What is the difference between aspect ratio and resolution?

What exactly do all these numbers mean? Let's read and find out through the following article!

What is the difference between aspect ratio and resolution?

These two concepts are often confused with each other as they both refer to the frame size. The resolution of the clip describes the area within its bounds in pixels.

The video clip is 1920 pixels long and 1080 pixels wide is represented by 1920 x 1080 resolution. The aspect ratio is taken from this value. The ratio between 1920 and 1080 is 16:9, a familiar pair of numbers, right?

Other popular video resolutions include:

1. 640 x 480 (also known as standard resolution)
2. 1280 x 720 (commonly referred to as "720p")
3. 1440 x 900 (technically named WXGA+)
4. 2048 x 1152 (also known as 2K)
5. 3840 x 2160 (commonly known as 4K)

Common aspect ratios are:

1. 4:3: This is the original NTSC/PAL standard.
2. 16:9: Widescreen HD video, such as 1080 x 1920 or 1280 x 720.
3. 8:5: This ratio appears on most modern computer monitors.

Frame aspect ratio and Pixel Aspect Ratio

Frame aspect ratio is very simple and easy to understand. It is the aspect ratio.

For example, if the aspect ratio of a build in Premiere is 4:3 and you drag a 16:9 clip into the timeline, the clip itself will still be fine, albeit slightly mismatched. It can be scaled down or you can crop it so that the clip fills the entire screen. Cropping opens the way to compositing, scanning, and other tools you can use to make your project stand out.

Pixel aspect ratio is a slightly different matter. Frame aspect ratio takes into account the entire frame, while in Pixel aspect ratio, the target object is the pixels themselves.

Square pixels and pixel aspect ratio

People who use Photoshop or any type of video editing program may have come across the term 'square pixel' once or twice. However, are all pixels squares?

In a perfect world, this would be true. However, in reality things are not like that. According to Adobe, this discrepancy occurs when the editing program's standard for one aspect ratio or another is not the same as the standard to which the source footage follows, in terms of the number of pixels per frame required. must contain.

For example, 4:3 footage shot with DV NTSC convention will have a width and height of 720 x 480 pixels, respectively. However, in some programs, this standard will change - to 640 x 480, for example. When these ratios are combined, adjustments will take place.

Programs like Premiere make adjustments by squeezing or stretching the image. Therefore, the original configuration of the "pixel" is also stretched. The ratio between the size of the original pixel and the number of newly created actual pixels that the original image currently occupies combine to produce the final pixel aspect ratio of the image.

In a sense, most of the original, original footage can be thought of as having square pixels. The conversion happens only when you include the footage in the editing program. When NTSC footage goes through this process, nothing changes in height. However, its 720 pixel length is now only an area equivalent to 640 regular pixels. In stark contrast to the original perfect square pixel array, the pixels will now be narrower than before.

Anyone who has ever had problems with distorted images or video clips will be glad to know that this is usually just due to the pixel aspect ratio of the clip. Narrowing the disparity and adjusting the footage accordingly will often be a quick and effective fix.

Isabella Humphrey

Update 10 August 2021