The iPad screen has an aspect ratio of 4:3. 1080p video has an aspect ratio of 16:9.
I tried playing a 1080p video on the built-in player and got this:
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where the outer border is the movie resolution (meaning, the video is getting chopped). I am a bit surprised that I couldn't find a mention of this anywhere online. Does the iPad really truncate 1080p videos by dropping pixels on the left/right of the frame?
Best Answer
This is simply an option to allow people to change between filling the screen or showing the black bars.
It can be switched by double-tapping the video, or tapping the two arrows button on the toolbar.