Amazon Fire TV Stick 2 removes the option to adjust display size

stpuid-new-screen-calibration-message-fire-tv-stick-2

Amazon has made an unusual and unfortunate decision to remove the ability to adjust the display size on the new Fire TV Stick 2. If you navigate to the Display area of the Settings menu on the new device, there is still an option to Calibrate Display. However, selecting the option no longer brings up a prompt to press UP and DOWN to zoom the visible area in and out. Instead, static arrows are displayed with a message instructing you to “adjust the zoom or overscan setting on your TV.”

This is quite an annoying change to many customers, including myself, who have TVs that crop the edges of the Fire TV Stick’s video output, but don’t have the option to adjust zoom/overscan settings on the TV itself. It’s unclear if the removal of screen calibration will be limited to the new Fire TV Stick 2, or if a future software update will remove the option from all Fire TV and Fire TV Stick models. If you’re among the many Fire TV and Fire TV Stick owners who rely on your device’s built-in display calibration setting, now would be a good time to let Amazon know you don’t want the option removed and/or want it added to the Fire TV Stick 2.

Update

10/23/17
If you have found this article because your Fire TV or Fire TV Stick is zoomed in and you’re looking for a solution, simply hold down the BACK and FAST-FORWARD button on your remote to turn off the new screen magnifier option. Note that the BACK button is not the same as the REWIND button. The BACK button is the one to the left of the HOME button.

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203 comments
  1. Robert Theed says:

    I wonder if maybe thy improved it so it isn’t necessary. I would hope so otherwise this is kind of silly.

  2. clocks says:

    I wonder why Amazon did this. Seems like a huge blunder. I don’t think any of my four TVs have a overscan adjustment setting.

    This essential can make or break the new stick, as it will be problematic on many TVs.

    • wonko the sane says:

      I think that it adds an extra CPU overhead to resize the screen for each frame.

      Maybe the stick is already barely able to cope with the load and can’t cope with any additional.

      When I had trouble with my FireTV box 1 they told me to reset the screen resizing so see if it improved matters.

  3. Earl says:

    I hook up computers to my HD-TVs. One older one (cheapo) didn’t have the ability to disable overscan, so I’ve ALWAYS made sure that any HD-TV I buy has that feature. Basically, overscan zooms the picture a little, which causes a distortion–a distortion which is VERY noticeable on a computer display. Any manual calibration done using a menu option such as with the older Fire TV Stick isn’t going to get you the same distortion-free picture that disabling overscan on the TV will get you unless you can do it precisely (which may not actually be possible to do manually). Every new HD-TV I’ve looked at for some years now has the ability to disable overscan, so this change by Amazon probably won’t affect a large percentage of users.

  4. Ian Sutherland says:

    They may have move the option to hidden section where u need a code

  5. Ujn Hunter says:

    This is a game breaker for me… I’ll have to return my new Fire TV Stick 2 if Amazon doesn’t fix this ASAP.

  6. John C. says:

    I just a live chat with Amazon customer support, per your suggestion.

    And, the rep I spoke with said they had already received a lot of negative customer feedback on the issue. So, the rep actually made two promises to me.

    1. Amazon is going to remove the screen calibration feature from the software for the original Fire TV stick and the Fire TV boxes.

    2. He said they’ll also be working to restore the screen calibration feature to the software for the new Fire TV stick 2.

  7. Mitch Dominguez says:

    I was on the phone with them last night regarding this issue with two separate techs and they were going to send to software developers to add to the next update. Whether they do or not remains to be seen. Very annoying that the would remove something so critical which allows for best picture.

    • Josef Zeilmeier says:

      As of today, April 16th, 2017, it’s still not available. They now blame the TV manufacturer for not having the ability.

  8. If you’re using the fire stick with kodi there is another bypass.

    Go to system > video output > video calibrate. Then you bring the arrow down from the top left of the screen. (Use down/right). Push the center button.

    Then you will have the bottom right arrow to calibrate and push the center button again. After that is subtitle area. After that it should be centered.

    Hope this helps at least one person.

  9. FireNeedsHelp says:

    celebritygeckos.com, when I click Home, then go to Settings –> System, I do not see “Video Output”. Am I in the wrong spot?

