Windowbox effect on older videos

Recently, however, YouTube has switched over to 16:9 and has added a limit of 10 minutes to all new videos. That put us in a bit of a bind because we don’t want to sacrifice the existing “extended” content & comments/discussions we have up there, but at the same time we ‘d need to recompress everything to make the content look as good as possible.  Because of the switchover, many of our older videos are now both pillar-boxed and letter-boxed…the dreaded “windowboxing” effect.

New native 16:9 compression

Until we figure out the best way to update the older content, this is where we stand: Compressing all our newer videos in 10-minute intervals with a new setting to fill the player natively at 16:9.  Despite the issues with the older files, we’re thankful for YouTube’s new system as it’s way more flattering to our widescreen content.

Do any of you anyone upload content to YouTube? What settings / compressions have you found to work well?

I capture live HD (center screen) and SD (imag screens) from my edit suite, for every service preached on Sunday. To back up the live captures, I also roll tapes for every service. D5’s for HD, DVCProXL for SD, and DVCPro for our isolated cameras (usually camera 3–the “scripture camera”–and the Jib camera). We also have a third backup, which is captured to the servers from the production side of things.

My job is to be very critical of lighting, supers (name slides), lower thirds, and anything that “dates” the speaker (such as mentioning holidays or actual dates). I make notes of these things and after all the services have been preached, I wait to hear which service the speaker wants to use as the “master” (we have 3 services each Sunday and the strongest one is chosen for product). If minor changes need to be made, like a mis-spelling in scripture or a super, I correct those in post and then export that sequence out of FCP for the web. After it’s exported, I compress that file to flash with Sorenson Squeeze. While that file is compressing, I sync up both HD and SD for partnership churches before heading home.  By the time I get in on Monday morning, the web compression file is ready and I simply pass it along to the guys in the web department.

While at times it feels like just a day filled with capturing, exporting, and compressing, it’s ultimately an opportunity to make sure our services live on well beyond the date that they occur.  The production guys focus on making the service happen on Sunday, and the export department makes sure that the service is recorded so that people far outside of Alpharetta GA can experience what our attendees get to experience on a weekly basis.  It’s exciting that technology allows us to do this and I’m grateful to be a part of it here!