Apple TV zoom/stretch (Netflix app)

4kappletv

What gestures or buttons make the Apple TV in Netflix app zoom/stretch the image to fill screen?

On the Apple TV 4K (2017) using Netflix app, I somehow zoomed/stretched an old tv show with nearly-square aspect-ratio to fill the screen of this 4K TV.

Only the Apple TV remote was in use at the time. Seems to have happened when I swiped my thumb on the touch surface rightward from left edge, but I'm not sure.

Workaround: Crash the Netflix app and relaunch.

Best Answer

Double-tap + Swipe

Quote from this Reddit thread (emphasis mine):

I've been running into this accidentally and thought it was a bug: 4:3 videos would zoom up (proportionately) to 16:9 from time to time while working the remote. It turns out there's an (AFAIK) undocumented gesture: double-tap + swipe left (or right). So, whenever you're viewing 4:3 content, you can tap, tap and swipe left to zoom up to 16:9 and repeat the gesture to go back to 4:3. Neat & hope it helps someone. There's quite a bit of old conference talks in 4:3 out there.

I can't explain it any better than that, but hopefully it helps.

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