Can’t seem to correct video aspect ratio

This is an encoding problem, not a video player problem. None of the plugin player settings will make a difference here because the 720p video has been stretched out to fill a 1920×1080 window during transcoding. You can see that by opening up the -720.mp4 video in its own tab without using my plugin. The original video is HEVC/H.265 because it was shot on an Apple device and they’re determined to make that a thing even though most web browsers don’t support it so only the 720p video will play in most browsers.

Did you disable automatic rotation? You would need a very old version of FFMPEG to run into that problem. Would you mind posting the output of your FFMPEG test output with “Automatic FFMPEG Rotation” and “Test video rotation” enabled?

Ah, I see that when I view the video URL in its own tab. Strange.

I didn’t disable automatic rotation, but I can try that. Earlier I had both “Enable automatic FFMPEG rotation” and “Enable legacy FFMPEG rotation method” checked, and it came out sideways in the player.

Here’s the output of “test video rotation” with only the following FFMPEG legacy options checked: “enable legacy FFMPEG -b and -ba bitrate flags” and “Enable automatic FFMPEG rotation”:

/usr/bin/ffmpeg -y -i "[path-to-site]/content/plugins/video-embed-thumbnail-generator/images/sample-video-rotated-h264.mp4" -acodec aac -strict experimental -ab 96k -s 640x360 -vcodec libx264 -crf 18 -threads 0 "[path-to-site]/content/uploads/2021/05/sample-video-h264-360.mp4"

“FFMPEG test output”:

ffmpeg version 3.4.8-0ubuntu0.2 Copyright (c) 2000-2020 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 7 (Ubuntu 7.5.0-3ubuntu1~18.04)
  configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=0ubuntu0.2 --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu --enable-gpl --disable-stripping --enable-avresample --enable-avisynth --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libmysofa --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopenmpt --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librubberband --enable-librsvg --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-omx --enable-openal --enable-opengl --enable-sdl2 --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libdrm --enable-libiec61883 --enable-chromaprint --enable-frei0r --enable-libopencv --enable-libx264 --enable-shared
  libavutil      55. 78.100 / 55. 78.100
  libavcodec     57.107.100 / 57.107.100
  libavformat    57. 83.100 / 57. 83.100
  libavdevice    57. 10.100 / 57. 10.100
  libavfilter     6.107.100 /  6.107.100
  libavresample   3.  7.  0 /  3.  7.  0
  libswscale      4.  8.100 /  4.  8.100
  libswresample   2.  9.100 /  2.  9.100
  libpostproc    54.  7.100 / 54.  7.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '[path-to-site]/content/plugins/video-embed-thumbnail-generator/images/sample-video-rotated-h264.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    encoder         : Lavf57.56.100
  Duration: 00:00:00.04, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1850 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, bt709), 1920x1080, 1423 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 24k tbn, 47.95 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      rotate          : 90
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
    Side data:
      displaymatrix: rotation of -90.00 degrees
    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 193 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : SoundHandler
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> h264 (libx264))
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (aac (native) -> aac (native))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[libx264 @ 0x113e09288c80] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast LZCNT
[libx264 @ 0x113e09288c80] profile High, level 3.0
[libx264 @ 0x113e09288c80] 264 - core 152 r2854 e9a5903 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2003-2017 - https://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x113 me=hex subme=7 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chroma_qp_offset=-2 threads=11 lookahead_threads=1 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=2 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 weightb=1 open_gop=0 weightp=2 keyint=250 keyint_min=23 scenecut=40 intra_refresh=0 rc_lookahead=40 rc=crf mbtree=1 crf=18.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmin=0 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=1:1.00
Output #0, mp4, to '[path-to-site]/content/uploads/2021/05/sample-video-h264-360.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    encoder         : Lavf57.83.100
    Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (libx264) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 640x360, q=-1--1, 23.98 fps, 24k tbn, 23.98 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc57.107.100 libx264
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
    Side data:
      cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/0 buffer size: 0 vbv_delay: -1
      displaymatrix: rotation of -0.00 degrees
    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 96 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : SoundHandler
      encoder         : Lavc57.107.100 aac
frame=    1 fps=0.0 q=23.0 Lsize=       4kB time=00:00:00.04 bitrate= 822.4kbits/s speed=0.11x
video:3kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 45.328033%
[libx264 @ 0x113e09288c80] frame I:1     Avg QP: 9.67  size:  2292
[libx264 @ 0x113e09288c80] mb I  I16..4: 92.2%  0.5%  7.3%
[libx264 @ 0x113e09288c80] 8x8 transform intra:0.5%
[libx264 @ 0x113e09288c80] coded y,uvDC,uvAC intra: 4.8% 0.0% 0.0%
[libx264 @ 0x113e09288c80] i16 v,h,dc,p: 94%  1%  5%  0%
[libx264 @ 0x113e09288c80] i8 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 60% 40%  0%  0%  0%  0%  0%  0%  0%
[libx264 @ 0x113e09288c80] i4 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 24% 34% 23%  2%  3%  2%  5%  2%  4%
[libx264 @ 0x113e09288c80] i8c dc,h,v,p: 100%  0%  0%  0%
[libx264 @ 0x113e09288c80] kb/s:439.62
[aac @ 0x113e09282540] Qavg: 59782.387

Also, I tried disabling automatic FFMPEG rotation again and uploaded the same video again, and it showed up sideways. ??

I would not recommend disabling automatic rotation. I was just asking to determine if that’s why you were having this problem.

You don’t appear to have a very old version of FFMPEG. Did you have a problem when you ran the plugin with the legacy -b flags disabled? Usually you’d have to go back something like six or seven years to find a version of FFMPEG that requires the legacy flags.

I don’t have a lot of time to troubleshoot this week so I think your best bet is to convert the video locally using something like Handbrake.

I just disabled the legacy -b flags, and uploaded again, and it seemed to encode correctly on a test post. Good guess! And thanks for the useful plugin.