Is there a way to calculate aspect ratio in pixels?

[Brent Marginet]

If a video was done at any aspect ratio other than 1.78:1 like, 1.85, 2.35 or 2.39 and Windows Media Player is not playing it back with black bars (i.e. Letterboxed) then Windows Media Player is not playing it back properly. This would also mean that everything you watch at these aspect ratios will either be stretched and people will all look tall and skinny or the left and right portions of the video will be cropped off.

In the end who are you delivering this to, if it’s a broadcaster then they will want it as 1920×1080 Letterboxed. If not get you will need to get the delivery specs from whoever is going to receive the video in the end. Lastly many times the recipient of the video will take something like a 1920×872 video and place it into a 1920×1080 frame so it will get padded (i.e. Letterboxed) anyway.

Let’s face it TV’s are 1.78:1 so any of these aspect ratios will need to be padded with black and played back letterboxed. Again what is the final destination for this video and what are their delivery specs.

\”MY MEDIA/PROJECT MOTTO: If you think three copies of your Media or Projects are enough. Take a moment to place a value on them and then maybe add two more. Hard Drives are now stupidly cheap. A RE-SHOOT AND YOUR TIME AREN\’T.\”

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay thanks, I thought that the TVs were just playing movies exported in 1920 x 802 for movies that were shot in 2.35:1.

Perhaps windows media player can sense the black bars and get rid of them and make a shape of just the movie then?

So if distributors want 1920 x1080 then, then I will have to come up with a math formula to calculate how much percent the black bars should be at. Is there a formula for calculating that percentage?

[Brent Marginet]

Yes there should be but I do not know what the formula is in Premiere, I primarily use Avid so therefore I know what it is in Avid. Don’t refer to them as “Black Bars” you are adding a “Mask” over top of your video to chop off the top and bottom portions.

So take a look at the Mask Tool in Premiere and see if there is an easy way to calculate this, there usually is.

\”MY MEDIA/PROJECT MOTTO: If you think three copies of your Media or Projects are enough. Take a moment to place a value on them and then maybe add two more. Hard Drives are now stupidly cheap. A RE-SHOOT AND YOUR TIME AREN\’T.\”

[Brent Marginet]

It could be as simple as 872/1080=0.8074 and you would enter that into the Mask Tool.

\”MY MEDIA/PROJECT MOTTO: If you think three copies of your Media or Projects are enough. Take a moment to place a value on them and then maybe add two more. Hard Drives are now stupidly cheap. A RE-SHOOT AND YOUR TIME AREN\’T.\”