4:3 video to 1280x760 letterbox math?

[illicit1]

I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out this out, and I think it's just the math that is making me .

I have 720x480 4:3 video that I'm using Hybrid to de-interlace and export to H264. Trying to output to 1280x720 for YouTube upload. Only upsizing it because Youtube seems to butcher the video unless I do so on my own before uploading.

I want to mask out 13 or 14 pixels of head switching noise and add bars to the side (and over the head switching noise area). I understand this is a little more complicated in Hybrid because from what I gather I have to do some math on the letterbox.

My math has me thinking without crop, the 4:3 video should be 960x720. Does someone by chance have this math figured out on what the letterbox sizing should be on each side? Or even better is there a calculator somewhere for this kind of stuff that'd be helpful?

[Aya_Rei]

Judging from your comment on overscan, it's from a VHS source so you'll need to cut off 16 pixels from the left and right by default

Let's say you just want to crop 14 from the bottom and zero from the top. 14 x 1.3 is 18.2, round that off to 18 and add 16 which equals to 34.

So if I'm correct, then you should crop 34 pixels from the left and right sides. Not 34 each, can be whatever number combination so long it equals to 34. To be safe I'd make both numbers be even, like 14 on the left and 20 on the right.

[latreche34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by illicit1

I have 720x480 4:3 video that I'm using Hybrid to de-interlace and export to H264. Trying to output to 1280x720 for YouTube upload. Only upsizing it because Youtube seems to butcher the video unless I do so on my own before uploading.

If this was 10 years ago I would have agreed with you, 720 is no different than 480 by YT algorithm rules now, so don't mess up your video by this destructive resize from 480 to 720 just to have it butchered again by Youtube. If you really want to avoid YT compression to a great extent, resize to 2880x2160 (no letterboxing needed) after de-interlacing and cropping to 704x480, this is the best way so far.

[illicit1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by latreche34

If this was 10 years ago I would have agreed with you, 720 is no different than 480 by YT algorithm rules now, so don't mess up your video by this destructive resize from 480 to 720 just to have it butchered again by Youtube. If you really want to avoid YT compression to a great extent, resize to 2880x2160 (no letterboxing needed) after de-interlacing and cropping to 704x480, this is the best way so far.

Interesting, my tests awhile back showed quite a difference. Sounds like I'll do this again. This would make my life much easier!

I'm archiving my raw captures.

[latreche34]

I've done tests myself as well.

[ThumperStrauss]

I think I see the issue, but I struggle with this too. I think that in the Pixel Aspect Ratio section, your Output PAR should be 1x1, in other words, a square pixel. If you do this, then Output Resolution should be what you expect it to be, or pretty close depending on your exact cropping. I have read that if your Output Resolution is, say, 1440x1058, you can just manually override the height to make it 1080. While it skews the image a tiny bit, it won't really be noticeable. The alternative is to use the Letterbox settings as you have done.

P.S. I think (but may be wrong) that the Pixel Aspect Ratio Input PAR should be 10:11 when using SD-capture-card footage. I think 8:9 is recommended when using footage digitized via a MiniDV camcorder. It's probably not a huge difference but that's what I have been doing based on something I read somewhere, sometime. And you're not alone about the math.

P.S.S. Regarding YouTube, to get the better codec (in 2025) I think you need to go to at least 1440x1080. But I don't think there is much difference. YouTube isn't great. Vimeo is. Be sure to save your edited video somewhere safe and it will be much better than the downloaded YouTube version.

[Aya_Rei]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThumperStrauss

P.S.S. Regarding YouTube, to get the better codec (in 2025) I think you need to go to at least 1440x1080. But I don't think there is much difference. YouTube isn't great. Vimeo is. Be sure to save your edited video somewhere safe and it will be much better than the downloaded YouTube version.

Just a small correction, it takes 1440p (1920x1440 for 4:3 content) or higher to get the VP09 codec

[vwestlife]

If you have the CPU power, hard drive space, and Internet bandwidth to spare, upscale to 1440p to force YouTube to immediately give your video the higher-quality codecs and all lower resolutions. Because now YouTube only gives "popular" channels those features if you upload at 1080p or less. So uploading at 1440p and then watching it at 720p will actually look better than uploading a video directly at 720p.

[traal]

The math is here but for 1440x1080 instead of 960x720.