Going SD widescreen

[Vince Becquiot]

FLV is in square pixels, so make sure you pick that as a setting.

The equivalent of SD widescreen in square pixels (production frame, no borders) is 854×480

Keep in mind that FLV compresses best in multiples of 16.

Let’s start with 512 as horizontal resolution. To find the vertical resolution 512/16*9=288, so your frame size will be 512 x 288 square.

Vince Becquiot

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Ian Smith]

Thank you for your response. The information you provided is very helpful. I am still working at finding my solution…

I apologize if this conflicts with my post, but I think everything should operate the same… I’m working with an After Effects composition.
Here are my composition settings. Feel free to correct me anywhere you see I may be screwing up.

NTSC DV Widescreen
720 x 480 (Lock Aspect Ratio to 3:2 (1.50))
Frame Rate: 29.97

From here, what should I keep in mind when exporting when the final output is an flv for web video?
In the past, I have been able to simply crop a video at whatever dimension I chose, create an flv player to display the flv at the exact frame ratio as what I exported, and BANG – perfect video. Now, it seems that no matter what I do, I either get black side bars, or letter-boxing.

[Vince Becquiot]

The 854×480 settings I gave you were actually downconverting from HD, from SD, you can use 873×480, square pixels, you shouldn’t have any bars.

You will have to crop if you want to use 16 multiples.

Vince Becquiot

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Ian Smith]

Today, it seems that the “letter-boxing” effect has gone away. I honestly don’t think I did anything different within Adobe Encoder.

I have been using two duplicates of my project as testing (only difference is the second one I changed the project to Widescreen Square pixels). It didn’t change the animation and I only slightly adjusted a couple background graphics to cover the slightly wider canvas.

Using the first project(non square pixel), I exported a “Video for Windows” AVI at full quality (720×480 by default). Then using Encoder I compressed to an FLV at a resized ratio of 416×228. The FLV looks perfect, and has no black edges or letter-boxing. Once imported into Flash CS4, (player automatically has exact dimensions) and played… the video now has a 1 pixel black edge on the left and one on the right.

When doing the same process using the second After Effects composition using Square pixels, the only difference is my flv ratio is 410×228. The end result in the flash player is the same (black edge on left and right).

Anyone see where I could be going wrong, or where I could test something different?

Thanks Vince. I think your help has me going in the right direction.

[Vince Becquiot]

Ian,

First, let’s be clear, those small black bars really are supposed to be there because you are working in a production frame, this is not part of the active pixels showing on a television screen.

The solution:

Export as a 16:9 square pixel frame, in your case, your settings should be 410×230 square (and not 228), then in the export window (top left), hit the crop icon, change the crop settings to 8 pixels right and 8 pixels left. Then in the output pan, make sure the setting is set to scale to fit. You will now have a borderless frame.

Vince Becquiot

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Ian Smith]

I’m still a little unclear as to why there are black bars on the export AND I only see them once the flv is imported into Adobe Flash player. If the black bars are exported with the video animation, wouldn’t they show up when I simply play the flv in another player? And how do they get there to begin with? I am used to black bars showing up on miniDV footage when shot with a camera such as the Canon GL1. However, this animation was completely created from After Effects and has no DV footage in the project. When I would create an animation using Apple Motion, never did I have this issue. Not a complaint about After Effects, I just don’t know what I’m not understanding.

None the less, doing exactly as you wrote in your last post, cropping the 8 off left and 8 off right, I ended with perfect results in the final Flash Player. Thank you very much for your help!

[Vince Becquiot]

Then [Ian Smith] “I’m still a little unclear as to why there are black bars on the export AND I only see them once the flv is imported into Adobe Flash player. If the black bars are exported with the video animation, wouldn’t they show up when I simply play the flv in another player?”

If the black bars are gone in the export window, then you have to look at your code for the flash player.

Could it be that the frame size your web player is not 16:9? What is that frame size? Do you have a link to that page?

Vince Becquiot

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Ian Smith]

The website that is currently using the video is:
https://www.indeposerve.com/

On this page, select the upper left picture that when hovered over the page says “Why Choose Indiana Deposition Services”.

This video flv and swf was created exactly as discussed in this forum.

I am not the web developer. I created the flv, and flash player using Flash automated player, and changed some of the values to fit clients liking. Technically, it should have a gray player (which I sent to developer and hasn’t been updated).

[Ian Smith]

I could have mentioned that the flv and everything has already been approved and will most likely not change on my end.

The flv itself is at 410×230
The swf is just large enough to cover the player and controls (I can’t remember what size off top of my head).

[Vince Becquiot]

Ian,

It is indeed a coding issue. The frame is set to 420×275 in the code below, which is not 16:9.

_____________________

<script language=”JavaScript” type=”text/javascript”>
AC_FL_RunContent(
‘codebase’, ‘https://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0’,
‘width’, ‘420’,
‘height’, ‘275’,
‘src’, ‘whyids3.swf’,
‘quality’, ‘high’,
‘pluginspage’, ‘https://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer’,
‘align’, ‘middle’,
‘play’, ‘true’,
‘loop’, ‘true’,
‘scale’, ‘showall’,
‘wmode’, ‘window’,
‘devicefont’, ‘false’,
‘id’, ‘whyids3’,
‘bgcolor’, ‘#ffffff’,
‘name’, ‘whyids3’,
‘menu’, ‘true’,
‘allowFullScreen’, ‘true’,
‘allowScriptAccess’,’sameDomain’,
‘movie’, ‘whyids3’,
‘salign’, ”
); //end AC code

________________________________

Either change the size to 488×275 or 420x 236

Or do as recommended by Adobe for best quality: 512×288 and encode at the same size.

Cheers,

Vince Becquiot

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area