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Converting from 720×486 or 480 to square pix for view on computer online portfollio.
I am in the middle of taking all of our Broadcast work/ Music Video work and preping it to be viewed online . Now I know that if I just upload it in the 720X486 or 480 ratio it will look stretched. I am using Compressor to do my compression and resizing, could some one tell me what the correct size should be to convert my projects so they will not look stretched when viewed online ? Again I have 2 sizes 720×486 and 720×480. Thanks !
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7 Replies
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It is easy to calculate a 16:9 ratio for any frame size. Take the vertical pixel resolution, multiply x 16 and then divide by 9. A slight round up or down to avoid decimals is OK.
So 486 x 16 = 7776 / 9 = 864 .
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Just make sure to de-interlace or you will be hating life.
Hans Damkoehler
VideoBloom, Inc.
Senior Video Editor/ProducerWeb: hd-editor.com
Twitter: hd_editor
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/hdeditor -
Michael,
First off, you are assuming that these videos are 16:9.
I’ve dealt with this for years and I have some comments that I think are relevant to the conversation.
First off, I think it’s important to note that the 6 pixel difference between 480 and 486 is so minor that in my testing…you can’t visually see any scaling difference.
Working on AVID back in mid 2000’s, if you exported 16×9 D1 (720×486) from an AVID meridien at square pixels, you’d get a resulting file at 864×486. Working in premier years later, I found 16×9 DV (720×480) footage exported out at square pixels to come out at 853×480. It’s important to note that things seem to have changed around CS3 and CS4. I believe it was CS4 that introduced a new PAR 1.21 instead of the commonly used 1.2 that we had been historically using. Not a huge change, but it seems to have affected things a bit in the translation, I don’t deal in SD anymore, but I just opened Photoshop CS5.5 and the D1 Widescreen square template is 872×486.
My formula that I’ve been using for several years and seems to hold up pretty well:
The 16×9 square pixel translation of 720×480 is 853×480
The 16×9 square pixel translation of 720×486 is 864×486
The 4×3 square pixel translation of 720×480 is 640×480
The 4×3 square pixel translation of 720×486 is 640×480
This is what I use and it has served me well in dealing with archival sources and cataloging older content in a viewable format and aspect.
-Jason
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Jason, I think it fair to assume the original is 16:9 when Brad said his 720 x 486 looks stretched and wanted to know what settings so it didn’t look stretched.
The simplicity of using maths to calculate 16:9 is that it works. The web doesn’t care if it is a few pixels either way.
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Bravo !! Bravo !! THAT was the answer I was looking for. Well…you all were really a great help but this posting is exactly what I needed. Thank you all !!
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[Michael Gissing] “720 x 486 looks stretched”
I look at 4×3 content at 720 and think it looks stretched… But good point…
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[Michael Gissing] “720 x 486 looks stretched”
I look at 4×3 content at 720 and think it looks stretched… But good point…
[Michael Gissing] “16×9 square pixel translation of 720×486 is 864×486 and you meant 854×486”
no, if you multiply 720 x 1.2 PAR, you get 864. Not sure why DV seems to be 854…but in the research I’ve done, everyone seems to be using that number with DV, but 864 with D1.
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