Settings for NTSC 16x9 SD Video

[cush1978]

Hi everyone. This is my first post here on Digital Grin, but I've been a Smugmug member for several years. I'm a bit of a video editor in my free time and I have quite a few videos I'd like to upload to my site (schellgallery.com). I've already uploaded several videos, but I'm not completely satisfied with the result.

The issue is this... almost all of my videos were edited using Adobe Premiere Pro CS2 or CS3, in NTSC 16x9 (1.85:1) - forgive me for not remembering what resolution this is. These videos eventually made their way to DVD, as is the reason for those settings. One gripe that I have about Smugmug's video support, as happy as I am that there is support, is that it seems as though the support for HD video is better than SD video. While 1280x720 is a supported resolution, none of the NTSC standard resolutions are supported (correct me if I'm wrong on this).

What I've experienced in the past is when I upload my videos straight to Smugmug, without re-scaling first, the aspect ratio gets skewed. The end result is a hosted video that is squished and looks closer to 4x3 than 16x9. What I've done over the last few days to work around this, is to create a new project in Premiere Pro with a resolution of 960x540. I then would import my uncompressed AVI video, in it's native NTSC resolution, and then re-export my H.264 video in 960x540. The result is black bars around the entire video (top, bottom, and sides), but when I upload this video to Smugmug, my aspect ratio is now maintained.

Take a look at this video to see an example of the result:
http://www.schellgallery.com/gallery/4466586_nhroH/1/379325729_9LK8f/Medium

On one hand I'm happy that the aspect ratio is now being maintained, as it was not before. But my issue is that the video appears to be displaying in a lower resolution and the iPOD/DVD option is the highest available. Now based on what I've read in the Smugmug wiki, 960x540 is considered Mid-Def and is supported. Therefore, shouldn't my video display in the full 960x540 resolution? Obviously my video will still have the black bars around it, which I'm fine with. But ultimately I'm trying to get my 16x9 NTSC videos to:

a) Display in their native aspect ratio (which I've now been able to do)
b) Display in the maximum resolution possible

Any thoughts? Thanks.

-Ryan

[cush1978]

Just to provide a little more info, I downloaded my Smugmug-hosted MP4 file for the video I linked above. I did this by using OrbitDownloader to snif the HTTP traffic, sort through the SWF content, and then find the URL for the MP4 file. I did this so I could verify the resolution of my hosted video.

The result is that my 960x540 video that I uploaded was converted to 640x360. Is there any reason for this? Unless I'm missing something here, my 8 minute long "mid-def" video should be available at the resolution I uploaded it at. Any ideas?

Thanks.

-Ryan

[phototristan]

Just to provide a little more info, I downloaded my Smugmug-hosted MP4 file for the video I linked above. I did this by using OrbitDownloader to snif the HTTP traffic, sort through the SWF content, and then find the URL for the MP4 file. I did this so I could verify the resolution of my hosted video.

The result is that my 960x540 video that I uploaded was converted to 640x360. Is there any reason for this? Unless I'm missing something here, my 8 minute long "mid-def" video should be available at the resolution I uploaded it at. Any ideas?

Thanks.

-Ryan


I suspect that your letterboxing may be confusing the system. Video resolutions are maximums based on the width. But different aspect ratios can result in smaller height resolutions to preserve the overall aspect ratio.

So, if the height of the video portion is lower than 540, our system will use the 640x480 resolution when it transcodes the video. If however you upload the same video with the video height larger than 540, you should be able to get it displayed in the Mid-Def size. in other words, try uploading a higher resolution video and let our system down convert it for you.

[cush1978]

I suspect that your letterboxing may be confusing the system. Video resolutions are maximums based on the width. But different aspect ratios can result in smaller height resolutions to preserve the overall aspect ratio.

So, if the height of the video portion is lower than 540, our system will use the 640x480 resolution when it transcodes the video. If however you upload the same video with the video height larger than 540, you should be able to get it displayed in the Mid-Def size. in other words, try uploading a higher resolution video and let our system down convert it for you.

Thanks for the reply Tristan. I'm not sure how letterboxing would be coming into play. The video files I've been uploading are 960x540. Unless you guys use logic that specifically throws out black pixels around edges, during the transcode, I don't see how this could be the cause.

However, I'm certainly willing to give your suggestion a try. Before I do, can you recommend a specific resolution? Would 961x541 suffice?

Also, in the video wiki you guys mention that Pro users get 5 minutes of HD video per file, and 10 minutes of SD video per file. But you guys don't mention how long the "mid-def" videos can be. Are those considered SD video? I just want to make sure that this isn't an issue where an 8 minute mid-def video is simply not allowed.

[phototristan]

High def. is 1280x720 or higher. So, upload a video 5 minutes or shorter if you want it to be HD on our site.

I would experiment with the sizing. I'm not sure if the letterboxing may be confusing things so just make sure you are uploading a video where the height of the actual video is larger than 540, not including the black areas.

Also, if you would like to provide the video file to us so we can experiment with different settings and get it uploaded for you, just let us know at the helpdesk and we will provide you a special link to send us the video file.

[cush1978]

High def. is 1280x720 or higher. So, upload a video 5 minutes or shorter if you want it to be HD on our site.

I would experiment with the sizing. I'm not sure if the letterboxing may be confusing things so just make sure you are uploading a video where the height of the actual video is larger than 540, not including the black areas.

Also, if you would like to provide the video file to us so we can experiment with different settings and get it uploaded for you, just let us know at the helpdesk and we will provide you a special link to send us the video file.

Thanks Tristan. I just sent you guys an email.

[cush1978]

I'm still waiting to hear back from your helpdesk guys, Tristan, but I just wanted to make one correction. My original videos are actually in NTSC 16x9 (1.78:1), so the native resolution is actually 720x480. I don't think this changes anything, with regards to my problem, but I just wanted to make that correction.

[cush1978]

For those interested, I figured out my problem. As it turns out, Smugmug does consider 960x540 video to be HD, and thus it is limited to 5 minutes. Since my video was 8 minutes long, Smugmug was automatically downscaling the video to 640x360. The part that I found confusing was that inside the Smugmug video player, full 860x540 video is labeled "Mid-Def", all the while being considered HD by Smugmug. Also, there's nothing in the Smugmug wiki that states 860x540 video is considered HD. IMHO, Smugmug should reconsider the labels used inside the video player. I think it would be nice to have them read something as simple as: “Small, Medium, High, Highest”. Or at least change the Mid-Def label to something like “HD-Small” and the current HD label to “HD-Large”.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
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After getting confirmation from Tristan that the length of my video was the culprit, I decided to try a test. I took a 4 minute long 720x480 video, imported it into a Premiere Pro project set to 960x540, effectively letterboxing my video, and then I exported a 960x540 H.264 video. After uploading this file to Smugmug, I confirmed that it displayed great inside the video player, at the full 960x540 resolution. Therefore, for any folks struggling with how to handle their NTSC 16x9 video, I strongly suggest following this same process. This will allow all 720x480 pixels of your video to be displayed, and in the native aspect ratio. Just make sure it's less than 5 minutes long, otherwise it will be downscaled to 640x360. Hopefully this will help someone out there.<o:p></o:p>