Make it big, baby! Now with a cheat sheet!
A while back I posted an article about how to make your videos bigger and better by simply doing a little math and then modifying the width and height parameters in the video embed codes. I’m glad to see that many of you have taken the message to heart by super-sizing your own videos. Still, most of you are leaving your videos the same old boring default size. C’mon, everyone knows that bigger is better! Why do you think everyone likes going to movies at theaters with big screens? Why do people like big screen televisions? That’s right: It makes their porn look better.
In an effort to boost the number of videos that are the maximum allowable size, I created a cheat sheet that lists all the major video hosts found here at the Sift, with both the old and new widths and heights so that you’ll know exactly what to change the dimensions to. Save it, print it, notarize it, insure it, laminate it, frame it, and hang it above your monitor. No more excuses, because with these numbers it will take you all of 15 seconds to change the width and height numbers after you’ve embedded the code. And if you can’t find the numbers that you’re looking for on this sheet, you can still do it the old-fashioned way by using **gulp** math.
Below the cheat sheet you will find many explanatory notes. They only need to be read once, so don’t treat them like the 90-day warranty on your new toaster. Just read them. Once. (That means you too, blankfist.)
Click to expand, and prepare to have your mind blown. Sort of.
- You might have noticed that the numbers aren’t perfectly aligned in either the horizontal or vertical axes. I made it while I was drinking. Deal with it.
- In my time at VideoSift, I have slowly but surely learned that there are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of video hosts spanning the globe. Therefore it would be impossible for me to make a cheat sheet to include every video host that you could find, and even if I could it would then no longer be a cheat sheet, but a cheat book. Therefore it’s much easier for me to refer you to my first post about upsizing videos if your video is not on the provided cheat sheet.
- If a video has a crappy resolution to start with, don’t bother upsizing it because it will only look worse. Most hosts these days have significantly improved video resolution quality, but there are still plenty of videos that still look like caca. I suggest leaving those alone.
- Some videos have embed codes that exceed the 540 pixel maximum width that VideoSift allows. So what do you do with those videos? Nothing. Lucky set it up so that videos which are too big will automatically downsize to the maximum allowed width. You won’t see this often, but College Humor sometimes posts embed codes with 640 pixels width. As I mentioned, they are automatically downsized to the maximum allowed width.
- Comedy Central is not on the cheat sheet. Pourquoi, you inquire? Well, I’ll show you why. If you alter the size of a Comedy Central video, it goes from looking like this:
To this:
Not exactly an improvement, n’est-ce pas? So just leave them alone. I’m guessing that there are a handful of other video hosts that have the same problem, so if you use an off-the-beaten-path video host the only way you’re going to discover this problem is when you view the preview screen right before you click the “Submit” button. Then you’ll need to click the “Modify” button to change the video’s dimensions back to their default settings IF they pull a Comedy Central number on you. You live, you learn.
- Dailymotion video embeds are unique, in that they have no “standard” size for their videos to start with. Anyone who has embedded more than a few of their videos will vouch for this. Therefore I chose the most common embed dimensions I’ve found and upsized their numbers to the maximum allowed. Now if you’re lazy, and if you’re reading this then there’s a good chance you are, you can always click the “customize player…” link below the embed code on any video, and then check the “large” box for the ‘player size’ option. That will automatically increase the video width to 520 pixels, which is damn close to the 540 maximum. Good enough for government work.
- Fora.tv, iFilm, and VSocial were not included because even though they are preferred video hosts, they are RARELY used. Refer to my original post if you want to upsize their videos.
- Funnyordie.com was included, even though they are not one of the ‘preferred providers’, only because they have a significant number of videos on the Sift. Okay, half of them are mine, but still, they are a force to be reckoned with. I’m not reality, just its spokesman.
- Vimeo also didn’t make the cheat sheet, but only because they make customizing video size a breeze. When you grab the embed code from Vimeo, you first click “EMBED” on the video screen, and then you click the “Customize size, color, and other options” link. All you have to do after that is enter “540” in the first (width) box, and then Vimeo automatically adjusts the height for you. You can also adjust the menu color on the same screen, if you’re so inclined.
