Aspect ratio for SD Widescreen on YouTube

[matthewjohn23]

I have 720x480 widescreen avi DV videos that I want to render for YouTube. Some have suggested 720x406 or 720x400, which is the best one for filling out the video box? If I render to a set aspect ratio would my pixel aspect ratio be 1:1?

[jagabo]

Never use 720x406. 720 is mod 16 so it's fine, but 406 is mod 2 and some codecs won't work properly with it. 720x404 (404 is mod 4) is safer but some codecs may still have problems. Use 720x400 (400 is mod 16), it's safest. Try to always use mod 8 or mod 16 frame sizes (integer multiples of 8 or 16).

[edDV]

If I render to a set aspect ratio would my pixel aspect ratio be 1:1?

You tube will assume it is 1:1 and you get the resulting aspect ratio which may differ from original.

720/400 = 1.8 to 1

16x9 would be 1.78 to 1

[aedipuss]

youtube will need square pixel uploaded. 720x480 widescreen dv avi ntsc is usually converted to 854x480.

[edDV]

youtube will need square pixel uploaded. 720x480 widescreen dv avi ntsc is usually converted to 854x480.

or 848x480 for mod 16.

Again a bit of aspect ratio accuracy is traded for encoding compatibility.

[intracube]

or 848x480 for mod 16.
Again a bit of aspect ratio accuracy is traded for encoding compatibility.

640x360 and 854x480 are popular 16:9 (h264) video resolutions on YouTube. There shouldn't be any problems with uploading h264 content at those resolutions, should there?

[aedipuss]

or 848x480 for mod 16.
Again a bit of aspect ratio accuracy is traded for encoding compatibility.

640x360 and 854x480 are popular 16:9 (h264) video resolutions on YouTube. There shouldn't be any problems with uploading h264 content at those resolutions, should there?

they're fine. even bumping DVavi widescreen to 1280x720p works well and will add the HD youtube vid.

[matthewjohn23]

If I render to a set aspect ratio would my pixel aspect ratio be 1:1?

You tube will assume it is 1:1 and you get the resulting aspect ratio which may differ from original.

720/400 = 1.8 to 1

16x9 would be 1.78 to 1

I'm wondering if you're not confusing aspect ratio and pixel aspect ratio.

[matthewjohn23]

If I render to a set aspect ratio would my pixel aspect ratio be 1:1?

You tube will assume it is 1:1 and you get the resulting aspect ratio which may differ from original.

720/400 = 1.8 to 1

16x9 would be 1.78 to 1

Sony Vegas lists the following options for pixel aspect ratio:

1
.9091
1.2121
1.0926
1.4568
1.3333

From what I read it's supposed to be .9091 if it's 720x480 square, but if it's 848x480 then it should be 1. Does anybody know about the ratio if it's one of those slimmer video ratios such as movie trailers?

[manono]

Nice double post. You can also leave it at 720x480 and have the YouTube player resize it. You only have to add a tag:

yt:stretch=16:9

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=146402

That way you don't have to overwork your brain and then wind up getting it wrong anyway. But, like the others here I also do a 1:1 resize while encoding.