Why are Picture Size Settings not Available on Your Samsung TV?

I love the picture quality of my Samsung Smart TV (Q60 Series). Watching HD channels and movies in Full HD and 4K resolutions are such a great treat to the eyes. To enjoy a crisp and vibrant picture quality, we must customize it to get the best viewing experience. When it comes to changing the picture size on your Samsung TV, sometimes the picture size settings are greyed out and not available. If you are getting any other issues as well, check out this list of all Samsung TV problems and errors and how you can fix them.

Picture Size Settings on Samsung TV

While it’s very easy to fine-tune the picture settings on your Samsung TV, the picture size function may not be available at times. If the picture size settings are disabled, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your TV has some technical problems. The availability of the picture size actually depends on what source are you using to view digital content.

For example, you can’t change the screen resolution or aspect ratio for the apps on your Smart TV. However, you should be able to customize the following items under Picture Size Settings on HDMI connections while playing HD content:

• Picture Size
  • 16:9 Standard: display the picture in the widescreen aspect ratio.
  • Custom: You can customize the aspect ratio of the content manually.
  • 4:3: Display the picture in SD (Standard Definition) aspect ratio.
• Fit to Screen: In this mode, the TV will display content fullscreen without cutting images from any side.
  • Off
  • On
  • Auto
• Zoom and Position

Whether all picture size settings will be available to you depends on the input signal. Nobody likes the black bars on the top and bottom parts of the screen. Zooming the screen might help get rid of those bars but even this option will be available only if a TV app supports it. Suppose an HD channel is showing upscaled SD content with an aspect ratio of 4:3, you will have black bars on the screen.

In the same way, black bars might also appear while playing Netflix, Prime Video, and other movie streaming apps if the aspect ratio of the content differs from that of your Samsung Smart TV. Forcing fullscreen content with 4:3 content by applying a 16:9 aspect ratio will result in warped and stretched content.

Why are Picture Size Settings Not Available?

If you’re wondering why the picture size settings are disabled or greyed out on your Samsung TV, here’s the answer. The function to zoom the screen and change the aspect ratio is not available for all content playing sources. If you switch to the set-top or satellite box mode, you will be able to change the size of the picture. However, you will find all settings greyed out if you check the picture settings after switching an app (Netflix, for instance) or a game.

All apps automatically set the aspect ratio depending on the configuration for certain content formats. Since they are not controlled by your TV, we can’t adjust the picture size via the settings.

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Depending on the Source or TV Signal input type you are using to view content on your Samsung TV, the following picture size options will be available.

Signal or Source Input	Available Picture Size
Component (RGB cables)	16:9 Standard, Custom, 4:3
Digital Channels (720p and 1080i/p)	16:9 Standard, Custom, 4:3
Digital Channels (3840 x 2160p)	16:9 Standard, Custom
Digital Channels (4096 x 2160p)	16:9 Standard, Custom
HDMI (3840 x 2160p)	16:9 Standard, Custom
HDMI (720p and 1080i/p)	16:9 Standard, Custom, 4:3
HDMI (4096 x 2160p)	16:9 Standard, Custom
USB (720p and 1080i/p)	16:9 Standard, Custom, 4:3
USB (3840 x 2160p)	16:9 Standard, Custom
USB (4096 x 2160 p)	16:9 Standard, Custom

When I try to play content on my Samsung TV via an HDMI connection using my laptop, I was able to choose between 4:3 and 16:9 screen sizes only. The Custom settings were greyed out. Things because even more irritating when I launched Prime Video and checked the settings. I found that the Picture Size Settings were not available at all and there’s nothing we can do about it. We can only hope that Samsung lets users fiddle with the picture size settings via some software updates in the future. To update your Samsung TV software via a USB flash drive manually, you can refer to our tutorial.

In case you are using an external source, you might get the option to change the aspect ratio, zoom, and positioning by changing the picture size settings on the external device itself. Before you explore the picture settings, don’t forget to check out how you can uninstall apps on your Samsung TV.

Changing Picture Size on Samsung TV

Anyway, if the picture size settings are available for you, it’s very easy to customize them to your liking.

1. Press the Menu or Home button on your Smart TV’s remote.
2. Go to Settings.
3. On the Settings menu page, click Picture.
4. Highlight Picture Size Settings and click it.
5. Now, you should be able to choose between 4:3, 16:9, and Custom aspect ratio or picture sizes.
6. Using the Fit to Screen option, you can choose whether you want the TV picture to fit to the screen size or not.
7. By clicking the Zoom and Position option, which works best in HDMI mode, you can zoom the screen picture from all four sides. Not just that, you’ll also be able to change the picture position on the screen horizontally and vertically. All you need to do to customize zooming and positioning is to highlight the desired boxes and press the Center button that you use to make a selection.

I hope now you know why all or some of the picture size settings are not available or greyed out on your Samsung Smart TV.

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