- YouTube recently changed their default player size from 425 width x 355 height to 425 width x 344 height. Therefore all of you who've been automatically plugging in the old 451 height number need to take note of this change. If you still use the old 451 height nothing bad will happen. You'll just see thin black bars on the top and bottom of the video. Not the end of the world, but it will still look a little better if you use the new 437 height when maxing the video size.
In an effort to boost the number of videos that are the maximum allowable size, I created a cheat sheet that lists all the major video hosts found here at the Sift, with both the old and new widths and heights so that you’ll know exactly what to change the dimensions to. Save it, print it, notarize it, insure it, laminate it, frame it, and hang it above your monitor. No more excuses, because with these numbers it will take you all of 15 seconds to change the width and height numbers after you’ve embedded the code. And if you can’t find the numbers that you’re looking for on this sheet, you can still do it the old-fashioned way by using **gulp** math.
Below the cheat sheet you will find many explanatory notes. They only need to be read once, so don’t treat them like the 90-day warranty on your new toaster. Just read them. Once. (That means you too, blankfist.)
Click to expand, and prepare to have your mind blown. Sort of.
- You might have noticed that the numbers aren’t perfectly aligned in either the horizontal or vertical axes. I made it while I was drinking. Deal with it.
- In my time at VideoSift, I have slowly but surely learned that there are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of video hosts spanning the globe. Therefore it would be impossible for me to make a cheat sheet to include every video host that you could find, and even if I could it would then no longer be a cheat sheet, but a cheat book. Therefore it’s much easier for me to refer you to my first post about upsizing videos if your video is not on the provided cheat sheet.
- If a video has a crappy resolution to start with, don’t bother upsizing it because it will only look worse. Most hosts these days have significantly improved video resolution quality, but there are still plenty of videos that still look like caca. I suggest leaving those alone.
- Some videos have embed codes that exceed the 540 pixel maximum width that VideoSift allows. So what do you do with those videos? Nothing. Lucky set it up so that videos which are too big will automatically downsize to the maximum allowed width. You won’t see this often, but College Humor sometimes posts embed codes with 640 pixels width. As I mentioned, they are automatically downsized to the maximum allowed width.
- Comedy Central is not on the cheat sheet. Pourquoi, you inquire? Well, I’ll show you why. If you alter the size of a Comedy Central video, it goes from looking like this:
To this:
Not exactly an improvement, n’est-ce pas? So just leave them alone. I’m guessing that there are a handful of other video hosts that have the same problem, so if you use an off-the-beaten-path video host the only way you’re going to discover this problem is when you view the preview screen right before you click the “Submit” button. Then you’ll need to click the “Modify” button to change the video’s dimensions back to their default settings IF they pull a Comedy Central number on you. You live, you learn.
- Dailymotion video embeds are unique, in that they have no “standard” size for their videos to start with. Anyone who has embedded more than a few of their videos will vouch for this. Therefore I chose the most common embed dimensions I’ve found and upsized their numbers to the maximum allowed. Now if you’re lazy, and if you’re reading this then there’s a good chance you are, you can always click the “customize player…” link below the embed code on any video, and then check the “large” box for the ‘player size’ option. That will automatically increase the video width to 520 pixels, which is damn close to the 540 maximum. Good enough for government work.
- Fora.tv, iFilm, and VSocial were not included because even though they are preferred video hosts, they are RARELY used. Refer to my original post if you want to upsize their videos.
- Funnyordie.com was included, even though they are not one of the ‘preferred providers’, only because they have a significant number of videos on the Sift. Okay, half of them are mine, but still, they are a force to be reckoned with. I’m not reality, just its spokesman.
- Vimeo also didn’t make the cheat sheet, but only because they make customizing video size a breeze. When you grab the embed code from Vimeo, you first click “EMBED” on the video screen, and then you click the “Customize size, color, and other options” link. All you have to do after that is enter “540” in the first (width) box, and then Vimeo automatically adjusts the height for you. You can also adjust the menu color on the same screen, if you’re so inclined.
- YouTube recently changed their default player size from 425 width x 355 height to 425 width x 344 height. Therefore all of you who've been automatically plugging in the old 451 height number need to take note of this change. If you still use the old 451 height nothing bad will happen. You'll just see thin black bars on the top and bottom of the video. Not the end of the world, but it will still look a little better if you use the new 437 height when maxing the video size.
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