How should I size my video?

[vid83]

My miniDV camcorder shoots in 720 x 480.

I can set my camcorder to either standard or widescreen mode.
I have it set to widescreen.

Canon informed me that, even though it is in widescreen mode, my camera still shoots at 720 x 480 but the camcorder adds extra information so that a playback device squash the video to 16:9.

YouTube's recommended video size was 640 x 480 prior to the introduction of the widescreen player.
YouTube now has a widescreen player with a width of 960.

Given the facts described above, how should I resize my video?

I use Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5.

[edDV]

My miniDV camcorder shoots in 720 x 480.

I can set my camcorder to either standard or widescreen mode.
I have it set to widescreen.

Canon informed me that, even though it is in widescreen mode, my camera still shoots at 720 x 480 but the camcorder adds extra information so that a playback device squash the video to 16:9.

YouTube's recommended video size was 640 x 480 prior to the introduction of the widescreen player.
YouTube now has a widescreen player with a width of 960.

Given the facts described above, how should I resize my video?

I use Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5.

DV has non square pixels. 720x480 can map to 4:3 640x480 square pixel or 16:9 854x480 square pixel depending on wide or not wide setting.

What does YouTube have to do with it? Are you trying to upload to YouTube?

960 would be 960x540 square pixel for 16:9. That would be quarter 1920x1080. You would need to rescale your wide DV 720x480 to 960x540 if that is their square pixel standard.

Got a YouTube ref link for submission standards?

[vid83]

Yes I am going to upload to YouTube and I am currently playing with all the settings. No, I do not have the link for submission standards because YouTube hasn't updated their recommended settings site yet for the new player. The recommended size was 640 x 480 before YouTube switched to the widescreen player. The only information YouTube provided in their blog was that the width is now 960.

YouTube still accepts 640 x 480 videos but I would have to edit my videos to where there are black bars at the top and bottom of my widescreen video. I do this in Premiere Pro 1.5 by editing in the standard presets when I start a new project and resizing my video to 75% (motion edit) so it fits the 4:3 video box on the right side of the software. This leaves black bars at the top and bottom.

In premiere pro, I can also work in the widescreen preset where the video fills the entire screen.

Would I get better quality on YouTube if I work with my widescreen video in the 4:3 (black bars) or should I start working in the widescreen preset (no bars)?

[edDV]

Yes I am going to upload to YouTube and I am currently playing with all the settings. No, I do not have the link for submission standards because YouTube hasn't updated their recommended settings site yet for the new player. The recommended size was 640 x 480 before YouTube switched to the widescreen player. The only information YouTube provided in their blog was that the width is now 960.

Probably not 960x480 or 960x576 but square pixel 960x540. They must have done that to satisfy iMovie users with quarter size 1920x1080. That is the best iMovie 08 will do from an HD source.

Since my camcorder shoots at 720 x 480 in widescreen also, wouldn't scaling to 960 width be scaling my video up (from 720 to 960?), causing my video to lose quality?

Yes. More than that. You probably need to resize from 720x480 to 960x540 (square pixels).

I know what aspect ratio is but I am confused by all these aspect ratios and sizes because my camcorder shoots at 720 x 480 both in standard and widescreen. So when I go to encode, I do not know what dimensions to make my videos.

If I'm right (without the link to confirm), resize from 720x480 to 960x540 (square pixels). Yes that is an upscale from DV format.

[Starkian]

Careful , Youtube player is 640 by 360 not 960 by 540 , it's the page's width that's 960

We're expanding the width of the page to 960 pixels

if you mesure it , it's 640 by 360

[vid83]

Careful , Youtube player is 640 by 360 not 960 by 540 , it's the page's width that's 960

We're expanding the width of the page to 960 pixels

if you mesure it , it's 640 by 360

But the page still looks the same size to me.

YouTube was vague when they released the blog. People on YouTube is thinking that it is 960 x 540. The blog says "We're expanding the width of the page to 960 pixels to better reflect the quality of the videos ...". Then right after this sentence, it says "This new, wider player is in a widescreen aspect ratio ...". So everyone just assumed that the player is 960 wide. I just wonder if they meant to say "player" rather than "page".

Also, slightly off topic from my original question but I've always wanted to know this: how do you measure the size of a player? Is there a software measures it? If I wanted to measure the size of a YouTube player, how do I do this?

[Starkian]

I don't know if there's a specific software for that I simply use the oldest trick in the book, that is to take a desktop snapshot with a youtube page open and mesure it in a program like paint or gimp.
This is youtube we're talking about , jumping from what ... ? 480 by 360 where the majority of the videos look ok at best to 960 by 540 ... that would make me laugh but 640 by 360 is fine.

Also it's sure that the page is gonna look the same , it's not a complete redesign.

[edDV]

Careful , Youtube player is 640 by 360 not 960 by 540 , it's the page's width that's 960

We're expanding the width of the page to 960 pixels

if you mesure it , it's 640 by 360

But the page still looks the same size to me.

YouTube was vague when they released the blog. People on YouTube is thinking that it is 960 x 540. The blog says "We're expanding the width of the page to 960 pixels to better reflect the quality of the videos ...". Then right after this sentence, it says "This new, wider player is in a widescreen aspect ratio ...". So everyone just assumed that the player is 960 wide. I just wonder if they meant to say "player" rather than "page".

Also, slightly off topic from my original question but I've always wanted to know this: how do you measure the size of a player? Is there a software measures it? If I wanted to measure the size of a YouTube player, how do I do this?

Can you give a link to the YouTube page?

[Starkian]

the link to youtube's blog page about the new player is:
http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=0i22UDAOfj8

[vid83]

edDV, here is the page: http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=0i22UDAOfj8

[vid83]

oops. Sorry. We must have clicked reply at the same time.

The YouTube quality sucks for some. YouTube has the "watch in high quality button". So I assume that YouTube makes two versions of an uploaded video: normal and high quality. To reduce their server space, YouTube should just make one version of each uploaded videos, which would be the high quality version.

[Starkian]

Yeah , I know about the "HQ" button but it's doesn't the player size and for some videos you just wonder what's the difference between Normal vs "HQ" since the video look bad in both situations.
You have people who don't care about quality when they send stuff but there's also the fact that Youtube got the ability to massacre a video quality.
You take the time to have a quality video, you look at the result in a player before sending it but once it is on youtube it's looks like crap! It's Youtube power for you!

[manono]

The widescreen HQ ones look even worse in that new widescreen 640x360 player as it's still the same 480x272 video they've created, but now it's being upsized to an even greater resolution than before. And that's the HQ version. The normal version is 320x180. Just because some widescreen video you've uploaded to YouTube is being played at 640x360 doesn't mean that's its real resolution. Download one and see for yourself.