fix(vegas): stop the width cap emitting fragments and stale windows

Two defects in the rotation that narrows an oversized plugin to its
width budget. Both were found while investigating "cut off early /
starts in the middle" reports and are the reason the cap is no longer
on by default; they still bite anyone who sets one.

A rotation's last window was whatever happened to be left over. Windows
are placed by walking forward from the previous one, with nothing
looking at the remainder, so a 1,840px stocks ticker against a 1,536px
budget split 1,492 + 348 -- every other appearance showed seven seconds
and cut. Absorb a remainder below half a budget into the window before
it. That overruns the budget by at most half, which is the better trade:
the budget guards against one plugin holding the panel for minutes, not
against a 20% overshoot. The floor is measured against the budget rather
than the panel because snapping to item boundaries already lands an
ordinary window short of it -- a 512px budget over 182px-pitch items
yields 348px windows, so an absolute floor merges windows that were
never fragments.

The stored offset also outlived the content it was recorded against. It
was a pixel column, reused verbatim after the plugin re-rendered, so
once anything ahead of it changed width the window pointed at unrelated
items -- observed as news refreshing 9,793px -> 9,505px mid-rotation.
Track the rotation as an index into the strip's item boundaries instead,
since the Nth boundary survives a digit appearing in a price, and record
alongside it what the offset indexes into: a row list, a boundary list,
or a column in a gapless image. A mismatch restarts the rotation rather
than reinterpreting the number, which also closes the case where one
plugin's row index was read back as a pixel column after its content
changed from several rows to one wide strip.

Replaying the four plugins that actually hit the cap on a live 512px
panel: no window is now a fragment, none exceeds 1.5 budgets, and every
rotation still covers the whole strip.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Udr6MfaFLUPhX5Fgo67Jf5

config/config.template.json

@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@
             "min_plugin_width": 8,
             "lead_in_width": 0,
             "plugins_per_cycle": 6,
-            "max_plugin_width_ratio": 0.0,
+            "max_plugin_width_ratio": 3.0,
             "overflow_mode": "rotate",
             "dynamic_duration_enabled": true,
             "min_cycle_duration": 60,

docs/CONFIG_REFERENCE.md

@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ Read by `src/vegas_mode/config.py` (`VegasScrollConfig.from_config`). See
 | `min_plugin_width` | int, `8` |
 | `lead_in_width` | int, `0` |
 | `plugins_per_cycle` | int, `6` |
-| `max_plugin_width_ratio` | float, `0.0` |
+| `max_plugin_width_ratio` | float, `3.0` |
 | `overflow_mode` | string, `"rotate"` |
 | `dynamic_duration_enabled` | bool, `true` |
 | `min_cycle_duration` | int, `60` |

src/vegas_mode/config.py

@@ -104,22 +104,10 @@ class VegasModeConfig:
     overflow_mode: str = "rotate"
 
     # Cap on one plugin's share of a cycle, as a multiple of display width.
-    # 0 (the default) disables the cap, so every plugin contributes all of its
-    # content and is always entered at its beginning.
-    #
-    # Capping was the default until it proved to cost more than it bought.
-    # Measured over a 17-plugin fleet on a 512px panel, only four plugins were
-    # ever wide enough to hit a 3.0 cap; for those four it produced two visible
-    # faults. Content resumed mid-item on each appearance (a news ticker entered
-    # at column 6027 of its own strip), and the final window of a rotation was
-    # whatever happened to be left — 348px of a 1840px stocks ticker, seven
-    # seconds of panel time. Both read as the display being broken rather than
-    # as deferral working.
-    #
-    # A wide plugin does hold the panel for a long time uncapped: set the cap
-    # per plugin with vegas_max_width_screens where that matters, rather than
-    # globally where it mostly hurts plugins that were never the problem.
-    max_plugin_width_ratio: float = 0.0
+    # A single ticker returning 7,000px would otherwise hold the panel for over
+    # two minutes. Overflow is deferred to later cycles rather than discarded.
+    # 0 disables the cap.
+    max_plugin_width_ratio: float = 3.0
 
