Before Uploading your video to EZWebPlayer.
The Issue:
On playback, the video image does not present “wall to wall”, or edge to edge. Instead, there are filler bars, typically black bars< that fill the unused space.
Why?
The black filler bars that appear around videos do so for a very simple reason– it means that the player settings are different from the actual video size. If you want clients, customers, viewers, coworkers and employers to see that you know how to properly upload videos, and that you care, then you need to know how to control that setting. The good news is that it is very simple to fix. And the bad news is that it is not simple to describe.
If you make sure that the size settings for your video are at the same values all the way through the process of getting your video to Web, you will never have those pesky black filler bars. If the video starts out as a 16×9 wide screen, then make sure that at every opportunity to choose a setting, you choose 16×9. If the video starts out as a 4×3 standard size, then make sure you are choosing 4×3 standard all the way down the pipeline from shooting and post production to web deployment.
This is a very basic function and necessary if you are serious about the professional appearance of your web videos, especially if you are providing a service to others. It is also one of the most basic and simple, available settings to you as a web video producer that can set your videos apart from the novice.
NOTE: There is a confusing element to describing what causes black filler bars and how to get rid of them. This is because the bars could either be recorded into the video file by mistake at the head of the production pipeline before deployment (sharing/publishing), or be caused by the settings of the player through which the video is currently being viewed at the tail end of the pipeline at the point of deployment. But either way, the black bars look the same and similar terms are used in describing how to fix them for either scenario. Basically, in one scenario, the bars were created before viewing the video and in the second scenario the bars are being created while viewing the video.
In the following panels we have done our best to describe those two basic causes of black filler bars, and the fixes for the two most basic video sizes; wide screen and standard. To save time, you could simply make sure that every video you upload to the web has the correct size settings for recording, rendering and playing back– that’s what all this fuss is about.
Black bars caused by a bad video render
Wide Screen video
with no black bars
Wide Screen video
with black bars
Video recorded and rendered in the same size,16×9.
Video recorded and rendered in different sizes. Recorded in 4×3 and rendered out as 16×9. In this scenario the black bars are in the video file.
Standard video
with no black bars
Standard video
with black bars
Video recorded and rendered in the same size, 4×3.
Video recorded and rendered in different sizes. Recorded in 16×9 and rendered out as 4×3. In this scenario the black bars are in the video file.
Black bars caused by a wrong player dimension.
Wide Screen video
with no black bars
Standard video
with no black bars
Video recorded in 16×9 and rendered out as 16×9 and placed in a player sized to use the 16×9 aspect ratio.
Video recorded in 4×3 and rendered out as 4×3 and placed in a player sized to use the 4×3 aspect ratio.
Wide Screen video
with black bars
Standard video
with black bars
This scenario can be a little tricky. There are two ways this can happen. 1.You recorded a video in 16×9 and rendered it out as a 16×9 video meaning the video file itself doesn’t have black bars. But then you set the player size to use a 4×3 aspect ratio intending to remove the black bars. All you need to do is resize the player’s height using a 16×9 aspect ratio.Or 2. (the less desirable situation) you recorded a video in 16×9 aspect ratio and rendered it out as a 4×3 aspect ratio meaning the black bars are within the video file, and you placed the video file in a 4×3 aspect ratio sized player. In this situation you would need to re-render the video file in the correct size.
This scenario can be a little tricky. There are two ways this can happen. 1.You recorded a video in 4×3 and rendered it out as a 4×3 video meaning the video file itself doesn’t have black bars, but then you set the player size to 16×9 aspect ratio. To remove the black bars all you need to do is resize the player’s width or height using a 4×3 aspect ratio.Or 2. (The less desirable situation). You recorded a video in 4×3 aspect ratio and rendered it out as a 16×9 aspect ratio meaning the black bars are within the video file and you placed the video file into a 16×9 aspect ratio sized player. In this situation you would need to re-render the video file with the correct aspect ratio.
Wide Screen video
with a black border
Standard video
with a black border
Video recorded in 16×9 and rendered out as 4×3 then placed into a player sized to 16×9 aspect ratio. In this situation the black bars on the left and right are most likely caused by the player and the bars on the bottom and top are most likely in the video file. You will need to re-render the video file using a 16×9 aspect ratio.
Video filmed in 4×3 and rendered out as 16×9 then placed into a player sized to 4×3 aspect ratio. In this situation the black bars on the left and right are most likely in the video file and the bars on the bottom and top are most likely caused by the player. You will need to re-render the video file using a 4×3 aspect ratio.