Showmax 16:9

Icemanbrfc

Honorary Master
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Messages
21,644
Reaction score
4,711
Location
Cape Town
Hi

Can somebody tell me if Showmax was designed for tablet or phone specifically? I have a 46 inch tv, and all i get is a small box. Im using an android media player, but was told by their support only certain devices have the option to change to full screen.

Now surely that is just silly if true, and there is no option for force the resolution to fit a bigger screen. Is there a way to force it? I have a chinese media player Ugoos or Nagres HT something lol

Am i missing something here? I was thinking of switching from netflix, but its a stumbling block imo.
 
i find that with the older content, newer stuff is fine
 
ill have a look on the newer content. Still, im surprised that you still cant change or force it to fill the screen. I know Netflix doesnt offer this either, but its terrible to watch it like that.But i like the older content on showmax, and a few of the old SA programmes
 
It's probably because the app wasn't made for these Android media players, so what's most likely happening is your are getting the phone/tablet interface and when you are playing it just displays the video at the actual resolution you are receiving it, which is either 480P or 360P and it is then displayed on your 1080P TV.

What you can try is on the TV itself is changing the aspect ratio/picture size, your TV most likely has a zoom 1 and zoom 2, or on the Android media player under settings you can change the resolution to something like 720x480.
 
Last edited:
It's probably because the app wasn't made for these Android media players, so what's most likely happening is your are getting the phone/tablet interface and when you are playing it just displays the video at the actual resolution you are receiving it, which is either 480P or 360P and it is then displayed on your 1080P TV.

What you can try is on the TV itself is changing the aspect ratio/picture size, your TV most likely has a zoom 1 and zoom 2, or on the Android media player under settings you can change the resolution to something like 720x480.

will have a look. Its a bit of a deal breaker for me. Otherwise, ill just get a smaller tv for showmax, and use the bigger one for netflix. not ideal to have both, but will see the settings on the tv
 
will have a look. Its a bit of a deal breaker for me. Otherwise, ill just get a smaller tv for showmax, and use the bigger one for netflix. not ideal to have both, but will see the settings on the tv

Netflix on these Android media players can't do above 480P anyway so I recommend you to change the resolution on the media player to 720x480 and see what Showmax does.
 
il try the 720 setting. i tried the zoom and zoom 2 option and that did nothing. Im getting above 480p on Netflix though. any reason for saying that SA?
 
il try the 720 setting. i tried the zoom and zoom 2 option and that did nothing. Im getting above 480p on Netflix though. any reason for saying that SA?

Is it just a generic Android box or is it a Fire TV?
 
Haven't seen any "letter box" display from Showmax from my MXQ android box, give some examples of series/movies you're having problems with and I'll check.
 
Game of Thrones. Mick can you post a screen shot of showmax? On Netflix i dont seem to have this issue
 
Generic box..

"These boxes don’t generally run the latest version of Android, but do offer full access to Google Play, and that includes the Netflix app, which works perfectly fine, except it defaults to standard-definition. This is true across the board on any third-party Android set-top box (save the Fire TV), so if you think you’re watching HD Netflix on that no-name box, think again. Even if the box supports 4K resolution, it will always default to 480p on the Netflix app."

If you play something like Example Short 23.976, which displays the bitrate and resolution, I can almost guarantee you it will show 480P.

It is well known and has been discussed on this forum a lot back when these boxes just became popular.
 
"These boxes don’t generally run the latest version of Android, but do offer full access to Google Play, and that includes the Netflix app, which works perfectly fine, except it defaults to standard-definition. This is true across the board on any third-party Android set-top box (save the Fire TV), so if you think you’re watching HD Netflix on that no-name box, think again. Even if the box supports 4K resolution, it will always default to 480p on the Netflix app."

If you play something like Example Short 23.976, which displays the bitrate and resolution, I can almost guarantee you it will show 480P.

It is well known and has been discussed on this forum a lot back when these boxes just became popular.

i have full access to the Google Play store on this box. Running Android 5.01 lollipop
 
i have full access to the Google Play store on this box. Running Android 5.01 lollipop

I guarantee you you're not getting Netflix above 480P on any Android media player other than the Fire TV, Nexus Player or NVIDIA Shield.
 
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X