What are Video Resolutions?
Video resolution describes frame dimensions in pixels, such as 1920 by 1080 or 3840 by 2160. It affects visible detail, processing load, compression requirements, and display compatibility.
How Video Resolutions work
Resolution records the sample grid of each frame, while display shape also depends on pixel aspect ratio, cropping, and rotation metadata. More pixels can preserve finer spatial detail when the lens, focus, source, and bitrate support it, but they also increase the work given to filters, encoders, and decoders. Resolution is therefore selected during ingest, proxy creation, ladder generation, and final mastering according to the target display and delivery path.
Key facts
- Two streams with different stored dimensions can display at the same aspect ratio when one uses non-square pixels, so width divided by height is not always the displayed shape.
- Some codec profiles and chroma-subsampled pixel formats constrain coded dimensions; encoders may pad the frame and signal a crop rather than expose the padded samples to viewers.
- A high-resolution encode can look worse than a smaller one at an insufficient bitrate because the encoder must distribute its available data across a larger number of samples.
When Video Resolutions matter
Output resolutions should match likely display sizes and network conditions instead of simply preserving the largest source dimensions. Unsupported or excessive sizes can waste bandwidth and decoding resources.