Since High Definition video came out on all the online sites it has changed the default aspect ratio of the player from 4:3 to 16:9. This means that for people posting SD video you have to resize some of your videos to get them to fit right.
For example, NTSC DVD quality (aka 480i/p) is 720×480 pixels (width x height). However, low-end High Definition (720i/p) is 1280×720.
Anyway, now that the video players are built for HD you will find that uploading standard quality videos will result in videos that are "letter boxed" which means they have extra black bars on the top and bottom (or sides).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in order to get a 720×480 video to fit a box that is designed for HD the best practice would be to crop some of it off so that it fits as 720×404 since:
16/9 = 1.78 (1.7777777777778)
720/405 = 1.78
405x1.78 = 720.9
The same would stand for 640×480 (old TV quality) video that would need to be 640×360 correct?
I'm asking because I'm not sure about all this and whether this is the proper way to fix these letter-boxing/display problems.
Best Answer
This is more up to the content creator than a definitive answer. Letter-boxing, in my opinion or the correct way to deal with this issue. Viewers do not lose any of the content and the impact is minimal for the content creator.
If you go the resizing route to fill the full width of the screen you would have to film each of your videos with this in mind making sure you don't put any valuable content on the top or bottom edges of the screen.
As a viewer, I don't mind seeing letter-boxed video. We've had to watch it ever since wide-screen DVDs were released and we will continue to see it until wide-screen TVs and content are ubiquitous.