  10. Clockwork4168 says:

    @FireNeedsHelp, On Kodi, go to SYSTEM -> Settings -> System (last option in list) -> Video Output. You’ll be able to calibrate the size as well as positioning of caption (if you use any).

  11. Hye says:

    IF YOU HAVE KODI, GO INSIDE OF IT TO FIX THE DISPLAY ISSUE:
    System > Settings > Appearance > go all the way down to “Settings level” and change that to ADVANCED. Next go into Skin and under “- Zoom” change it to what you need (e.g. -6% or 10%, etc). Yes, it can zoom into the negatives which is probably what you need to fix the display for your tv. Hope this helps!

  12. Kheang says:

    New OS (5.2.4.0) came out and the interface is different looking. Sections selections are on top instead of on the left side of the screen. Screen calibrations is still has the same BS dialog about adjusting zoom or over scan settings on your TV. Lame.

  13. Ben Winter says:

    Confirming what Kheang says: the newest Firestick update did NOT fix this problem. This whole situation is very frustrating for those of us with older TVs.

    So far I have been able to fix this issue *within Kodi itself* (see above, although the instructions are NOT always clear – in the latest build you need to look for “Zoom” under skin settings), does anyone know how to fix in other firestick apps like netflix?

  14. Anon says:

    Kodi fix works really well. Super frustrated though, as I don’t want to buy new tv(s) to get Fire Stick to fit on my screen.

    I even have a flatscreen that will detect the mode, but for some reason the fire stick does not provide the right signal so I only get crop mode options. WTF?

  15. Rob says:

    You can adjust the screen in Kodi no problem, the issue I have is that even with the Smart TV I have, there’s no real zoom OUT option and the screen setup on my Fire stick is zoomed in too far. I really wish I knew this before I got it

  16. Jaime says:

    Ok, still not finding the fix in Kodi. I have Kodi 17 installed. I am in system, and there are many boxes for “settings”–player settings, media settings, PVR settings, Service Settings, Interface Settings, Profile Settings, System settings (which I thought it would be under, but I don’t see this video output). Someone please help! This is so frustrating!

    • bailor says:

      Jaime- it’s different for Kodi 17. In Kodi 17(I’m using the Confluence skin), go to System–>Settings–>System. Now, go all the way to the bottom where it says “Settings Level”. Change that setting to “Expert”. Now go back up to “Display”. On that screen go to the right under “Calibration”, click on “Video Calibration”. Here you can shift the screen by moving the blue lines (with the “arrows” buttons to the edge of top left of the screen. Then push the center remote button and it will take you to the bottom right of the screen to do the same. When you get that one to where you want it, push the center remote button again and it will present a box in the middle of the screen to adjust a box to a perfect square in your eyes. When you get that set to your preference, just back out, and you’re all set.

  17. Lisa says:

    Thank you for the step by step. Awesome to follow. Unfortunately it will not adjust my screen. I am bummed but thank you for your instructions!

  18. Sandra says:

    Lisa… On kodi, Go to system, settings, then scroll to Interface.. Click that. Then on the next screen with Skin selected on the left go to the right side… It will have Skin Look and Feel and the options.on the right side scroll down to the Zoom option there and select that then click as needed. Good luck!

    • C says:

      Thank you works for KODI app. Sadly not for firestick home and other apps. My Magnifying glass is 90% off left side of display. My TV doesn’t have fine tune aspect or zoom.

  19. David says:

    This lack of a feature is most annoying indeed. I have a one year old Panasonic and it can’t adjust the picture in the required way. As such I’m now forced to miss about 10% of my picture. The old fire stick system of adjustment scores high, this scores very low, low e Pugh for me to now consider Chrome

  20. M. Myles says:

    I can’t even download kodi yet because the screen won’t let me click on android

  21. Inder says:

    Found the fix for an older Panasonic Viera under Menu > Picture > Advanced Picture (scroll down to find it) > HD Size > Set to 2 and it works perfectly now.

  22. Linda Russell says:

    Anyone have ideas for an older RCA? Under picture settings my only adjustment options appear to be in the categories of brightness, color, etc., not size. I’m missing more than 10% of the Prime screen. Thank you.

  23. Ed says:

    I had this issue with my fire stuck 2. I have an old Sony Bravia LCD. With my sony remote I needed to press home > settings > Screen > change display area to (full pixel). Best of luck.

