at 02:47