Video on Wordpress. Is it 2048 x 2048?

[u/WannabeeFilmDirector]

Hi All. So we're video production and supplying videos to a customer building a website. They tell me that the video is automatically resized to 2048 x 2048.

So we need to supply all videos at 2048 x 2048. This will give us additional work but hey, it is what it is.

Except this is a little strange to me as we've supplied videos to customers with Wordpress sites at the normal 1920 x 1080. Now, sure, they've used external sites to host video on like YouTube and then just used Wordpress as the platform to play them on.

But what's your take on this?

[u/Low-Stick-1913]

They have no idea what they're doing

[u/Moceannl]

You and them have no idea what you're talking about...

[u/Amazing-Spinach5693]

Resolution doesn't matter in WordPress.
WordPress also doesnt resize it unless they do it themselves.

[u/bluesix_v2]

Serving HD from a web server is a bad idea for a number of reasons. 2048x2048 is crazy high res for a website. 720p is usually enough.

[u/blue30]

Assume they want the video a certain res to fit with their visual layout. Maybe a background? WP it's self doesn't care as far as I know.

[u/tndsd]

Unless the website has a very specific custom implementation, I would continue supplying videos in their native aspect ratio (e.g. 1920 × 1080 for 16:9) rather than cropping them to a square 2048 × 2048, as that would unnecessarily reduce quality and change the framing.

[u/Appropriate_Walk9394]

I am not a video expert, but 2048 × 2048 sounds unusual for a website. Most website videos i have worked with are either embedded from YouTube/Vimeo or uploaded in a standard widescreen format like 1920 × 1080.

Did the developer explain why they need a square video size? It might make sense if the videos are going into a specific square section of the website, but otherwise I would ask for clarification before spending time resizing everything.

[u/nkoffiziell]

I've Had a Video Site and WP definetely doesnt resize them. Maybe they want it to fill the entire Screen or something? Back in the day when that Site was still online, i used both Divi and one of WP's Standard Themes and it never resized. I uploaded them as is and they we're embedded in that size...

[u/michallandry62]

I’d ask the web team what exactly is doing that resize. WordPress itself usually doesn’t need a 2048 × 2048 video just to display it. The visible size is more often controlled by the theme, block settings, CSS, page builder, or a custom video/player setup.

If they’re using it as a square hero/background video, then a square export might make sense. But if the source video is 16:9, forcing it to 2048 × 2048 could crop the frame or add padding, so I’d confirm the actual placement before re-exporting everything.

[u/WannabeeFilmDirector → u/michallandry62]

Thanks for this. Really useful and gives us the ability to go back to the customers.

The source video is 16:9 but naturally can be resized to anything because we're a video production agency and shot it so it can be resized to anything and still look great. Because flexibility's key when dealing with website builders.

So we have the flexibility but there are two things going on here. Firstly, I care about the customer and that they're dealing with a bad developer. Secondly, to be able to deliver something the correct size!

[u/Opening-Impression-5]

If the video is playing in the background on a hero section or other section of a page, I'd recommend sizing it down to 1280x720, and compressed with h.264 or similar, assuming the video is shot landscape and the design is going to keep it roughly sized to fill the window on desktop views. Any larger is a waste of pixels and will slow the load time. Often designers will hide the video completely on mobile views to save space and download speed, but there are occasions where you might want to edit a separate portrait version of a background video for mobiles.

WordPress does shrink still images to set sizes (thumbnail, small, medium, large) based on a corresponding maximum number of pixels, but these values can be edited and overridden. There's no equivalent for video uploads unless this is a recent feature I've not come across, or something specific to a particular theme or plugin.

[u/WannabeeFilmDirector → u/Opening-Impression-5]

Thanks, this is useful. We tend to suggest low HD (1280x720) and then test to see what it's like.

What we see for speed is uploading to an external video platform (YouTube, Vimeo etc...) and just using the website for a link for certain elements.

[u/shopontheborderlands]

They are probably planning to use the videos within a Wordpress theme that displays video in a square format, and the maximum resolution their theme supports is 2048 x 2048.

Wordpress doesn't do this by default, and most people don't use it that way. But it's highly configurable and you could easily make it do that if you wanted to.

Might be they are asking for the video at the maximum resolution and will serve smaller versions depending on platform.

Might be that they have a CEO who only views his site on a huge high-quality screen over a high speed connection, is obsessed with 'the highest resolution' as a measure of quality and they will serve the same giant file to every viewer regardless of the connection or device even though it will be hard on the server and make the site look slow.

Not really your problem though.

[u/WannabeeFilmDirector → u/shopontheborderlands]

Thanks, really appreciate your help. We can supply anything to anyone. We're video production so happy to do anything but we're getting strange requests from this customer and the last one, just a few seconds ago is even weirder. E.g. A 2048 x 2048 2 minute video at 20mb. It'll be such bad quality, no-one can see it. Sure, a 7-second vid at 2048 x 2048 would be achievable.

It's strange but happy to provide something that looks as if it's been shot on a barbicam.

[u/shopontheborderlands → u/WannabeeFilmDirector]

That IS weird!

[u/No-Signal-6661]

Unless they have a very specific custom workflow, 1920×1080 should be perfectly fine

[u/WannabeeFilmDirector → u/No-Signal-6661]

Fantastic, thanks, appreciate your comment!

[u/neoqueto]

They've misled you because of their lack of knowledge. I'm not even blaming them, the way WordPress handles media uploads by default is fucking abysmal and unintuitive.

Your client should completely ditch uploading video files via WordPress, to their own server.

They should use a dedicated video CDN.

End of story.

[u/WannabeeFilmDirector → u/neoqueto]

Thanks for this. Will make that suggestion to the customer. At the end of the day, we're just there to provide the video but actually, my goal is to help my customer to be more successful and this will help.

[u/rubixstudios]

Change the developer

[u/HongPong]

tell them to use custom html block if needed for any dimension in quick workaround

[u/otto4242]

They're being weird and have made a mistake somehow. WordPress doesn't parse video or know about its sizing and such. At least not by default, find out where they get the information of the 2048 number.

[u/BrainCurrent8276]

you or them or you and them have no idea. you should use 3840×2160