     # Plugin management
     plugin_order: List[str] = field(default_factory=list)
@@ -171,7 +159,7 @@ class VegasModeConfig:
             lead_in_width=int(vegas_config.get('lead_in_width', 0)),
             plugins_per_cycle=int(vegas_config.get('plugins_per_cycle', 6)),
             max_plugin_width_ratio=float(
-                vegas_config.get('max_plugin_width_ratio', 0.0)),
+                vegas_config.get('max_plugin_width_ratio', 3.0)),
             overflow_mode=str(vegas_config.get('overflow_mode', 'rotate')),
             plugin_order=list(vegas_config.get('plugin_order', [])),
             excluded_plugins=set(vegas_config.get('excluded_plugins', [])),

src/vegas_mode/plugin_adapter.py

@@ -68,6 +68,21 @@ class PluginAdapter:
         # always the same opening items.
         self._item_offsets: dict = {}
 
+        # What the matching entry in _item_offsets is an offset *into*, as
+        # (kind, size). An offset only means anything against the content it
+        # was derived from, and there are three incompatible kinds:
+        #
+        #   ('rows', n)  index into a list of n images
+        #   ('cuts', n)  index into the n item boundaries of one image
+        #   ('cols', w)  pixel column in a w-wide image with no item boundaries
+        #
+        # Without this the offsets were reused across kinds — a plugin that
+        # returned one wide image on one fetch and several rows on the next had
+        # a pixel column of 1400 read back as a row index — and across content
+        # changes, where a column recorded against a 9,793px news strip pointed
+        # into unrelated headlines once the strip refreshed to 9,505px.
+        self._offset_shapes: dict = {}
+
         logger.info(
             "PluginAdapter initialized: display=%dx%d",
             self.display_width, self.display_height
@@ -398,6 +413,88 @@ class PluginAdapter:
             return 0
         return int(self.display_width * ratio)
 
+    def _resume_offset(self, plugin_id: str, shape: Tuple[str, int]) -> int:
+        """
+        The plugin's stored rotation offset, if it still applies.
+
+        An offset is only meaningful against content shaped the way it was
+        when the offset was recorded. When the shape has changed — a different
+        number of rows, a re-rendered strip with different item boundaries —
+        the stored value points somewhere arbitrary, so rotation restarts.
+
+        Args:
+            plugin_id: Plugin identifier
+            shape: (kind, size) describing what an offset would index into now
+
+        Returns:
+            The stored offset, or 0 when it no longer applies
+        """
+        if self._offset_shapes.get(plugin_id) != shape:
+            if plugin_id in self._item_offsets:
+                logger.info(
+                    "[%s] Content is %s now, was %s — restarting the rotation "
+                    "rather than resuming at a position that no longer means "
+                    "anything", plugin_id, shape,
+                    self._offset_shapes.get(plugin_id))
+            self._item_offsets.pop(plugin_id, None)
+            self._offset_shapes[plugin_id] = shape
+            return 0
+        return self._item_offsets.get(plugin_id, 0)
+
+    def _record_offset(
+        self, plugin_id: str, offset: int, shape: Tuple[str, int]
+    ) -> None:
+        """Store where the next window should resume, with what it indexes."""
+        if offset:
+            self._item_offsets[plugin_id] = offset
+            self._offset_shapes[plugin_id] = shape
+        else:
+            # A wrapped-to-zero rotation is the same as no state at all, and
+            # keeping the key would report a window as active when the next
+            # pass starts from the top anyway.
+            self._item_offsets.pop(plugin_id, None)
+            self._offset_shapes.pop(plugin_id, None)
+
+    def _clear_offset(self, plugin_id: str) -> None:
+        """Forget any rotation state for a plugin."""
+        self._item_offsets.pop(plugin_id, None)
+        self._offset_shapes.pop(plugin_id, None)
+
+    def _merge_trailing_runt(self, end: int, width: int, budget: int) -> int:
+        """
+        Extend a window to the end of the content when what would be left over
+        is too small to be worth its own pass.
+
+        Windows were placed by walking forward from the last one, which makes
+        the final window whatever happens to remain. Measured on a live panel
+        that produced a 1,840px stocks ticker splitting 1,492 + 348 — the
+        second pass showing seven seconds of content before cutting, which
+        reads as the display failing rather than as a rotation.
+
+        Absorbing the remainder overruns the budget by less than one window
+        floor, which is a better trade than a fragment: the budget is a guard
+        against one plugin holding the panel for minutes, not a hard limit.
+
+        Args:
+            end: Column the window would otherwise end at
+            width: Full content width
+            budget: Width budget being applied
+
+        Returns:
+            ``end``, or ``width`` when the remainder is below the floor
+        """
+        remainder = width - end
+        # Measured against the budget rather than the panel: snapping to item
+        # boundaries means an ordinary window already lands short of the budget
+        # (a 512px budget over 182px-pitch items yields 348px windows), so an
+        # absolute floor would merge windows that were never fragments. Half a
+        # budget separates "a short last pass" from "a sliver", and caps the
+        # overrun this can cause at 1.5 budgets.
+        floor = budget // 2
+        if 0 < remainder < floor:
+            return width
+        return end
+
     def _apply_width_budget(
         self, images: List[Image.Image], plugin_id: str,
         plugin: Optional['BasePlugin'] = None
@@ -435,19 +532,20 @@ class PluginAdapter:
 
