It’s happened to all of us. You finally sit down to play Starfield or jump back into Halo, but something feels... off. Maybe the mini-map is cut off at the corner. Perhaps the health bar is hiding behind the bezel of your TV. It’s incredibly annoying. Honestly, nothing pulls you out of the immersion faster than realizing you’re missing 10% of the UI because your settings are wonky. Knowing how to adjust the screen size on Xbox One isn't just about making things look "nice"—it’s about actually seeing the game the way the developers intended.
Most people think the Xbox has a simple "drag the corners" slider in the main menu. I wish it were that easy. The truth is a bit more complicated because the Xbox One handles scaling differently than an old-school PC or even some newer consoles. It’s a mix of console output, TV "overscan," and individual game calibrations. If you’ve ever felt like your TV and your Xbox are speaking two different languages, you’re not alone. We’re going to dive into exactly how to bridge that gap.
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Why Your Xbox Screen Looks Cut Off
Before we start pushing buttons, we have to talk about overscan. This is a relic from the days of CRT televisions. Back then, TV broadcasters would intentionally blow up the image slightly to hide messy data at the edges of the signal. Even though we’ve moved to 4K OLEDs and high-refresh-rate gaming monitors, many TV manufacturers still ship their sets with overscan turned on by default. It's frustrating. Basically, your TV is taking a perfect 1080p or 4K signal from your Xbox One and zooming in on it, which crops out the edges.
This is why you can’t always find a "shrink screen" button in the Xbox settings. The Xbox is sending the right signal; your TV is just being stubborn.
The First Step: Calibrate TV Settings
You’ve got to start at the source. Grab your TV remote—not the Xbox controller—and look for a button labeled "Ratio," "P.Size," "Aspect," or "Format." You are looking for a mode called Just Scan, 1:1 Pixel Mapping, Full, or Fit to Screen.
Samsung often calls this "Fit to Screen" within their Picture Size settings. LG likes "Just Scan." If you’re using an older Vizio, it might be buried under "Normal" versus "Wide." By enabling this, you tell the TV to stop zooming. Suddenly, those missing corners reappearing is like magic. It’s the single most effective way to handle how to adjust the screen size on Xbox One because it fixes the problem at the hardware level.
If your TV is particularly old, you might not have these options. It sucks, but it happens. In those cases, we have to rely on the Xbox software to do the heavy lifting.
Diving Into the Xbox One System Menu
Okay, remote down. Pick up the controller. We’re going into the belly of the beast.
Navigate to Profile & system, then Settings, General, and finally TV & display options. This is the hub for everything visual. You’ll see a bunch of columns here. Look for "Calibrate TV" under the Setup column. This tool is actually pretty brilliant, though most people skip it because it looks boring. It’ll walk you through a series of patterns.
One specific screen shows a green and a blue box. If you can’t see the green line at the very edge of your screen, your overscan is still active. While this tool doesn't always let you "shrink" the dashboard, it confirms whether your TV is lying to you about the resolution.
What About the "Apps Can Border" Setting?
There is a semi-hidden setting that helps with certain apps like Netflix or YouTube. In that same TV & display options menu, look for Video fidelity & overscan. On the right side, there’s a checkbox that says "Apps can add a border." Check that box.
It won't fix every game, but it tells the Xbox, "Hey, I know this TV crops things, so please tell apps to stay within a safe zone." It’s a band-aid, but a helpful one for streamers.
The Game-Specific Calibration Hack
Here is the thing many guides forget to mention: many modern games have their own internal scaling. Games like Apex Legends, Call of Duty, or The Witcher 3 know that TVs are finicky.
When you first launch a game, you usually see a screen with two brackets and a prompt that says "Adjust until the arrows touch the edge of your screen." Don't skip this. If you already did, you can almost always find it again. Go to the game’s internal Options or Settings menu, look for Video or Graphics, and find UI Scale or Safe Zone.
This is often the only way to "shrink" the screen for a specific title if your TV won't behave. It doesn't change the resolution of the game world, but it pulls the HUD (Heads-Up Display) toward the center so you can actually see your ammo count.
The Resolution Mismatch Trap
Sometimes the screen looks "big" because the resolution is set incorrectly. If you’re running an Xbox One S or an Xbox One X on a 4K TV, but the console is outputting 720p, the scaling can get weirdly blurry or stretched.
Go back to TV & display options and check your Resolution. Make sure it matches your TV’s native specs. If you’re on a 1080p set, don't try to force something else. Also, check the Refresh Rate. Most TVs should be at 60Hz. If you're on a monitor that supports 120Hz, make sure that’s toggled, though this is more of a Series X/S feature—the base Xbox One rarely needs to worry about it.
When Your Monitor is the Problem
Using a PC monitor with an Xbox One brings its own set of headaches. Monitors don't usually have "overscan," but they do have different aspect ratios. If you're trying to play on an ultra-wide monitor, your Xbox One is going to struggle. It doesn't natively support 21:9 aspect ratios. You’ll end up with black bars on the sides (pillarboxing) or a horribly stretched image that makes everyone look like they’ve been squashed.
In this case, you can't really "adjust" the screen size to fill the whole monitor without distorting the image. Your best bet is to go into the monitor's physical OSD (On-Screen Display) buttons and ensure the scaling is set to "Aspect" rather than "Full" or "Stretch." It’s better to have black bars and a clear image than a full screen that looks like a funhouse mirror.
A Quick Note on Hardware Failures
If you’ve tried all the settings and your screen is still flickering or stuck in a tiny 640x480 box in the corner, you might be looking at a "handshake" issue. HDMI is a two-way street. The Xbox and the TV talk to each other to decide what size the screen should be. If the HDMI cable is fraying or the port is dusty, that conversation breaks down.
- Unplug the HDMI cable from both ends.
- Flip the cable around (put the TV end in the Xbox and vice versa).
- Hard reset the Xbox by holding the power button for 10 seconds.
It sounds like "IT Support 101," but you’d be surprised how often a hard reboot forces the Xbox to re-detect the screen size and fix the cropping automatically.
Summary of Actionable Steps
Stop squinting at half a map. If you want to get your display perfect right now, follow this specific order:
- Kill the Overscan: Use your TV remote to find "Just Scan" or "Fit to Screen." This is the #1 fix for 90% of users.
- Check the Xbox Calibration: Use the "Calibrate TV" tool in the Xbox General Settings to see if your green borders are visible.
- Toggle the App Border: Enable "Apps can add a border" in the Video Fidelity menu to protect your streaming video margins.
- Fix the Game UI: If only one game looks wrong, go into that specific game's "Brightess/Video" settings and look for "Safe Zone" or "UI Calibration."
- Verify Resolution: Ensure your Xbox isn't outputting 720p to a 1080p or 4K screen.
By working from the TV hardware down to the individual game software, you eliminate the variables that cause scaling issues. Most "screen size" problems are just communication errors between devices. Once you align them, you can finally get back to what matters: actually playing the game.