In other words: By default, don’t distort the content!
Let’s say I have defined my output to be a standard 16:9 aspect ratio. Whatever I put in should have this aspect radio in the end. Currently, any content of a different aspect ratio would be stretched to fit the frame. I would like to see letterboxes or pillarboxes instead.
Today, I could apply a filter to zoom the image accordingly, but that’s not what I am aiming for. I’m good with additional black, but I don’t want to change my actual content.
I noticed i.e., encoding.com and Amazon Elemental Media Convert offers this behavior already.
Thank you for your insight and the good explanation of your use case. This is very helpful. Currently we don’t offer pillar and/or letterboxing and have no timeline for support yet. We will make sure to consider your interest in further roadmap planning and keep you updated on our progress.
@spring.media you should consider only setting the width or height in your codec configuration. Bitmovin will then ensure that the output keeps the same aspect ratio by calculating the other dimension accordingly.
Most players will thereafter be taking care of rendering the video in such a way as to keep that aspect ratio, if necessary by leaving black bars around the video.