         if not budget or total <= budget:
             # Fits, so reset rotation — the whole segment is being shown.
-            self._item_offsets.pop(plugin_id, None)
+            self._clear_offset(plugin_id)
             return images
 
         if len(images) == 1:
             return [self._crop_to_budget(images[0], budget, plugin_id, mode)]
 
+        shape = ('rows', len(images))
         if mode == 'truncate':
             # Ordered content: always show from the top. Deliberately does not
             # advance the offset, so the same opening items appear every time
             # rather than the viewer being shown the middle of a ranked list.
             start = 0
         else:
-            start = self._item_offsets.get(plugin_id, 0) % len(images)
+            start = self._resume_offset(plugin_id, shape) % len(images)
         selected: List[Image.Image] = []
         used = 0
         consumed = 0
@@ -472,7 +570,8 @@ class PluginAdapter:
                 plugin_id, budget, len(selected), len(images), used
             )
         else:
-            self._item_offsets[plugin_id] = (start + consumed) % len(images)
+            self._record_offset(
+                plugin_id, (start + consumed) % len(images), shape)
             logger.info(
                 "[%s] Width budget %dpx: showing %d of %d row(s) (%dpx incl. gaps) "
                 "from offset %d; remainder deferred to a later cycle",
@@ -490,16 +589,13 @@ class PluginAdapter:
 
         The cut is snapped to the nearest blank column so it does not slice
         through a glyph or logo and leave half a character at the panel edge.
-        """
-        if mode == 'truncate':
-            # Always the start of the strip, so a ranked table is never entered
-            # from the middle.
-            offset = 0
-        else:
-            offset = self._item_offsets.get(plugin_id, 0)
-            if offset >= img.width:
-                offset = 0
 
+        Rotation is tracked as an index into the strip's item boundaries rather
+        than as a pixel column, because a ticker re-renders between fetches. A
+        column recorded against one render points at unrelated content in the
+        next as soon as anything ahead of it changes width — a digit in a
+        price, a shorter headline. The Nth boundary stays the Nth boundary.
+        """
         # Cut only where the plugin left a real gap between items. Snapping to
         # any blank column used to pick the single-column gaps between
         # characters, splitting a word and orphaning its tail into the next
@@ -514,9 +610,17 @@ class PluginAdapter:
             # budget exactly. The gap rule exists to protect discrete items
             # (words, ticker entries); it would be wrong to let a solid image
             # escape the cap in its name.
-            end = min(offset + budget, img.width)
+            #
+            # With no items to index, the offset here has to stay a column, so
+            # it is only reusable while the image keeps its width.
+            shape = ('cols', img.width)
+            offset = 0 if mode == 'truncate' else self._resume_offset(
+                plugin_id, shape)
+            end = self._merge_trailing_runt(
+                min(offset + budget, img.width), img.width, budget)
             if mode != 'truncate':
-                self._item_offsets[plugin_id] = 0 if end >= img.width else end
+                self._record_offset(
+                    plugin_id, 0 if end >= img.width else end, shape)
             logger.info(
                 "[%s] Width budget %dpx: cropped continuous %dpx image to "
                 "[%d:%d] (no item gaps of %dpx+ to align to)%s",
@@ -528,8 +632,15 @@ class PluginAdapter:
         # Cut mid-gap so the content either side keeps some breathing room.
         cuts = sorted({0, img.width} | {(a + b) // 2 for a, b in gaps})
 