  24. ChristoJ says:

    Looks like there’s no luck with my 8 year old Vizio. I’m able to assist the settings in Kodi but when I use another app like Netflix or HBO Go, the adjustments don’t hold.

  25. Skankhunt42 says:

    Wow… What a piece of junk… 2008 called… They would like to let Amazon borrow simple tech so the Firestick can be cutting edge, and simply just fit the tv’s screen properly without the need to use the Pythagorean theorem. #Dumpster-Fire

  26. Chris says:

    This is garbage Amazon!!! Why can’t your device auto correct the damn screen display to fit my 55 inch tv? Its to large!! What kind of people do you have working there.

  27. FS says:

    Any tricks for Perfect Player?

  28. Antony says:

    Anyone have a trick fix for a Mitsubishi WD-65733? I can find no solution to adjust the screen size on this old TV. God I wish Amazon did not remove the option to adjust the display size on the Fire TV Stick 2!!!

  29. Fred Scharmann says:

    This zoom works in KODI, but not in firestick HOME

    System (gear)
    Interface Settings
    Skin
    Zoom is on the right side

  30. AmazingNick says:

    First enable adb debugging.
    In order to adjust displaysize, for older TVs, use adb link or any other adb shell and connect to the fire tv sticks shell.

    start with following command “wm overscan 10,10,10,10” then reboot the stick by typing reboot. Use the Fire TV sticks menu, image above, to see the difference. Adjust the values to fit your needs, with my Philips TV I needed “wm overscan 40,40,40,40”
    you need to reboot in order to see the change!

    wm overscan LEFT, TOP, RIGHT, BOTTOM-Margin

    • Clayton Tucker says:

      Your comment has helped me, thank you. I was stumped at first but I realized that once you take off the “” it works. An update for you, if you adjust the numbers and press enter the calibration screen updates in real time (no need for reboot)

    • Russell Clark says:

      Thank you so much! This Worked Perfect!

    • Sandra says:

      This sounds interesting… Any way possible to get more detailed instructions? I use adb link and have a Sanyo tv. I don’t know how the adb effects my TV settings… I use it just for the stick. I’d appreciate any help. Thanks – Sandra

    • lilivier says:

      Note that you don’t have to reboot to check the settings.
      Just go to Calibrate Display screen.
      Type adb shell
      Type wm overscan ,,,
      and press enter.
      The change will be immediately reflected on the Calibrate Display screen after pressing enter.
      Once you have found the right setting you can reboot. No need to reboot each time :)

    • Michael says:

      You’re a freaking hero

    • Mike says:

      Dude. You are amazing. Thank you so much. Worked like a charm. Idk how you figured that out but it helped

  31. Samku says:

    You could also goto settings-> Accessibility and turn off the screen magnifier option

  32. Percy Carter says:

    For all customers who are angry about their fire stick and can not find a way to zoom out here is the steps I found on my own
    1. Go to settings
    2. Go to Accessibilty
    3. Go to Screen Magnifier
    4. If your Screen Magnifier is ON turn it OFF
    5. It will pop up and say how to do it without going to settings but avoid those and press ok because it should already be correct like it was once before

  33. Crystal Mixon says:

    Hold down the three line button on your fire stick then press your fast forward or rewind button at the bottom to adjust your screen.

  34. Kaitie says:

    Had this same problem and struggled for a half hour, until I figured it out.
    Settings –> Accessibility –> Screen Magnifier –> Off

  35. Admiral says:

    Worked perfectly fine for a month and then I accidentally reset FireTV one day and now I can’t get FireTV to fit screen right. When it starts up MOMENTARILY it looks like it will be right and then it isn’t.

    Same problem but JUST cant get it to work on my LG. Even Just scan and a reset doesn’t get my FireTV back to normal.

  36. Sonik says:

    Hold down the menu button…..rewind and fast forward control the screen size.

  37. Sonik says:

    Menu button must be held down at the same time as

  38. madbiggy says:

    to bring screen back to normal press the play/pause button and the button with 3 lines together at same time and should bring screen back to how it was

  39. kev says:

    Did not work called amazon and spent an hour trying to adjust this to fit my screen, returning this piece of shit back to best buy. Every android tv box or stick i ever had had a option to fit to screen except this junk

  40. Annette says:

    Everyone’s suggestions for fixing calibration issues in Kodi were very helpful and worked. After spending an hour on the phone with Amazon and getting nowhere, was about to return 2nd generation Stick. Anyone know how to fix calibration in M***?

