A Postage Stamp

This is something that has been bugging me more and more these days.  It really came to a head when I was trying to view a sample video from a fairly major effects plugin provider.  Unfortunately, the embedded video was so teensy, it wasn’t big enough to get any real impression of what the effect plugin was really doing.  Yes, I could click the “fullscreen” button, but on my 28″ monitor, it looked like an 8 bit video game.  And this is a company who should know better.

The fact is, the trend towards larger monitors has been with us for some time.  The old 320X240 typical standard for embedded video is scarcely larger than a postage stamp at the resolution of a large monitor.  There is no reason for video less than 640X480 in the case of a 4X3 example, or at the very minimum, 640X360 for a widescreen video.  This is the bare minimum in my humble opinion.  Another thing I can’t stress enough, is that you can always, and you should, upload higher resolution video clips, and then let your player, or Youtube, scale them down as needed.

Yes, I know there are some out there still using a 12 inch monitor at 640X480 total resolution, but no good ever came from catering to the least common denominator!