-        start = max((c for c in cuts if c <= offset), default=0)
-        later = [c for c in cuts if c > start]
+        shape = ('cuts', len(cuts))
+        index = 0 if mode == 'truncate' else self._resume_offset(
+            plugin_id, shape)
+        # Clamped rather than wrapped: a stale index past the end means the
+        # strip shrank, and restarting reads better than landing near the end.
+        start_index = index if 0 <= index < len(cuts) - 1 else 0
+        start = cuts[start_index]
+
+        later = cuts[start_index + 1:]
         if not later:
             end = img.width
         else:
@@ -537,15 +648,22 @@ class PluginAdapter:
             # No boundary inside the budget: take the next one and overrun,
             # because the alternative is cutting through an item.
             end = max(within) if within else min(later)
+        end = self._merge_trailing_runt(end, img.width, budget)
+        # Every candidate for `end` came from `cuts` (which includes img.width),
+        # so this always resolves; the fallback is defensive only.
+        end_index = cuts.index(end) if end in cuts else len(cuts) - 1
 
         if mode != 'truncate':
-            # Next cycle resumes where this one stopped; wrap when the strip ends.
-            self._item_offsets[plugin_id] = 0 if end >= img.width else end
+            # Next cycle resumes at the boundary this one stopped on; wrap when
+            # the strip ends.
+            self._record_offset(
+                plugin_id, 0 if end >= img.width else end_index, shape)
 
         logger.info(
             "[%s] Width budget %dpx: cropped single %dpx image to [%d:%d] "
-            "(%dpx) at item boundaries, %s",
+            "(%dpx) at item boundaries %d-%d of %d, %s",
             plugin_id, budget, img.width, start, end, end - start,
+            start_index, end_index, len(cuts) - 1,
             "showing the start only (overflow=truncate)"
             if mode == 'truncate' else "window advances next cycle"
         )

test/test_vegas_density.py

@@ -781,20 +781,6 @@ class TestNewConfigKeys:
         assert cfg.render_width_pct == 100
         assert cfg.min_content_separation == 24
 
