Blackbars questions

ram17 wrote on 7/30/2019, 12:33 AM

3POINT
"Advantage of NO black bars, renders a little faster and saves bitrates"

Musicvid
"Yes, people don't understand that black uses pixels. The default in Handbrake is to autocrop everything, leaving unconventional file dimensions, like 1920x818 (modulus 2)"

These are answers regarding a question about 2:35 aspect ratio and I qoute them.
So may I ask if it's better to set your project at a custom resolution that sets its own black bars when viewed in a 16:9 output like Handbrake do? Like for example a 1080p, I'll edit & render it out in a 1920x810. Would it be a good idea? since your not including & rendering the black bars in resolution of your video and will not be a waste of pixels in your output compared to rendering to 1920x1080 & putting a literal black bars like png or as a fx & will it not affect much your bitrate-render time? Or better be no black bars at all? Thank you for the information.

Comments

john_dennis wrote on 7/30/2019, 1:35 AM

I'll forego the narrative. Here are the data:

ram17 wrote on 7/30/2019, 2:19 AM

Wow, a real render test. Thank you @john_dennis for the effort & the data. Seems like it answered all my questions.

Musicvid wrote on 7/30/2019, 8:55 AM

So may I ask if it's better to set your project at a custom resolution that sets its own black bars when viewed in a 16:9 output like Handbrake do?

It's a good question, but ultimately one of personal preference.

Handbrake renders 1920x810 to save a little time and space. It will still look the same, with bars, in a standard 16x9 player format. So its not a huge consideration either way.

@john_dennis makes a good case for concentrating the encoding bits where they're needed, not wasted on encoding black pixels.

fr0sty wrote on 7/30/2019, 12:02 PM

In either case, you should only do it if you are shooting content wider than 16:9 to view on screens wider than 16:9, otherwise you're just wasting screen size.

ram17 wrote on 7/31/2019, 9:01 AM

Thank you guys. I don't do black bars in my output unless it's really needed or it's the clients requirement. I do freelance edits for others, so I'll give what they usually need, which is the 'black bars'. That's commonly a cinematic connotation of people.

fr0sty wrote on 7/31/2019, 10:37 AM

I too freelance, so I understand how that goes. I hate it when editors take my work and crop it to put fake black bars in the scene. I had one chop off Rza from Wu Tang Clan's head while he was giving an announcement on stage just so they could put black bars in for nothing other than the sake of being trendy and wanting to fake "that cinematic look".