Need help, proper video resolution and exporting.

[Iron124]

Hello all, I'm hoping somebody here can help me with a question I've been unable to answer through my own efforts and research. I regularly record gameplay footage and upload it to youtube as a hobby, however, all of this footage is shadowboxed after rendering. What I mean by that, is there's a large black box around the entirety of the recording. Here's some of my system information:

-Monitor is 1680 x 1050, AKA a 16:10 aspect ratio. All recordings are taken in this native resolution, as fraps will only record in full or half quality, both effectively the same aspect ratio.
-I typically use Movie Maker to add in some very basic editing, and then render and export the video. I've tried exporting in a vast array of different formats, including 1366 x 768, 1280 x 720, 1280 x 800 (16:10 ratio), and even a 4:3 ratio of 1152 x 864. None of these produced results that filled the screen in the youtube player or the standard windows player. In fact, even when working within WMM the footage is already windowboxed.

I'm out of ideas. I tried youtube's formatting tags (yt:stretch=16:9) etc, but those didn't do anything either. I tried playing the game itself in a 16:9 ratio instead of native resolution, but the game is so severely letterboxed it's unplayable. I've attached a couple images to showcase what I've been dealing with, and I hope somebody knows of a solution to this besides buying a 16:9 monitor.

Thanks.

(Image examples)

 

[ssddx]

you have already stated that your monitor is 1680x1050, but what is the actual resolution of the video? my suspicion would be 1920x1080 since this matches standard video formats. now, there are no 1680x1050 video formats so it will have to record in a different resolution and this is likely why the video renders with the ugly black box.

now, this can be fixed by using a 1080p monitor (would involve buying a new monitor) or hooking up to your tv to play (which is probably 720p or 1080p). as long as the screen is a standard resolution you wont have any trouble and this would save ALOT on video editing/processing times.

the other way is to manually crop video using some video editing software. cropping to 16:9 and cropping out the left and right black bars would result in a slight top and bottom band. if you crop it along the left, right and top it will have a band along the bottom (you could use this when you put text on screen or to display a logo or some other nature since its going to be a black bar). the other method is to crop vertically and to 16:9 which would slightly cut off some data on the left and right (or to one side if you adjust it) which would be lost.

you might also be able to use the OBS recorder and play the game in windowed mode (at 720p) and set to record. however this would be highly unplayable.

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since i believe the shadowbox is in the original feed, just changing resolutions will not solve anything. what you need to do in this case is crop not change size (cropping does change size but does it by cutting out a part, not resampling to a different resolution).

--

perhaps you need some better video editing software which has functions like crop (if wmm doesnt i dont remember it being all that feature rich.).

cant say i know of any good free ones but perhaps one of these http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/applications/best-free-video-editing-software-9-top-programs-you-should-download-1136264

or, paid software http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-video-editing-software,review-2167.html

honestly its a whole lot easier if you just have everything recorded in 16:9 at 1080p to begin with without letterboxing (which would be hooking up to a 1080p monitor or tv set and playing the game on that). post-production (video editing, resampling, resizing, etc) can take a whole lot of time which can be avoided.

 

[Iron124]

you have already stated that your monitor is 1680x1050, but what is the actual resolution of the video? my suspicion would be 1920x1080 since this matches standard video formats. now, there are no 1680x1050 video formats so it will have to record in a different resolution and this is likely why the video renders with the ugly black box.

now, this can be fixed by using a 1080p monitor (would involve buying a new monitor) or hooking up to your tv to play (which is probably 720p or 1080p). as long as the screen is a standard resolution you wont have any trouble and this would save ALOT on video editing/processing times.

the other way is to manually crop video using some video editing software. cropping to 16:9 and cropping out the left and right black bars would result in a slight top and bottom band. if you crop it along the left, right and top it will have a band along the bottom (you could use this when you put text on screen or to display a logo or some other nature since its going to be a black bar). the other method is to crop vertically and to 16:9 which would slightly cut off some data on the left and right (or to one side if you adjust it) which would be lost.

you might also be able to use the OBS recorder and play the game in windowed mode (at 720p) and set to record. however this would be highly unplayable.

--

since i believe the shadowbox is in the original feed, just changing resolutions will not solve anything. what you need to do in this case is crop not change size (cropping does change size but does it by cutting out a part, not resampling to a different resolution).

--

perhaps you need some better video editing software which has functions like crop (if wmm doesnt i dont remember it being all that feature rich.).

cant say i know of any good free ones but perhaps one of these http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/applications/best-free-video-editing-software-9-top-programs-you-should-download-1136264

or, paid software http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-video-editing-software,review-2167.html

honestly its a whole lot easier if you just have everything recorded in 16:9 at 1080p to begin with without letterboxing (which would be hooking up to a 1080p monitor or tv set and playing the game on that). post-production (video editing, resampling, resizing, etc) can take a whole lot of time which can be avoided.

The video resolution is in fact natively recorded in 1680 x 1050 as according to the "Details" section on the raw video file.
Unfortunately I've tried most of the cheap video software out there, and all of it is terrible. I think in the long run it would actually be cheaper to invest in a new monitor rather than paid video editing software just I can crop my videos.

Thanks for the help.

 

[ssddx]

I think in the long run it would actually be cheaper to invest in a new monitor rather than paid video editing software

i'm thinking this is the easiest solution as well (and less time consuming)