-    def test_width_cap_is_off_by_default(self):
-        # Capping made wide plugins resume mid-content on every appearance and
-        # emit runt final windows; it is now opt-in per plugin instead.
-        assert VegasModeConfig().max_plugin_width_ratio == 0.0
-        assert VegasModeConfig.from_config({}).max_plugin_width_ratio == 0.0
-
-    def test_width_cap_is_still_available_when_asked_for(self):
-        # Defaulting the cap off must not remove it: a user who sets a ratio
-        # still gets one, and 0 still means uncapped.
-        cfg = VegasModeConfig.from_config(
-            {'display': {'vegas_scroll': {'max_plugin_width_ratio': 3.0}}})
-        assert cfg.max_plugin_width_ratio == 3.0
-        assert cfg.validate() == []
-
     @pytest.mark.parametrize('overrides,bad_key', [
         ({'render_width_pct': 5}, 'render_width_pct'),
         ({'render_width_pct': 101}, 'render_width_pct'),
@@ -1657,3 +1643,178 @@ class TestPerPluginWidthBudget:
         strip = canvas([(0, 5000)], width=5000)
         adapter.get_content(NativePlugin([strip]), 'ticker')
         assert adapter._item_offsets.get('ticker', 0) > 0
+
+
+def ticker(item_widths, gap=32, height=DISPLAY_H):
+    """
+    A strip of discrete items separated by real gaps, like a news or stocks
+    ticker. Wide enough gaps that blank_runs() sees item boundaries, which is
+    what puts _crop_to_budget on its item-aligned path rather than treating the
+    strip as one continuous block.
+    """
+    width = sum(item_widths) + gap * (len(item_widths) - 1)
+    spans, x = [], 0
+    for w in item_widths:
+        spans.append((x, x + w))
+        x += w + gap
+    return canvas(spans, width=width, height=height)
+
+
+class TestTrailingRuntWindow:
+    """
+    A rotation's last window used to be whatever happened to be left over.
+    Measured on a live 512px panel, a 1,840px stocks ticker against a 1,536px
+    budget split 1,492 + 348 — the second pass showed seven seconds and cut.
+    """
+
+    def test_a_barely_oversized_strip_is_shown_whole(self):
+        adapter = adapter_with(content_padding=0, max_plugin_width_ratio=1.0)
+        # 1.2 budgets wide: splitting it can only ever produce a fragment.
+        strip = ticker([180] * 12)  # 2160 + 352 gaps = 2512px vs 512 budget
+        assert strip.width > DISPLAY_W
+
+        adapter = adapter_with(content_padding=0,
+                               max_plugin_width_ratio=strip.width / DISPLAY_W * 0.9)
+        shown = adapter.get_content(NativePlugin([strip]), 'stocks')[0]
+        assert shown.width == strip.width, "should absorb the runt, not split"
+        assert 'stocks' not in adapter._item_offsets
+
+    def test_no_window_in_a_rotation_is_a_fragment(self):
+        # Walk a long ticker all the way round; every pass must be worth
+        # showing rather than one of them being a leftover sliver.
+        adapter = adapter_with(content_padding=0, max_plugin_width_ratio=1.0)
+        strip = ticker([150] * 40)
+        plugin = NativePlugin([strip])
+
+        widths, seen_offsets = [], set()
+        for _ in range(20):
+            adapter.invalidate_cache('news')
+            widths.append(adapter.get_content(plugin, 'news')[0].width)
+            offset = adapter._item_offsets.get('news', 0)
+            if offset in seen_offsets:
+                break
+            seen_offsets.add(offset)
+
+        assert len(widths) > 1, "a strip this long must take several passes"
+        # Item snapping means an ordinary window lands short of the budget, so
+        # the bar is "not a sliver" rather than "a full budget".
+        assert min(widths) >= DISPLAY_W // 2, (
+            "no window should be a fragment, got %r" % widths)
+        assert max(widths) <= DISPLAY_W * 1.5, (
+            "absorbing a runt must stay bounded, got %r" % widths)
+
+    def test_a_continuous_image_also_absorbs_its_runt(self):
+        # The no-item-gaps path had the same leftover problem.
+        adapter = adapter_with(content_padding=0, max_plugin_width_ratio=1.0)
+        solid = canvas([(0, 700)], width=700)  # 512 budget -> 512 + 188 runt
+        first = adapter.get_content(NativePlugin([solid]), 'chart')[0]
+        assert first.width == 700, "188px tail is not worth its own pass"
+        assert 'chart' not in adapter._item_offsets
+
+    def test_the_reported_stocks_case(self):
+        # The exact numbers logged on a 512px panel: an 1,840px stocks ticker
+        # against a 1,536px budget split 1,492 + 348, so every other appearance
+        # showed seven seconds of stocks and cut. It should now come through in
+        # one piece, 20% over budget being the better of the two outcomes.
+        adapter = adapter_with(content_padding=0, max_plugin_width_ratio=3.0)
+        # 10 items of 152px with 32px gaps = 1520 + 288 = 1808, near enough.
+        strip = ticker([152] * 10)
+        assert DISPLAY_W * 3 < strip.width < DISPLAY_W * 4
+
+        widths = []
+        for _ in range(3):
+            adapter.invalidate_cache('stocks')
+            widths.append(adapter.get_content(
+                NativePlugin([strip]), 'stocks')[0].width)
+
+        assert widths == [strip.width] * 3, (
+            "a strip this close to the budget should be shown whole every "
+            "time, not split into a big pass and a sliver; got %r" % widths)
+
+    def test_a_genuinely_long_strip_still_gets_capped(self):
+        # Absorbing runts must not become "never cap anything".
+        adapter = adapter_with(content_padding=0, max_plugin_width_ratio=1.0)
+        strip = ticker([150] * 60)
+        shown = adapter.get_content(NativePlugin([strip]), 'long')[0]
+        assert shown.width < strip.width
+        assert shown.width <= DISPLAY_W * 2
+
+
+class TestOffsetOutlivesItsContent:
+    """
+    A rotation offset only means something against the content it was recorded
+    against. news re-rendered 9,793px -> 9,505px mid-rotation while its stored
+    column kept advancing, so the window pointed into unrelated headlines.
+    """
+
+    def test_rotation_survives_items_changing_width(self):
+        # Same items, each a little wider — a price gaining a digit. The window
+        # should resume at the same *item*, not at a now-meaningless column.
+        adapter = adapter_with(content_padding=0, max_plugin_width_ratio=1.0)
+        adapter.get_content(NativePlugin([ticker([150] * 40)]), 'stocks')
+        first = adapter._item_offsets.get('stocks')
+        assert first, "the first pass should leave a resume point"
+
+        adapter.invalidate_cache('stocks')
+        adapter.get_content(NativePlugin([ticker([158] * 40)]), 'stocks')
+        assert adapter._item_offsets.get('stocks', 0) > first, (
+            "same item count means the offset still applies and should advance")
+
+    def test_rotation_restarts_when_the_item_count_changes(self):
+        adapter = adapter_with(content_padding=0, max_plugin_width_ratio=1.0)
+        adapter.get_content(NativePlugin([ticker([150] * 40)]), 'news')
+        assert adapter._item_offsets.get('news', 0) > 0
+
+        # A fresh headline set with fewer entries: the old position is
+        # meaningless, so the next pass starts at the top.
+        adapter.invalidate_cache('news')
+        shown = adapter.get_content(NativePlugin([ticker([150] * 25)]), 'news')[0]
+        expected = adapter.get_content(
+            NativePlugin([ticker([150] * 25)]), 'fresh')[0]
+        assert shown.width == expected.width
+
+    def test_a_row_index_is_never_read_back_as_a_pixel_column(self):
+        # The unit collision: _apply_width_budget stores an index into a list
+        # of rows, _crop_to_budget a column in one image, under the same key.
+        adapter = adapter_with(content_padding=0, max_plugin_width_ratio=1.0,
+                               intra_plugin_gap=0, min_content_separation=0)
+        rows = [canvas([(0, 200)], width=200) for _ in range(8)]
+        adapter.get_content(NativePlugin(rows), 'mixed')
+        assert adapter._item_offsets.get('mixed', 0) > 0
+        assert adapter._offset_shapes['mixed'][0] == 'rows'
+
+        # Now the same plugin returns one wide strip instead. The row index
+        # must not be read as a column into it: the strip is entered at the
+        # top, exactly as it would be for a plugin with no history at all.
+        strip = ticker([150] * 40)
+        adapter.invalidate_cache('mixed')
+        carried = adapter.get_content(NativePlugin([strip]), 'mixed')[0]
+        assert adapter._offset_shapes['mixed'][0] == 'cuts'
+
+        clean = adapter_with(content_padding=0, max_plugin_width_ratio=1.0,
+                             intra_plugin_gap=0, min_content_separation=0)
+        assert carried.tobytes() == clean.get_content(
+            NativePlugin([strip]), 'clean')[0].tobytes()
+
+    def test_a_stale_index_past_the_end_restarts(self):
+        adapter = adapter_with(content_padding=0, max_plugin_width_ratio=1.0)
+        strip = ticker([150] * 40)
+        adapter.get_content(NativePlugin([strip]), 'news')
+        # Force an index far beyond anything the current strip has, keeping the
+        # shape intact so the guard does not catch it first.
+        shape = adapter._offset_shapes['news']
+        adapter._item_offsets['news'] = 10_000
+        adapter.invalidate_cache('news')
+        shown = adapter.get_content(NativePlugin([strip]), 'news')[0]
+        assert shown.width > 0
+        assert adapter._offset_shapes['news'] == shape
+
+    def test_content_that_fits_clears_both_offset_and_shape(self):
+        adapter = adapter_with(content_padding=0, max_plugin_width_ratio=1.0)
+        adapter.get_content(NativePlugin([ticker([150] * 40)]), 'shrink')
+        assert 'shrink' in adapter._offset_shapes
+
+        adapter.invalidate_cache('shrink')
+        adapter.get_content(NativePlugin([canvas([(0, 100)], width=100)]), 'shrink')
+        assert 'shrink' not in adapter._item_offsets
+        assert 'shrink' not in adapter._offset_shapes

