Aspect Ratio Calculator?

Help/How To
1

Hello,

I’m just wondering how this calculator can help me when using Shotcut.

[https://andrew.hedges.name/experiments/aspect_ratio/](Aspect Ratio Calculator)

I’d like to hear any ideas about how and when calculating aspect ratios may be
useful in Shotcut workflow.

Edit: I’m also trying to understand the relationship between resolution and aspect ratio.

Edit: I really have no idea what resolutions or aspect ratios to export my videos at, so at
this point I’m just trusting some of the export presets and hoping for the best, then
testing the results on my computer and tv

Edit: Also wondering what may be advantages to aspect ratio 16:9 over 4:3 if any?
And here’s a related link:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_resolutions]
(List of common resolutions (and correlating aspect ratios?)

Edit: I think perhaps I’ll just go with 1280 × 720 for everything. Does that sound like a good idea? And I think that’s 16:9 aspect ratio. I kind of want to choose one export and stick with it to keep things simple for myself. Just thinking out loud here a bit, hope that’s okay here.

Thanks.

2

Nowadays most mainstream video is 16 units wide by 9 units high, all “landscape” format.

The pixel counts are either 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720.

There is not a whole lot more to it than that.

3

Good to know, thanks.
Steers me in the right direction regarding export settings choices.
I was getting a bit overwhelmed seeing all the export preset options,
video mode options, etc. But with this helpful forum things are starting to make
more sense. so now I feel more comfortable diving into some video editing.
I was thinking I better figure out exactly what’s going on with all the export options and video mode choices before I do editing of projects, so I don’t run into trouble at the end of a larger project when it comes time to export to video. Now I’m feeling like just sticking to 1280x720 with it’s 16:9 aspect ratio for basically all of what I do with Shotcut. Thanks again.

4

What is the source of your video? If it’s a camcorder, it will have a range of video parameters to set.

5

A Canon Powershot camera with video. Nothing too high quality I suppose. But the results look plenty good enough for me when I check the exported 1280x720 video results on my smart tv. the only two video quality options from the camera are 640x480 and 1280x720.

6

They are not a quality settings, they refer to resolutions and aspect ratios (4:3 and 16:9).
Depending on your powershot model, you may have bitrate settings (higher bitrate - higher quality) and fps settings for each.
Also output IQ relies on some picture mode settings too.

7

Think of aspect ratios like square blocks, in building a rectangle.
4:3 is four block wide, three blocks high.
16:9 is sixteen blocks wide, nine blocks high.

Or look at it from each resolution pixel as one block, then build your rectangle.

16:9 Aspect - Resolutions:
Width x Height
7680 × 4320 (8K UHD)
3840 × 2160 (4k UHD)
1920 × 1080 (1080p - Full HD)
1280 × 720 (720p - HDTV)

4:3 Aspect - Resolutions:
Width x Height
2048 × 1536 (Apple iPad 3rd Gen)
1600 × 1200 (Lenovo Thinkpad T60)
1024 × 768 (Apple iPad)
640 × 480 (VGA - monitors that nobody wants)

8

While there are other ratios(2.39:1 and 1.85:1 come to mind from DCI) almost everything you produce and consume should be 16:9 at least for the next few years, the bulk of tv’s purchased today are either 3840x2160 or 1920x1080 and your standard computer monitor is some variant thereof(odd 3:2 systems and ultrawide not withstanding) Unless you know ahead of time you’re doing something weird(like a video wall that works out to 32:9) 16:9 is your best choice

9

I liked a lot the link https://andrew.hedges.name/experiments/aspect_ratio/

Because I was doing a footer video to include into another video … and helped me a lot to get the correct aspect ratio !!!