Youtube videos pillarboxing on computer, letterboxing and windowboxing on iPad

  • declanplummer

    (@declanplummer)


    9 years ago

    Hello. I’ve got an annoying problem with my embedded videos on my WordPress website and if anyone has any ideas they would be very welcome. Apologies for the length of this post – I just want to make sure I don’t forget anything!

    I’ve uploaded 7 movies to YouTube recently, all recorded on my iPad (4:3) and edited using iMovie on my Mac, which left the movies in 16:9 format with black bars at the sides (pillarboxing I think it’s called), which i can live with! They all work fine when I use my computer to view them on YouTube or my own website where they are embedded, or when I use my iPad to view them on the YouTube website.

    The problem only occurs when I view these embedded movies on my website using my iPad:
    4 of my movies have black bars at the top and bottom of the video (letterboxing I think it’s called?) and 3 of my movies have black bars all around the video (windowboxing?)! I can’t understand why these 3 movies are different to the other 4 because I used the exact same equipment and processes to create, edit, upload and embed all 7 movies to my website!

    None of the tag codes I could find on YouTube worked to fix this issue (i’ve tried them all dozens of times!). When I try to embed the 3 videos using the embedding code (rather than the website link) I’ve tried changing the width and height, but no matter what I do the windowboxing changes proportionally to the new dimensions i’ve selected.

    Again, just to stress, this only happens when I view the embedded videos on my website using my iPad. When I view the same videos on YouTube using my iPad, or when I view the same videos on YouTube or my website using my computer, all the videos go back to having black bars on the sides only (pillarboxing)! So I’m still completely lost as to what’s going on.

    Why does viewing my embedded videos on my website using my iPad create such large windowboxing, which doesn’t exist when I the view the same videos everywhere else on my iPad and my computer? how can I correct this?

    Any ideas what’s going on here would be greatly appreciated!
    Best,

    De

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Volunteer Moderator

    9 years ago

    For the most part, we don’t have any control over how exactly YouTube handles the embed, but there is limited control a theme can do to keep the design inside the device’s screen.

    Do you have similar trouble with the Twenty Fifteen theme temporarily active?

    Thread Starter declanplummer

    (@declanplummer)

    9 years ago

    Hi James,

    Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! I dont use the 2015 theme because Ive put a lot of time and effort into my theme and I always worry about changing themes and losing information or messing things up.

    Besides, I believe the issue is how WordPress handles the embed rather than how YouTube handles it: as I’ve said, all the videos are fine when I visit the YouTube website and my website on my computer, and they are also fine when I visit the YouTube website on my iPad. The problem only occurs when I visit my website on my iPad, and even then it only occurs with some of my videos and not others!

    To me, this strongly suggests that WordPress is doing something (or not doing something!) to these videos when it alters my website to make it viewable on other devices like my iPad, because all the videos are absolutely fine when I view them everywhere else.

    De

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Volunteer Moderator

    9 years ago

    WordPress doesn’t control how your site appears on various devices, your theme does.

    If you would please temporarily switch to the Twenty Fifteen theme as requested, then see if there’s any improvement, we’d know if that’s the right direction to look or not.

    Thread Starter declanplummer

    (@declanplummer)

    9 years ago

    Hi James,

    Thanks again for getting back to me and trying to help me with the problem. As you’ve not doubt guessed I’m new at website design, so I have a few questions:

    You say that WordPress doesn’t control how my site appears on various devices; my theme does. But I thought WordPress controlled the theme. If they don’t, who does?

    I’m a little worried about changing theme. Does changing theme of my entire website risk losing or altering anything? It sounds like a pretty drastic measure for the sake of three videos, especially when the other four videos work perfectly. If I change the theme, can I switch back to my old theme without any risk to the website?

    Also, if it’s a problem with my theme, then why does the problem only occur with some videos and not others – if it was a problem with the theme, surely every video would be affected?

    Apologies for all the questions, but I just want to be sure I don’t mess anything up. I’ve done so before when I tried unsuccessfully to create a child theme, but I couldn’t understand any tutorials about it, so I gave up.

    Thanks again for your help and patience

    best,

    De

    Thread Starter declanplummer

    (@declanplummer)

    9 years ago

    I tried I live preview of the 2015 theme, but it only showed me the home page (my menu and all my submenu links had disappeared!), so I was unable to go to the page that has the affected videos on it. I’ll the live preview of a few other themes to see if I can get to the relevant page.

    Best,

    De

    Thread Starter declanplummer

    (@declanplummer)

    9 years ago

    Just realised something.

    In order for me to see the results on my iPad, I would have to activate a new theme, which (based on the my experiences with the live previews) would mean drastically altering the look and functionality of my website. I don’t want to do this, if it means losing all the work I’ve already put into it.

    Could it be something else, aside from the theme, that’s causing my three videos to behave strongly when viewed on iPad?

    Best,

    De

    Thread Starter declanplummer

    (@declanplummer)

    9 years ago

    If anyone has an iPad here is my website:

    http://www.declanplummer.net

    Click on the basic music theory courses (http://www.declanplummer.net/?page_id=35) and its the third video down.

    You will see that compared, to the other videos, this video has a very large windowboxing for some reason. Again you will only see this when viewing the website on an iPad. The same thing occurs on two other videos elsewhere in the website. All 7 videos were made, exported and embedded in the exact same way (all were uploaded to youtube as 1280 x 720).

    Any ideas as to why some videos on the site have the windowboxing and some don’t would be very welcome.

    Best,

    De

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Volunteer Moderator

    9 years ago

    You say that WordPress doesn’t control how my site appears on various devices; my theme does. But I thought WordPress controlled the theme. If they don’t, who does?

    WordPress is the blogging platform. The theme is responsible for all outward display of the content. Think of WordPress as the skeleton, and the theme as the skin.

    I’m a little worried about changing theme. Does changing theme of my entire website risk losing or altering anything?

    No, you’re just changing the skin temporarily.

    If I change the theme, can I switch back to my old theme without any risk to the website?

    Of course, otherwise I would never suggest it.

    Also, if it’s a problem with my theme, then why does the problem only occur with some videos and not others – if it was a problem with the theme, surely every video would be affected?

    Not necessarily. Most likely, if it’s a problem with only specific videos, then then problem is those videos themselves, not the theme. However, in order to be sure, we need to rule out the theme.

    I tried I live preview of the 2015 theme, but it only showed me the home page

    Right, you’ll need to actually temporarily activate the theme so you can check it on multiple devices.

    In order for me to see the results on my iPad, I would have to activate a new theme, which (based on the my experiences with the live previews) would mean drastically altering the look and functionality of my website. I don’t want to do this, if it means losing all the work I’ve already put into it.

    As mentioned, I only ask that you *temporarily* switch to the Twenty Fifteen theme. You won’t lose anything and can switch back after the test.

    Could it be something else, aside from the theme, that’s causing my three videos to behave strongly when viewed on iPad?

    Honestly, I won’t know until you rule-out the theme.

    Please feel free to let me know how it turns out on the Twenty Fifteen theme, otherwise, I can’t do much else to help you at this point.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Volunteer Moderator

    9 years ago

    If you’re nervous about it, I definitely recommend making a backup: https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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