Videos with different aspect ratio than device are zoomed in

[Teelry]

Videos with a smaller aspect ratio will be zoomed in. For example, videos in 16:9 running on a device that has an 18:9 aspect ratio will zoom them in, making the user able to scroll up/down the video, which can be problematic if the user is watching a video with subtitles. It should be either not zoomed in, or given the choice to.

I realise this is low priority, but it is still a problem.

Status as of Feb-2022: YouTube issue is not a Firefox issue. They are doing user agent detection that only works in Chrome. A Chrome engineer has opened a YouTube bug with them. It is possible to work around this using Ublock

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Task

[boek]

Reproducible on a pixel 3

[ghost]

The bug also occurs when a landscape video is made full-screen in the portrait mode. The video is scrollable vertically even though the whole video is in view.

[raindrum]

Seems to happen with every video, whether in landscape or not, at least on an XZ1 Compact running LineageOS 16. Every video can be scrolled up or down, regardless of whether its dimensions match the screen. Most (all?) of the time, the entire video is onscreen at the middle scroll level, but it automatically scrolls to the top or bottom if I take my finger off the screen.

EDIT: I believe Issue #7333, which was closed in favor of this ticket, describes the issue better, at least in my experience. For me, all videos, regardless of aspect ratio, scroll. But only when the toolbar is set to the top. I set it to the bottom, and fullscreen videos now display properly.

[jsdz]

It doesn't allow scrolling now, which means that the bottom of the video including the controls is permanently cut off until you exit fullscreen..

[ekager]

Pulling in the info from the comment here: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/7333#issuecomment-598998657

This seems to be much worse when toolbar is set to the top than when it is set to the bottom. You should not be able to scroll in fullscreen mode for either configuration.

[agi]

Copying from https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1654800#c3

I cannot repro this in GVE, on my phone vimeo shows the entire UI on GVE and clips it heavily on Fenix.

I suspect this is because Fenix does not remove the dynamic toolbar space when going fullscreen?

[freebrowser1]

This is a different problem than I reported in #14548. This ticket here is about that the video zooms too much which makes the subtitle invisible, but what I see is that it does not zoom enough leaving a wide white bar on the right side and a narrow white bar on the left side, but showing subtitles normally.

[Strugatsky]

I'd like to add this was fixed by the addon "Ultrawideo" on Fennec, not available in Fenix of course. When setting the mode to "normal" videos were played back normally. I hope this info can help someone working on this bug.

[cizkek]

https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/14533

Unlike mentioned on above post, in 14533 it is not zoomed in. You can not scroll. The video is cropped and stuck so the bottom half is gone.

[AnAkkk]

I have the same issue on a Pixel 2. I first noticed this issue when I started using Firefox Preview, months ago. I still had the issue when it was switched to Firefox Nightly. The release version of Firefox was working fine at that time. Then the release version of Firefox was updated to Fenix, a few weeks ago (I guess v79?), and the issue was not present, although it was still there on Nightly. Today, I had an update to the release version of Firefox (v80), and the issue now appeared there as well. I guess it is something with v80 then.

EDIT: Interestingly I can't reproduce the issue anymore on Nightly now, weird.

[yaomtc]

Seems like nobody's attached screenshots of this yet. I think I'm having the same issue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDSaOwBHwbs

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/5534045/92664184-4d77b980-f2d1-11ea-8b22-47dd13fbb6cd.png

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/5534045/92664186-4d77b980-f2d1-11ea-938f-484b1fe46439.png

EDIT: I see that the duplicate issue linked above my comment actually has screenshots... using the same channel I did. Huh.

[arencambre]

At risk of being a +1/"me, too!":

• Reproducible on both Pixel 2 XL (18:9) and Pixel 4 XL (19:9) phones.
• The problem appears to be that Firefox consistently scales the video in a way that causes no letterboxing. That requires it to crop along the dimension that is shorter than the video. The correct approach is to check x and ask, "If I expand the video to be as wide as x, y require cropping?" If no, then expand video to full width of x and letterbox y if necessary. If yes, then do the opposite: expand video to full height of y and letterbox x.
• Getting the Ultrawideo add-on working would be an acceptable interim resolution.
• In case any Fennec code was carried over, on occasion, some combination of rotation changes and fullsize/normal size changes would cause no cropping; Firefox would letterbox the video correctly. I could not consistently reproduce this.