  41. John Rautenbach says:

    EASY TO SOLVE THIS!
    Simply press your “menu”button on your firestick remote and then while keeping it pressed also press the “rewind” or”forward” button depending on whether you wish to magnify or not.The orange border will disappear once you go back to normal image size.Play around with it until you get it.

  42. Tiffani R says:

    Omg back button and forward button worked like a charm nothing else did!! Thank you

  43. Sandra says:

    Nothing worked for my Sanyo HDTV. I have decided to get the fire tv and will sell the stick. If I was aware of this issue before purchasing the stick I never would have, I’m quite disappointed with Amazon… I still don’t understand why they removed the calibrate option.

  44. Plotta says:

    This solution worked for my LG TV. Thanks for your help!!

  45. Lisa says:

    Thank you for saving me countless hours with support!
    Amazing!

  46. Yoly says:

    Thank you so much. I have been on the internet attempting to figure out how to correct my tv settings. I tried everything and thought my old television had just given out on me. I’ve had this issue for nearly 2 weeks now. Oh boy do I feel silly for not considering that maybe my Firestick was the one giving me bad information

  47. Carla Daniels says:

    Thank you thank you thank you!!

  48. Carla Daniels says:

    Thank you!!

  49. Suzie1990 says:

    I wanna thank u so much for his info I been trynna find the answer to why my TV zoom like this for over a month and u finally said the answer o thank God I thought my fire stick was messed up I was bout to give it back to the store owow a relief now I can watch my movies in a perfect picture…
    PS. Your the best

  50. Shauntae t. Thompson says:

    Thank you so damn much!! I just spent 2 hours doing and looking up everything until I got here. Thank you.

  51. Keandra Ratcliff says:

    Thank you for the updated info!!!

  52. felicia tyus says:

    Finally a solution that worked. Thx

  53. CS says:

    Thank you, worked for me too. Appreciate your sharing

  54. Joel says:

    Tried the menu button and skip forward or back button with no avail. Tried in terrarium tv. Thoughts?

    • Sophia says:

      Its the back button and the fast forward button. The back button has a curved arrow. And the other is the fast forward at same time

  55. Kathy says:

    I can zoom in and out on my Samsung (2014) but the corners of the gray arrows on the calibrating screen are still chopped off at the border edges and whatever I watch with either Amazon Fire Stick or regular TV seems zoomed/magnified. I am beyond frustrated. How do I fix this ??

  56. Heather Schulz says:

    I’ve been searching for three hours!! Thank you

  57. Alan says:

    On Kodi 17.6 the fix is as earlier
    System Wheel
    Interface Settings
    Zoom is on right (I went to -6)

    Frustrating but good news the fix works

  58. Bob says:

    Great, thank you!

  59. Brittany says:

    How to adjust fire tv screen size: Use your tv settings to go to the setting for 16:9 4:3 zoom etc. on your tv not fire tv

  60. Brandon says:

    Holding down the back and fast forward buttons worked for me. Thanks for the tips!!! Really appreciate it

  61. Elicia says:

    Oh my goodness… thank you…I have been watching people with no heads for months…I have searched and searched and been on amazon and done everything they said with the arrows and and the calibration and nothing worked so I just keep giving up…I suffer from ptsd and can’t deal with stress for long periods so it’s easier just to except people with no heads …until now and your wonderful advice. I love u.

  62. Donnell says:

    Great! Thank you!It works!

  63. Rosalie clark says:

    Thank you so much, this worked and we have a normal display again because of you. Much appreciated :)

  64. Pika85 says:

    I found a workaround!

    I installed the media center software “Kodi 18 alpha” on my Amazon Fire TV Stick and the Amazon Addon “Amazon VOD” from “Sandmann79”: https://github.com/Sandmann79/xbmc

    To install kodi, i downloaded the apk-file on my pc and installed it with the windows tool “adblink” over wifi. In the developer options of the Amazon Fire TV Stick you must allowed “Unknown Sources”.

