Flash/Youtube full-screen issue

I am experiencing a weird issue with embedded Flash and Windows Media video in full-screen mode with both Firefox and Internet Explorer. For some reason the aspect ratio when viewing from within the browser is locked so any 4:3 video (my laptop screen is widescreen) gets two big vertical bars to the left and right of the video in full-screen mode...

This is not an issue when viewing native widescreen video from within the browser, since the video then is correctly stretched onto the whole screen. This is also not an issue when opening videos from within the browser but viewing with an external application. So, for instance when using the RealVideo theater mode from within the browser (which opens up full-screen view in the default external utility for RealMedia), the video is fully stretched on the screen...

The GPU settings in the ATI Catalyst Control Center are set to stretch and override the aspect ratio (Notebook Panel Properties->Attributes->Scaling Options->Full Screen), so this shouldn't be a GPU setting issue. OTOH, given that this is a cross-browser (FF/IE) and cross-plugin (flash/wmv) issue, I doubt this can be resolved by any browser or plugin-specific setting either. Bottom line, I know what the problem is (aspect ratio is locked within the browsers for some reason), but I don't know how and where to fix it, so any help would be highly appreciated

My setup: Sony Vaio FW11M, 16.4" widescreen 1600x900 LCD, ATI Mobility HD 3470 GPU, Vista Ultimate x64.

 

If you have an NVIDIA card, go into NVIDIA Control Panel and look for a section called "Change Flat Panel Display scaling". There are options for NVIDIA scaling, scaling with fixed aspect ratio, and no scaling. One of these options may solve your problem. To get to the control panel, right-click your desktop and click on "NVIDIA Control Panel"

-J.B.

 

first: i suggest everyone to use "preserve apsect ratio" on any system no matter what. that's the best option and should be default. i hate stretched displays, they're really ugly.

second: are you sure the borders are not just because you have a widescreen display and the video isn't widescreen? then the borders would be correct. i think we need a screenshot to understand it..

you mean it's twice morphed to do 16:9 => 4:3 move, resulting in something like 1:1 in the end (or even worse? ).

third: you have updated to the latest version, right?

oh, and fourth: for everyone: flash doesn't change, affect, reset, modify the resolution of your screen in _any_ way. all it does, is create a window filling your whole desktop, and stretches the movie onto that. no screenmode change. so it can't be because of that. (at least, it never changed screenmode on any system i use)

 

I use to get the BSOD every time i clicked full screen on Youtube , But i have a new computer now!!!

 

I had to change the original post quite a bit and even the thread title, because I just realized that this "locked aspect ratio" issue I'm experiencing is not Flash-specific but affects any embedded browser media when viewed inside the browser in full-screen mode. Still looking for a solution, btw