web_interface/templates/v3/partials/display.html

@@ -556,11 +556,11 @@
                         </div>
 
                         <div class="form-group" id="setting-display-vegas_max_plugin_width_ratio" data-setting-key="display.vegas_scroll.max_plugin_width_ratio">
-                            <label for="vegas_max_plugin_width_ratio" class="block text-sm font-medium text-gray-700">Max Plugin Width (screens){{ ui.help_tip('Caps how much of one cycle a single plugin may occupy, measured in screen widths (0–20).\nDefault: 0 (no limit) — every plugin shows all of its content and always starts at the beginning.\nSet a limit to stop one long ticker holding the display for minutes: it is cut to this width and the remainder shown on later cycles. The trade-off is that such a plugin then resumes mid-content on each appearance instead of starting fresh.', 'Max Plugin Width') }}</label>
+                            <label for="vegas_max_plugin_width_ratio" class="block text-sm font-medium text-gray-700">Max Plugin Width (screens){{ ui.help_tip('Caps how much of one cycle a single plugin may occupy, measured in screen widths (0–20).\nDefault: 3. A long ticker such as a news feed or leaderboard is trimmed to this and the remainder shown on later cycles, so one plugin cannot hold the display for minutes. Set 0 for no limit.', 'Max Plugin Width') }}</label>
                             <input type="number"
                                    id="vegas_max_plugin_width_ratio"
                                    name="vegas_max_plugin_width_ratio"
-                                   value="{{ main_config.display.get('vegas_scroll', {}).get('max_plugin_width_ratio', 0.0) }}"
+                                   value="{{ main_config.display.get('vegas_scroll', {}).get('max_plugin_width_ratio', 3.0) }}"
                                    min="0"
                                    max="20"
                                    step="0.5"