Best video size for online video

There is no single best size for an online video but here are a few suggestions so you can successfully post the best looking online video on your site.

Where are you going to host your video

Where you are going to host your video is going to play a huge part in answering what is the "best size" for your online video. If you plan on using a hosting site like YouTube or Vimeo I suggest making your video to the HD 1280x720 standards.

Unlike 1920x1280 HD video, 1280X720 is accepted at almost every video hosting service and you can watch this size on any HD television. This size is the most versatile of standard video sizes, plus it will start playing faster than 1920x1280 because it is smaller in pixel and file size. 

Custom video sizes

Our front page is a nonstandard video size of 1150x450. It stands out from your normal video because of this, but the drawback is if you upload a nonstandard video size to a hosting site will not be encoded to HD quality, and your video could be squashed out of proportion.

If you plan on doing a custom video size you will want to host the video on a Video Content Delivery Network (CDN).

The answer

In short make your video in HD 1280x720. Just because your video is made at 1280x720 that doesn't mean that will be that size of your video on your website. All services like YouTube will give you options on the size of your embed code (the HTML that is placed on your website to call the video).

Extra tip

I like using Google labs browser size page to calculate how large my video player should be. I suggest having your video be small enough that it is seen in the 90% range of height and width. This way you know 90% of your visitors will see the video without have to scroll. Your player might be 525x295 once sized down, or any other proportionately smaller size.

2011 was certainly the best year yet for VJIX, we created over 40 videos for large and small businesses. Sadly the two biggest clients we worked with so far, that are Fortune 500 businesses and house hold names, we had to sign NDAs. It is like saying, “Trust me, we won an award for being awesome, but I can’t tell you about it”.

The biggest news was Steve Jobs died, and oddly the anticipated Final Cut Pro X was released which was a total flop according to most reviews. Personally I have noticed Apple backing away from its professional users to cater to the general public. Thankfully Adobe released some of the best video tools yet with CS5.5. It will be interesting to see what Apple does next and how Adobe responds.

2011 was also year for mobile video codecs to battle. Unfortunately there is no one video codec that will play on all devices and computers, without pointing fingers I can tell you it is over greed, not tech specs. Eventually some form of HTML5 video will prevail, but it will take a while until compatibility reaches the 99% that flash has on desktop computers.

In 2012 I don’t think anyone will question is validity of online video, it is here and growing quicker than any other medium. People are seeing video works great in conjunction with text information, and better than a single image. No surprise there.

I hope 2012 is a safe and great year for everyone!

Well it has been another year and we have updated the site again.... And we didn’t blog since the last major site update. Being busy is no excuse, but that is our excuse.

Sadly Steve Jobs died earlier this week, we video professionals will miss you. Apple (Steve) made professional editing affordable for the masses, soon after everyone followed step. A few years before then an editing machine would cost you 30 to 60 thousand. Most people will remember you for iPhones, iPads, laptops and iPods but I will remember you for the powerful G5 towers and Final Cut Pro and (sorry) Shake for $500.

As a final thought Apple (Steve) also gave us clean design from their operating system to their marketing. That will be the legacy that lasts forever, we will miss you buddy.

(a screen shot of Apple’s website this week)

It has been a while since a blog post has gone out. We have been busy busy which is always good news. With the holiday lull we wanted to make some changes to the site. Less is more, that is the belief.

Soon we will post our newest works. Also we have some neat end of year reviews, the frosting on the cake kind of stuff.

Below is a video that we did for Delaware Technical and Community College, the video is done in our 2.5D style with 3D shots. If your college needs a video to show why students should choose your school contact us to see if we can help you.