ultrawidify/README.md

# Ultrawidify — aspect ratio fixer for youtube and netflix

## TL;DR

If you own an ultrawide monitor, you have probably noticed that sometimes videos aren't encoded properly — they feature black bars on all four sides. This could happen because someone was incompetent (note: as far as youtube is concerned, improperly rendered videos might be due to youtube's implementation of certain new features). The extension kinda fixes that by doing this:

![Demo](img-demo/example-httyd2.png "Should these black bars be here? No [...] But an ultrawide user never forgets.")

Works (tested!) on Youtube and Netflix, but you can try your luck with other sites as well. Available for [Firefox](https://addons.mozilla.org/en/firefox/addon/ultrawidify/) and [Chrome](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ultrawidify/dndehlekllfkaijdlokmmicgnlanfjbi). Should support theater mode on youtube, iframes only supported on fullscreen.

Youtube demo of autodetection stuff can be found [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2xn1WpbtCQ).

## Beggathon

Working on this extension takes time, coffee and motivation. If you want to buy me a beer or something, you can [use this link to send me motivation](https://www.paypal.me/tamius). **Any donations are well appreciated.**

## The long version

The technology has been here for a while, but plenty of people don't know how to properly encode a video (despite the fact [youtube has an article that explains aspect ratios](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6375112)). Plenty of people surprisingly includes major Holywood studios, such as [Marvel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke1Y3P9D0Bc), [Disney](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCOPJi0Urq4), [Dreamworks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKiYuIsPxYk), [Warner Brothers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYZ3U1inHA4), [Sony](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWWWQzTpNU), et cetera. You'd think that this is the one thing Holywood studios and people who make [music videos for a living](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Mx2mxpaCY) would know how to do right, but they don't. This extension is here to fix that.

![Jesus Christ.](img-demo/example-jasonbourne.png "This is indeed worse than Snowden.")

## Features

* **Fit video to width/height**
* **Force specific aspect ratio**
* **Attempts to automatically detect aspect ratio**
* ~~**Rebindable shortcuts**~~ temporarily off


### User interface

Most quick options for a page are accessible through a button in the extension bar. The options are pretty self-explanatory.

![UI demo](img-demo/ui-popup-0.png)


### Default keyboard shortcuts

`w`   - fit to width  
`e`   - fit to height  
`r`   - reset

`a`   - attempt to automatically determine the aspect ratio 

`s`   - force 16:9  
`d`   - force 21:9  
`x`   - force 18:9  

### About aspect ratio autodetection

Aspect ratio autodetection is achieved by performing some black magic every 30-something milliseconds. This currently can't be turned off by default. If this extension makes video sites lag too much, open an issue and include your hardware and OS — **this is important for me to know in order to better optimize autodetection.**.

Manually triggering aspect ratio change will suspend automatic aspect ratio detection for until the page is refreshed, although it'll maybe unsuspend itself when video is changed. I don't know for certain.

## Installing

### Permanent install / stable

[Latest stable for Firefox — download from AMO](https://addons.mozilla.org/en/firefox/addon/ultrawidify/)

[Latest stafle for Chrome — download from Chrome store](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ultrawidify/dndehlekllfkaijdlokmmicgnlanfjbi)

### Installing the current, github version

1. Clone this repo
2. Open up Firefox
3. Go to `about:debugging`
4. Add temporary addon
5. Browse to wherever you saved it and select manifest.json

## Known issues

* Netflix autodetection not working in Chrome, wontfix as issue is fundamentally unfixable. (Although a different kind of workaround could probably be put in place, but don't count on it)
* Everything reported in [issues](https://github.com/xternal7/ultrawidify/issues)

## Plans for the future

~~1. Handle porting of extension settings between versions. (Some people had some issues where extension broke until reinstalled, and corrupted settings seemed to be the problem.)~~ seems to work for me?
2. Reintroduce gradual zoom on z and u and provide a way to 'scroll' the zoomed in video up/down left/right
reintroduce settings page (rebindable keys, blacklist/whitelist management, some settings for automatic aspect ratio detection)
3. site-specific options for sites that require additional CSS classes or other hacks (see: vimeo, which is disabled)
4. figure the best way to do GUI (injecting buttons into the player bar is not a good way. Been there, done that, each site has its own way and some appear to be impossible). Might get bumped to be released alongside #2
5. Stretch mode, because some people are very salty and toxic about the fact that this extension is here to solve a problem that's different than the one they want. More salty than me rn.
6. Improvements to automatic aspect ratio detection

## Changelog

see changelog.md

todo: add link to changelog.md here