It’s 4pm on a Friday afternoon and you’ve just been given a video to put online. But wait! The video’s aspect ratio is all wrong. What do you do? If you have the full Adobe Production Suite, then you’re all set, however, if you don’t I have some other tools that might help you out.
Handbrake is an open source video converter, available in all platforms; you can download it from www.handbrake.fr. Once installed, simply follow the steps below:
- Selected your video file
- Go to the “Picture” tab
- To convert PAL (720x576) Widescreen, set the PAR width to 64 and PAR height to 45 (display width will automatically switch to 1024). The display size should now read 1024x576. For NTSC (720x480) set the PAR width 96 and PAR height 81.
- If necessary deinterlace the video under the “Video Filters” tab.
Should you just need to convert files quickly to iPad, iPhone or Android device, Miro Video Converter (available at www.mirovideoconverter.com) gets the job done really quickly.
It is however limited to just a list of selected devices and doesn’t have a full feature set like Handbrake.
In short, use Handbrake if the video will be primarily seen on desktop and TV. However, for smaller screens like the iPhone, iPad or Android, Miro Video Converter should be sufficient to get the job done.