Standard ratio for web delivery

[Jeromy Barber]

I'm about to fire off a response to a web designer I'm collaborating with on a project. I've done some research on the matter, and I think I'm right, but I want to get some back-up on the issue.

Here is the most recent message from the designer:

"In the design phase of this Web site, I specified that the episode videos need to be in Standard 4:3 Ratio Format. I designed the entire page around this format. In pixels, the stage area is: 450px X 338px which is Standard 4:3 Ratio Format."

It's my opinion that 450px X 338px is NOT 4:3. Right?

I'm delivering a file that is 480x320, and I feel that he should be able to make that work. (BTW the original file is shot DV, 24P, with a DVX 100, editing on CS3). I'm not an expert on aspect ratios and such, and that's why I'm checking in here.

Thanks in advance!

[Shaun Roemich]

If you do the math, the designer's frame size is in fact 4:3, if a bit of a bizarre size.

The crunch here is finding a file format that will allow those dimensions. A good number of web friendly codecs require both directions to be a factor of 8 for quantization.

And technically, 480x360 would be 4:3, assuming square pixels, so you are in fact incorrect.

[Jeromy Barber]

Thanks Shaun!

I could get deeper into the details on this situation. The bizarre size is really just the tip of the iceberg.

Yeah. You are right, that isn't 4x3. ok. Let me see what I need to do. I'll figure this out.

J

[Shaun Roemich]

Honest mistake. I've made a bunch of them over the years... good luck appeasing the designer AND finding an appropriate codec. I know MPEG-1 won't work (needs to be 8 pixels divisible), not sure about MP4 or Flash...