Zoom in on Standard-Definition TV Shows and Ultra-Widescreen Movies

If you only watch current TV shows, you’ve probably never encountered this, but if you’re watching older 4:3 content — that is to say, TV shows and movies that were recorded in standard definition, you’ll end up seeing them “pillar-boxed” on your widescreen TV, with black bars on each side of the video.

The same problem applies if you’re watching a “CinemaScope” widescreen movie — those that use a 2.35:1 (or greater) aspect ratio. These will be “letterboxed” on almost all HD TV screens, with black bars at the top and the bottom.

If you’d rather have the video take up your full TV screen, and are willing to cut off part of it, you can double-tap (not press) on the Siri Remote touchpad to zoom in on the content in order to make it take up your whole screen. Double-tapping again will return to the normal pillar-boxed or letterboxed view.

Of course, if you’re already watching 16:9 content, double-tapping the touchpad won’t do anything at all. As with the progress bar time trick, this also only works by default with Apple’s built-in video player; it’s up to other developers if they want to implement it in their own to remain consistent with the Apple TV experience.