    To install the Amazon Addon, you must add the repository from Sandmann79 in kodi and install it from there. If you dont know how to add an repo, google it.

    In kodi you can calibrate your TV. In the option menu from the addon choose “inputstream” as playback method.

    Its important, that you use kodi 18 alpha (or higher, but at the moment its the latest version), because only in this version the playback method “inputstream” from the “Amazon VOD” Addon works properly. (when you choose “android” as playback method, the screen calibration has no effect)

    I hope I could help someone

  65. Nyenye says:

    It worked!!! Thanks!!!!

  66. Krystal says:

    I just wanted to thank you so much for making mention to the screen magnifier issue. I have been through every setting on my TV and firestick trying to fix this and tried numerous Google searches for a solution with no luck. It’s incredibly thoughtful of you and I’m super fortunate to have found your post.

  67. Mike says:

    Panasonic Plasma, turning off overscan worked

    Menu –> Picture –> Advanced Picture –> HD Size
    Change it to size 2. It normally defaults to size 1, which is when overscan is on.

    • Siera C Eaton says:

      I did everything you said for the plasma tv but for some reason the HD Size is grey anand won’t let me click on it to change it from 1 to 2. What should i do?

  68. Losingmypatience says:

    I hope someday I find a easy fix. I have a Philips plasma TV and only has 4 options with screen size, and they all don’t match the grey arrows. I cannot adjust it through the fire stick because I have the same screen as everyone else here. I disabled the magnification on and off and zoomed all the way out, pressed the menu and play button, back and fast forward, I tried possibly every combo commented on here by others and all they did was zoom in and out, but still no perfect fit ratio, just cropped.I hope I’m not out of options here.

    • Dale says:

      Same here with an older Samsung tv – nothing works

    • BAZ says:

      Hi. I had the exact same problem as you and actually gave up. I did every thing you did but still nothing. Googled, got nothing.This evening, I was trying to find something else on my TV. So instead of looking on the picture or aspect ratio menu which we find tv ratio options. I went on set up menu, scrolled through things like off timer, child lock, then right at the very bottom of the list ( had to keep scrolling down as it was not visible on the list that popped on the screen, to my amazement was the PICTURE OVERSCAN :) I switched it off and JACKPOT !!!!!!!!! I hope this is of help to you and anyone else reading this. By the way, my TV is over 9 years old, so I did not imagine for one minute that PICTURE OVERSCAN was available on my TV as I had looked for it before, but on picture set up, not set up menu…..Best of luck

  69. Dan says:

    I have an LG 4K led tv and I had to click pictureAspect ratio settingsJust scanTurn just scan to on.

  70. Dave Stubbs says:

    I have an older Samsung Plasma.. currently running a Firestick into a HDMI —> component video adapter. The TV will only view video on 720p… I found the key strokes to get the Firestick to cycle through the video modes. The default 1080p didn’t work, that was my first problem I had to work through… black screen, input not supported.

    Then my Calibrate screen on the Firestick had my arrows about half way shown… roughly. None of my TV settings resolved the issue, there just isn’t much available on the TV.. 16:9, 4:3 and zoom, none of them put the calibrate in the right ball park.

    So I fired up abdlink and opened a console, connected to my Firestick.. ran a few wm overscan x,x,x,x commands… basically the x’s mean LEFT, TOP, RIGHT, BOTTOM-Margin

    The magic for me was “wm overscan 52,37,62,37”

    I started with the left and right by entering 80,0,80,0 and worked from there… you can hit the up arrow in the console and get your last command and change it up a little. Change happens as soon as you hit enter.

    Older TV’s without many video settings, this is probably the fix since this calibrate function is currently unavailable in the Firestick.

  71. Bobby says:

    After months of frustration with fire stick you have given back my sanity! It worked perfectly. Also, just to mention that if you select a program and some of the description/commentary is unfinished (three dots…) just hold down the center of the selection button (the one with 4 arrows) to see the entire comments.

  72. SlippersAreOn says:

    If using an LG TV, try this…it worked for me. Hope it helps!

    Firstly, using your remote control, go to your LG TV settings.

    Select ‘All Settings’ > Picture > Aspect Ratio Settings > beside ‘Just Scan’, set to “On.”

  73. Stania says:

    I changed the size on my tv but it still did not work

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