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Why Does My YouTube Video Appear So Tiny?

by James Liberty
9 replies
I just uploaded a video to YouTube... but the video
dimensions in the final YouTube version appear
rather tiny.

Basically, it's as if a one-inch black border was
added to the video... noticeably shrinking the
dimensions.

Anyone happen to know what might be the
cause of this? The file "properties" state
that the video file is 640x480... but it
certainly isn't displaying at 640x480 on
YouTube!

Basically, it seems as if the video shrunk
somewhere in processing.

I also placed an image file at the end of the
video. Could that make any difference?

(For what it's worth, I am using Camtasia 5).

Please help. No man likes shrinkage!!
#tiny #video #youtube #youtube error
  • Profile picture of the author Bill Farnham
    Hi James,

    YT's native display is in 16:9 format not the 4:3 format you uploaded. When they display the video they have to make it fit.

    I suggest all your videos uploaded to YT going forward be in a 16:9 ratio format (1280 X 720 or 640 X 360 for instance).

    Not sure about the image file at the end of the video...

    ~Bill
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    • Profile picture of the author Karan Goel
      Originally Posted by Bill Farnham View Post

      Hi James,

      YT's native display is in 16:9 format not the 4:3 format you uploaded. When they display the video they have to make it fit.

      I suggest all your videos uploaded to YT going forward be in a 16:9 ratio format (1280 X 720 or 640 X 360 for instance).

      Not sure about the image file at the end of the video...

      ~Bill
      Hi Bill.

      Thanks for the nice information. I never knew that!

      Just created a vid in 16:9 and see, it's perfect:


      Pardon the overall quality, though!

      Karan
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  • Profile picture of the author James Liberty
    I just produced it at 1270 x 780, but the video still shrunk on me. The original video that was sent to me plays on my media player noticeable larger than the final video I produced with Camtasia 5.

    The original video is a .wmv and I converted it to an .avi. Might this have something to do with it?
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  • Profile picture of the author Ti
    Do not use Camtasia's upload to Youtube feature. It does crap quality. Upload it manually using YTs website.

    Here is an example video that I created using Camtasia Studio and uploaded manually with these settings:

    • 1920x1080 resolution
    • .AVI video container
    • PCM 384kbps stereo audio
    • Xvid Codec @ 10,000kbps @ 30fps - single pass speed focus
    • The video was something like 6GB that I uploaded to Youtube
    • 50 something minutes long
    • Upload was done by logging into Youtube -> Mouse hovering over your profile -> Clicking Upload Video -> Clicking on Advanced Uploader and then just following the prompts

    Make sure to click the 1080p to see the full quality!

    Hopefully this will serve as a good example of what settings to use in Camtasia to do some really high quality videos.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ti
    Originally Posted by Craig Desorcy View Post

    I found this gem

    16:9 Aspect Ratio Calculator for content area width

    I always record at 960x540 then upload.

    Best,

    Craig
    I'd probably skip that URL and just go the simple route:

    Take your width / height. If it equals 1.777777777777778 then you have a proper 16:9 resolution.

    For example:

    • 16 divided by 9 = 1.777777777777778
    • 1920 divided by 1080 = 1.777777777777778
    • 1280 divided by 720 = 1.777777777777778

    Stick with 720 or 1080 (eg 1280x720 and 1920x1080) for best results because Youtube will allow you to fit into the 720HD and 1080HD categories.
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  • Profile picture of the author James Liberty
    Thank you, everyone. I think I was trying to take a 640x480 video and produce it at 1080x720. Apparently that doesn't fly.

    Now I have taken a 1280x720 video and produced it at 1280x720. The final size seems better, but the video/audio is pretty choppy. Any idea why this might happen? I suspect my computer doesn't have the necessary power to edit a video file this large. Is computer speed important when it comes to producing final video files?
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  • Profile picture of the author Ti
    Your first bet is to check your source video. If it is choppy than either your recording settings are too low, or your CPU resources are too low. Your recording software should be able to tell you if you have frame drops (which cause studdering).
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  • Profile picture of the author James Liberty
    The original video here was 640x480 and I produced it at 640x480. Here is the final result:
    ink_coupon.avi - YouTube

    So... was Bill Farnham (above) right? Does YouTube automatically super-shrink all standard sized videos now? According to the very bottom of the YouTube help page, you can still make standard sized videos look good... so why doesn't mine look good??
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