When I use the screen mirroring app on my Mac or MacBook the image doesn’t cover the whole TV screen. How can I solve this?
When you mirror a laptop screen, you want the exact same image to show on your Smart TV. So you may want to know how to make screen mirroring full screen. Especially when you get black parts on the edges, which is a common issue.
Why Can’t I Make Screen Mirroring Full Screen?
That is because our app mirrors exactly the screen of your Mac on your TV. Unfortunately, this has nothing to with our app and we cannot change this.
Explanation
Let’s say you are mirroring the screen of a 2012 13 inch MacBook Pro. The native resolution is 1280 by 800 pixels. This is the same as a 16:10 ratio. Most of the TVs nowadays are at least 1080p. This means 1920 by 1080 pixels. The ratio is 16:9. This is the difference that you are seeing: your Apple has an aspect ratio of 16:10 and your TV is 16:9. This causes the black bars on the left and right of your TV screen.
How Can I Make Screen Mirroring Full Screen?
How to solve this? There is no easy solution. If the app would play to the TV in 16:9 format, the image would be a little bit distorted because we would be squeezing the picture. What you can do is two things:
Use the “picture size” button or menu option on your TV
This is the way to manually adjust the image to your liking. Some remotes have a built-in ‘Pic Size’ button, which allows you to change your screen settings.
There’s also an alternative way that works on, for example Samsung TVs. To adjust your screen that way you have to:
- Turn your TV on.
- Click the ‘Settings’ button.
- Head to ‘Picture’ > ‘Picture Size Settings’ > ‘Picture Size’ > ‘Custom’.
- Then scroll down to ‘Zoom and Position’.
- From there, you can manually adjust your screen size on a Samsung TV.
Use an external monitor
If you have an external monitor with a 16:9 aspect ratio, you can connect it to your MacBook. It will allow you to mirror
To set it up, do the following:
- Connect your external monitor to your MacBook via an HDMI cable.
- Go to System Preferences > Displays.
- Set your external monitor as the main display and your MacBook screen as an extended display.
- From now on, you’ll be able to mirror the screen of your external monitor to a Smart TV via your MacBook.
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