<p>QuickTime has an awesome feature called &quot;Panoramic Size&quot;. It basically scales the input video to the screen aspect ratio <strong>without cropping</strong> by leaving the center as-is and gradually increasing the scale factor towards the sides.</p>
<p>It’s a quite unique feature as far as I can tell, as I’ve only ever seen it in QuickTime.</p>
<p>It can be activated like this (<a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/quicktime-player/choose-a-screen-size-qtp31dfa136d/mac" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Apple Guide here</a>):</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/LogjP.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/LogjP.png" alt="QuickTime Panoramic View" /></a></p>
<p>What I’m looking for is any way to permanently use the same or a similar algorithm to re-encode some 4:3 videos into 16:9, so that they show correctly on all my devices, not just the ones using QuickTime.</p>
<h2>4:3 input example:</h2>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/pzYSt.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/pzYSt.jpg" alt="example 4:3 image" /></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>just for ease of comparison</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Naïve 16:9 crop:</h2>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/ldbvh.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/ldbvh.jpg" alt="16:9 crop of a 4:3 video" /></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>as you can see, there’s quite a lot of content missing top and bottom</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Naïve 16:9 scale:</h2>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/qKJd8.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/qKJd8.jpg" alt="naive scale of 16:9 video" /></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>as you can see, the circle barely looks like a circle anymore and a lot of content will look odd, especially faces</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>QuickTime 16:9 panoramic mode results:</h2>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/tYzrs.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tYzrs.jpg" alt="16:9 scaled via QuickTime Panoramic Mode" /></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>pretty good, if you ask me — that’s why I want to re-encode like this.
the sides are stretched much more than the center, which usually yields good results as the center is the most important part of the screen<br />
this is actually why I chose a scene with a clearly visible circle — which stays nearly unchanged thanks to QuickTime magic</p>
</blockquote>
<hr />
<p>So, what can I do to accomplish this? Only way I can think of is making a screen recording, which would take hours and is very error-prone</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-30T02:02:45.297Z
Do you have After Effects?
stib
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-07T15:03:56.763Z
@stib Not currently, but if you know how to do it then in the spirit of Stackoverflow it would still be a good answer, as it could help someone else trying to accomplish this. Also, depending on how good the results are, I may just buy or get a free trial for After Effects for this purpose. Right now, any solution is appreciated — currently considering to write my own program for this ;)
Florian Wendelborn
<ffmpeg><quicktime><aspect><scale>
Convert 4:3 to 16:9 like QuickTime Panoramic Size
Florian Wendelborn
# Convert 4:3 to 16:9 like QuickTime Panoramic Size

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-06-25)

QuickTime has an awesome feature called "Panoramic Size". It basically scales the input video to the screen aspect ratio **without cropping** by leaving the center as-is and gradually increasing the scale factor towards the sides.

It’s a quite unique feature as far as I can tell, as I’ve only ever seen it in QuickTime.

It can be activated like this ([Apple Guide here](https://support.apple.com/guide/quicktime-player/choose-a-screen-size-qtp31dfa136d/mac)):

[![QuickTime Panoramic View](https://i.sstatic.net/LogjP.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/LogjP.png)

What I’m looking for is any way to permanently use the same or a similar algorithm to re-encode some 4:3 videos into 16:9, so that they show correctly on all my devices, not just the ones using QuickTime.

## 4:3 input example:

[![example 4:3 image](https://i.sstatic.net/pzYSt.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/pzYSt.jpg)

> just for ease of comparison

## Naïve 16:9 crop:

[![16:9 crop of a 4:3 video](https://i.sstatic.net/ldbvh.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/ldbvh.jpg)

> as you can see, there’s quite a lot of content missing top and bottom

## Naïve 16:9 scale:

[![naive scale of 16:9 video](https://i.sstatic.net/qKJd8.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/qKJd8.jpg)

> as you can see, the circle barely looks like a circle anymore and a lot of content will look odd, especially faces

## QuickTime 16:9 panoramic mode results:

[![16:9 scaled via QuickTime Panoramic Mode](https://i.sstatic.net/tYzrs.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/tYzrs.jpg)

> pretty good, if you ask me — that’s why I want to re-encode like this.
> the sides are stretched much more than the center, which usually yields good results as the center is the most important part of the screen  
> this is actually why I chose a scene with a clearly visible circle — which stays nearly unchanged thanks to QuickTime magic

---

So, what can I do to accomplish this? Only way I can think of is making a screen recording, which would take hours and is very error-prone

**Tags:** ffmpeg, quicktime, aspect, scale

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Do you have After Effects?  
> **username_0**: @username_1 Not currently, but if you know how to do it then in the spirit of Stackoverflow it would still be a good answer, as it could help someone else trying to accomplish this. Also, depending on how good the results are, I may just buy or get a free trial for After Effects for this purpose. Right now, any solution is appreciated — currently considering to write my own program for this ;)  

---

## 0 answers