[arencambre]

Also, I hope this will be viewed as important. There are some good reasons to prefer to watch videos in Firefox instead of the native apps, including privacy, annoyance blocking, and more.

[hexraptor]

Also, I hope this will be viewed as important. There are some good reasons to prefer to watch videos in Firefox instead of the native apps, including privacy, annoyance blocking, and more.

Given the amount of time that this has been an issue, I've zero confidence firefox will resolve it. I have the same issue, it's infuriating to be stuck tied to the youtube app.

[Eraser1729]

Reproducible in Nokia 7.2 and oh boy does the issue drags on

[arencambre]

The Ultrawideo extension is an "it just works" workaround to this bug. I am using it now on Fenix Nightly.

If this isn't a high enough priority to fix, then I encourage getting this extension listed as a "Recommended Extension". That way, it can be used on normal Fenix releases. I and the extension's author have both gone through the process to request this. The process is opaque, so I don't know status.

[readams]

Broken for me as well on a Pixel 4 XL with Nightly 201014 17:01 (Build #2015769675).

Can confirm Ultrawideo extension fixes this.

[kot2202]

On my redmi note 4x firefox beta 83.0.0-beta3 #2015773523 it was caused by settings>customize>Scroll to hide toolbar (under gestures tab), turned it off and videos now fit properly

[yaomtc]

@kot2202 Do you mean YouTube videos in landscape fullscreen? That didn't work for me. Also your phone is only 16:9.

[theSdev]

This doesn't happen constantly weirdly enough and I'm yet to find a pattern as when it does. As for a fix, I think:

1. The zoom in should be optional (implementing a zoom-to-fill approach like the native YouTube app would be fantastic).
2. The video should be centered both ways when it's zoomed-in (I watched some videos having large black bars on the top and bottom and it's a shame to see the black bar on the top instead of the cut-offed content on the bottom).
3. In the zoomed-in mode the portrait status bar area is blank (the area around the punch-hole camera). That should also be filled with the video.

PS: YouTube doesn't show subtitles in full-screen mode for some reason.

[thebucc]

I'm seeing this also in the BBC videos, and as commented above (https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/8252#issuecomment-589891596), this happens only when the toolbar is set to the top. I've now moved the toolbar to the bottom, which fixes the issue, but I'm just not used to it, it's very annoying...

[mackeev]

I see something is being done to resolve this issue (I'm referring to a couple of most recent Nightlies). I'm testing it on this site: http://livetv.sx/enx/allupcoming. NONE of the streaming videos there are showing correctly (some not at all).

[ryanhex53]

My phone screen resolution is 1080 x 2400, when play youtube video in fullscreen mode, the bottom of video been cut off, and no subtitle show up.

I'm using version 82.1.3

please fix this, video playing is very important feature.

[joshtriplett]

I'm experiencing this as well. This is the primary issue preventing me from using m.youtube.com in Firefox as my primary interface to YouTube. I watch many videos that have a 4:3 aspect ratio, and the zoom cuts off enough of the video to make it unwatchable.

Reproduced on Pixel 3 XL.

[cmicek1]

Videos on some sites are zoomed in for me as well, but I'm not sure if it's related to the aspect ratio of the video, since content that's supposedly 1080p is zoomed in slightly on my 1080p Moto G5 Plus. (Maybe the size of the player has an effect?)

[jxu]

Happens to me on my old OnePlus 5T and Pixel 4a. For the OnePlus 5T, tapping the screen once fixed the zoom. Not for Pixel.

[linsui]

For me, websites are broken only in desktop mode while work well in mobile version. On a small screen the video overflows and on a large screen the video can fill the screen. However, all control buttons are still on the correct positions.

[joshtriplett]

I'm encountering this with the mobile version of Youtube.

[ryanhex53]

Watch video without fullscreen

Watch video in fullscreen

Please.... fix this bug.

[JoGarWeb]

I can reproduce this in a phone with resolution of 720x1517px (Nokia 5.3)

Solved installing Ultrawideo this only can be solved installing this custom addon, currently it can only be solved in Firefox Nightly.

Can be reproduce installing an AVD (Android Virtual Machine) with Resolution of 720x1517px

[welcometochristown]

Happening on One Plus 8 also. Please fix this, it's very annoying to be missing part of the video in full screen.

