Vegas project setting: Aspect ratio for web video?

ken c wrote on 5/10/2008, 8:49 AM

Hi - I'm hoping you can all help me with what should be an elementary-type question I'm still not "getting"... you guys are pros at this, I'd appreciate any help...

Q: What's the best/correct aspect ratio I should use in Vegas8 for new project settings, for creating videos for streaming on the internet in flv format, for 720 pixel wide videos? (eg what's the right height/pixel aspect ratio to use)?

For example, my artbeats source movs are 720x486 29.97fps. Let's say I want to create a 720-pixel wide flv for streaming on the internet from a website. Should I set up the Vegas project as a 720x540 (or keep it 720x486 but change pixel aspect ratio to 1.0 vs the default 0.9?). Or something else?

From what I understand, NTSC is .9 pixel aspect ratio, while video for the web should be 1.0 pixel aspect ratio..

Or let's say I want to create an flv that is 640 pixels wide; what's the correct settings (vertical size, and 1.0 vs .9 aspect ratio) I should initially set up the Vegas project for?

My confusion comes from adapting all my stock video footage, when creating a new internet promo video in Vegas, eg File/New... then it looks like I need to set up some default templates with video for the web, for higher res than the multimedia format (the only 1 pixel aspect ratio template they have)...Thanks - this is confusing... I'd gotten Spot's excellent video for the web DVD, and I think he touched on it, but I wanted to make sure/confirm what I should do, when creating new projects in Vegas.

Ken

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 5/10/2008, 10:07 AM

Personally for web/computer viewing i tend to make 656x480 videos with a PAR of 1.0. This is only about 1.5 pixels wider than the standard NTSC format which is 654.54x480, and it makes both dimensions multiples of 8 which is required for some formats. You could also use 640x480 as some sites may conform your video to that size anyway. When rendering you can check 'stretch to fill frame' if you want though this will distort the image very slightly, or you an leave it unchecked if you don't mind tiny black borders.

Coursedesign wrote on 5/10/2008, 11:54 AM

Computer screens have 1.0 PAR (Pixel Aspect Ratio), so you should render to this.

Various video players can of course interpolate odd-PAR footage on the fly, but use 1.0 PAR when you can for max. predictability.

ken c wrote on 5/11/2008, 5:50 AM

Thanks, guys - that helps. It's tricky figuring out how to correctly encode captured source media for web vs dvd, I realize that setting the PAR differently is important, and what that means re final output size dimensions. Seems like a newbie type question I should know by now, after having done so many hours of web video, but I want to make sure I'm encoding correctly, to get the best picture quality.

Another dialogue that would be helpful would be on 'what's the best rate' to encode at, eg 528k/ 256/ 128 etc bitrates for web flvs; I often experiment in FlixPro with different rates, also using 15fps (would 14 or 18? etc be better), vs the 29.97.

-k