Space either side of video scene?

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ChrisGreaves
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Space either side of video scene?

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Untitled.png
I have been mildly puzzled by this for about a year now.
Why do some videos introduce those two "null" areas either side of the useful part of the video?
Sometimes the side panels show a faint but exploded part of the video, and I find those side-motions distracting.
Other times the side panels are just a flat background.

In all cases I wonder why someone would choose to remove part of the background.

If the videos were of court cases, where bystanders ought not to be included, or any other privacy issue, I could accept that, but most of the time it seems to me that the videographer has mastered a "cute trick" with the camera or the editor, and wants to demonstrate that, well, they have mastered a cute trick with the camera or editor.

(signed) "mystified" of Bonavista.
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HansV
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Re: Space either side of video scene?

Post by HansV »

Those videos have been filmed on a smart phone in portrait mode instead of the (for video) more usual landscape mode. There are tools that let you create a blurred version of the same video stretched to the whole width of a landscape mode page and place it behind the main video.

See for example How to fix a vertical video with VSDC Free Video Editor
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Re: Space either side of video scene?

Post by ChrisGreaves »

HansV wrote:
04 Aug 2020, 18:52
Those videos have been filmed on a smart phone in portrait mode instead of the (for video) more usual landscape mode. There are tools that let you create a blurred version of the same video stretched to the whole width of a landscape mode page and place it behind the main video. See for example How to fix a vertical video with VSDC Free Video Editor
Hams, thanks for the explanation and link.

I see two things from this:-
(1) Some people are like me - point-and-click, then after I have loaded the images (stills) to the laptop I realise that I should "rotate 90 degrees" in MSPaint or whatever. Will I ever learn?
(2) The trend is away from landscape screens on laptops (with accompanying landscape video viewers on browsers) and towards portrait-held smart phones with portrait-mode viewers.

I shall now take careful note when watching such videos on my smart phone.
I mean, really smart browsers on laptops, and really smart browsers on really smart phones, ought to be able to self-rotate, in a manner of speaking.

That is, whoever or whatever decides to add those two space panels either side of the image to fake "landscape" could as easily ask that the video player auto-rotate the video through ninety degrees.

(He wrote, wandering way out of his depth!)

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Chris
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Argus
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Re: Space either side of video scene?

Post by Argus »

ChrisGreaves wrote:
04 Aug 2020, 19:46
I mean, really smart browsers on laptops, and really smart browsers on really smart phones, ought to be able to self-rotate, in a manner of speaking.

That is, whoever or whatever decides to add those two space panels either side of the image to fake "landscape" could as easily ask that the video player auto-rotate the video through ninety degrees.
You mean like this:
Entitled.png
:blackteeth: :bubbles:
(Then we can have a quiz about what we are looking at.)
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Re: Space either side of video scene?

Post by stuck »

Argus wrote:
04 Aug 2020, 23:28
...(Then we can have a quiz about what we are looking at.)
My guess is part of Mount Etna.

Ken

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Re: Space either side of video scene?

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ChrisGreaves wrote:
04 Aug 2020, 19:46
... ask that the video player auto-rotate the video through ninety degrees.

(He wrote, wandering way out of his depth!)
As Argus has already illustrated, doing that would not help. Working in portrait mode fixes the captured scene in portrait mode. Would you view Rembrandt like this?

Ken
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Re: Space either side of video scene?

Post by HansV »

Turn the monitor (or laptop) on its side and all is well again...
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Re: Space either side of video scene?

Post by ChrisGreaves »

stuck wrote:
05 Aug 2020, 08:01
My guess is part of Mount Etna.
Hi Ken.
I think it was part of a Youtube video of tourists who were surprised at what an active volcano can do to curious tourists.
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Re: Space either side of video scene?

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Argus wrote:
04 Aug 2020, 23:28
You mean like this:
Hi Argus.
What part of "really smart" didn't you understand? :laugh: :rofl:
By "really smart" I meant smart enough to rotate the contents of the image, as one can in MSPaint.
(later) Oh! I see what you're getting at.
I must be Really Stupid :sad:.

OK (back peddles a bit)
The current solution (distracting crud either side of the data) could be modified to exist without the distracting crud either side of the data (which is the central 1/3 of the image).

A human could do that be crudely re-recording (Camtasia?) and then editing out those two side panels. That process could be automated.

Indeed, the software has to be only smart enough to not add those two side panels in the first place.

If I got white space instead of those two side panels I'd be happier and would not have lost any real data, would I?

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Chris
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Re: Space either side of video scene?

Post by ChrisGreaves »

stuck wrote:
05 Aug 2020, 08:37
Would you view Rembrandt like this?
If I gave him more than a sideways glance, yes!
Cheers
Chris
P.S. Your point is well-taken.
C
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Re: Space either side of video scene?

Post by ChrisGreaves »

HansV wrote:
05 Aug 2020, 09:25
turn the monitor (or laptop) on its side and all is well again...
Hello Hans.
Thanks for reminding me that Ctrl-Alt-arrow seems not to apply to this monitor! :cranky:
Cheers
Chris
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