[Nandru86]

I have this as well. Regardless of site, video resolution and aspect ratio, all videos are pushed to the bottom in fullscreen. Set the nav bar to the bottom appears to correct it, but its awful

[oobagooma]

Can reproduce this behaviour on a Huawei P30 lite (MAR-LX1A), screen resolution 1080 x 2312 pixels. Video is always cropped vertically ("fit to device width" behaviour), tested with two current FF nightly builds. OS is most recent patch level (Android 10).

Further info can be provided if required.

Update: Video used to reproduce this case: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k1DAadQ3UxE&t=0m2s (2 seconds into the video the title "im Naturhistorischen Museum Wien" is cropped out of frame when viewed in landscape mode.)

[freebrowser1]

Try it again in Landscape mode. Videos are usually in landscape mode. For me that works (but I use the original site: www.youtube.com, not m.youtube.com).

[yaomtc]

@freebrowser1, using the desktop site does make the video centered horizontally on my phone (Pixel 4a) but it is still cut off on the bottom.

EDIT: On trying another video, it's working now. So I guess while it's not 100%, this workaround does seem to work in general. Thanks.

[ekager]

@agi linked me to this bug which may point to a race or timing issue with the dynamic toolbar / fullscreen interaction that needs to be fixed in Gecko https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1674104#c14

[AR3S69]

TEMP FIX : For me the parameter "always show the notch" for Firefox in "Display"-->"Notch & Status bar"-->"Notch in individual apps" works.

[yaomtc]

@AR3S69 At least for those who have a hole in the screen where the camera is, like on the Pixel 4a, that option does not appear.

[AR3S69]

@yaomtc Yeah and even with this option, i've to tap once on video to refit it and everytime I move the time-line cursor... Not very comfortable.

[lacksfish]

How is this an issue for over one year?

[freebrowser1]

Why not using the code of the 'old' Firefox ? There it works flawlessly. That is the reason I still use Fennec 68.12 as these Fenix is still rather buggy and not yet out of its beta stage.

[emilio]

@agi linked me to this bug which may point to a race or timing issue with the dynamic toolbar / fullscreen interaction that needs to be fixed in Gecko https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1674104#c14

This repros with the dynamic toolbar disabled though, right?

[BloodRaven0]

Firefox Focus also seems to have this working properly, I'm not a developer, but maybe try looking at its code and using parts of it? This issue has been known for months, and is the sole reason I have Firefox Focus installed on my phone, I'd love to only have to use one browser...

[kingp0dd]

Confirming too that this still happens. Currently on latest version of Android Firefox nightly. Android 10

[Rodze]

Still have this problem on Galaxy S9.

Full screen landscape videos on YouTube cropped because they are set to fill the screen without any option to show the full video with black bars on the sides.

[ghost]

If i set my screen resolution above 1080p the video gets zoomed in I am using a galaxy note 8 Maybe they will provide a fix :(

[N3tFX]

I think I've found out what's causing the problem. If I disable the auto hide of the toolbar (Settings > Customize > Scroll to hide toolbar) the problem goes away. Something in the code of this feature makes Firefox go crazy. With this setting turned ON both versions of YouTube (desktop and mobile versions of the site) have problems. Turn it OFF and everything works fine.

[ghost]

I think I've found out what's causing the problem. If I disable the auto hide of the toolbar (Settings > Customize > Scroll to hide toolbar) the problem goes away. Something in the code of this feature makes Firefox go crazy. With this setting turned ON both versions of YouTube (desktop and mobile versions of the site) have problems. Turn it OFF and everything works fine.

Didn't worked for me :(

[readams]

The workaround at the moment is to use Firefox Nightly, and configure a custom add-ons collection. Include UltraWideo in your collection and enable it: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/

I don't know what's going on that such a huge bug could persist for so long but there are clearly problems at Mozilla. The mobile team has always been very small and they had recent layoffs as well.

[kingp0dd]

The workaround at the moment is to use Firefox Nightly, and configure a custom add-ons collection. Include UltraWideo in your collection and enable it: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/

I don't know what's going on that such a huge bug could persist for so long but there are clearly problems at Mozilla. The mobile team has always been very small and they had recent layoffs as well.

Thank you! Can confirm this works