How to Smoothly View YouTube Videos without Borders?

How to Remove Black Bars from YouTube Videos

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

The black bars appear because the video uploaded by the users may include horizontal black bars at the bottom and top of the video player to fit an aspect ratio of 4:3. The YouTube video player has an aspect ratio of 16:9, so it adds vertical black bars to fit according to the dimension. And in this guide, we will help you get rid of this trouble and remove annoying black bars from YouTube videos.

• Part 1: Removing the black bars before uploading
• Part 2: Removing the black bars from uploaded YouTube videos

Remove the black bars before uploading

You can make use of the following software to remove the black bars from your videos.

1. Wondershare Filmora

Filmora supports a large format of videos hence one of the widely used. Follow these steps to remove the black bars:

• Import the video or drag and drop it in Wondershare Flimora.
• Select the video with black bars and right click on it.
• Click on “crop and zoom” which will open the crop window.
• Set your desired frameset (16:9, 4:3 or customized aspect ratio) and see your video in the preview pane.
• Save the new video without the black bars by clicking on “Export”.

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

2. Sony Vegas Pro

One of the most popular and sought after video editing tool, Sony Vegas Pro can help removing the black bars very simply:

• Open the video.
• You will see the video in preview and a timeline beneath, right click on the video clip on the timeline.
• Click on properties, a new window will pop-up, click on disable resample and make sure that “maintain aspect ratio” is unchecked.
• Your video will be without the black bars. Save the video.

3. Windows Live Movie Maker

This inbuilt tool in Windows for video editing can be used to remove the black bars from your YouTube videos.

• Drop and drag the video to windows live movie maker.
• Select the video and you will see a couple of options to set aspect ratio.
• Click on the desired one and the black bars will be removed.
• You can save the video in different formats.

4. Final Cut Pro

Final Cut pro offers you a whole lot of video editing options that includes removal of black bars. Right aspect ratio ensures there are no unpleasant black bars on either side of the video. To get them removed with the help of Final Cut Pro:

• Import the video with black bars.
• Select the video and change its aspect ratio. (Either stretch it or crop it).
• Save the video after it has been corrected.

Removing the black bars from uploaded YouTube videos

It is very simple to remove black bars from existing YouTube videos or while uploading a video. Click on the Edit button next to the video, and add the most suited instruction in the Tag bar below:

yt:crop=16:9

This tag zooms in on the video because of which the contents at the borders (black bars in this case) do not appear anymore.

yt:stretch=16:9

This tag stretches the video in the aspect ratio of 16:9. It is used to view the video in wide-screen format.

yt:stretch=4:3

if your video is appearing in wide-screen format, but you want it to display in 720 x 480 pixels, apply this tag. It scales down the video 4:3 aspect.

Try any of the above software to remove black bars from existing YouTube videos or the new videos and make it pleasant to viewers.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Unlock Free YouTube Intro/End Customization

How to Create YouTube Intros & End Cards - Free and Easy

Shanoon Cox

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Part 1: Intros

Elements of an Intro

Top Intro Sites

Creating an Intro in Filmora

Part 2: End Cards

Elements of an End Card

How To Make an End Card

Part1: Intros

Elements of an Intro

Intros should only last about five seconds, and that can be cut down to two or three if you have a larger following.

When your intro video is longer than five seconds viewers are more likely to click away. The first 15 seconds of a video is when viewers are most likely to decide to click on one of the recommended videos, or go back to their search results and choose something else. The odds of them leaving within these first 15 seconds are greater if you do not get right to the main point of your video. That is why long intro sequences are bad for your watch time.

Whether it is better to put your intro at the very beginning of your video, or after you introduce your topic, will depend on your viewers. You may want to try it both ways and then look at your retention report (found in your YouTube Creator Studio under Analytics) to see which works best for you.

Top Intro Sites

There are a few different sites where you can download animated intros, customized to include your username or logo. Here are two of the best:

FlixPress.com

This is probably the most popular intro site. There are a lot of great animated intros available for under $5, or even for free.

IntroMaker.net

This is another site with really professional looking intros for $5. They only have two free options, though.

Creating an Intro in Filmora

You can create a simple intro card in Filmora.

1. Choose your background. You may want to use a short clip as your intro, or you may just want a colored background.
2. Drag your clip or background into the video track of your timeline and trim it down to five seconds.
3. If you have a logo, import it into Filmora and drag it into your picture-in-picture track.
4. With your logo selected, click on the Green Screen icon. In the pop-up, select the background of your logo to make it transparent. For this to work your logo cannot be the same color as its background.
5. Click on the editing icon with your logo selected and choose an animation.
6. Go to the Text/Titles menu and choose an animated title that suits your channel. Drag it into your text track and edit it to include your name.
7. The last piece of your intro is sound. You can choose a song from Filmora’s library and cut it down to five seconds, or import your sound effect.
8. Export your video and save it for use in all of your other videos.

Part 2: End Cards

When your video ends, YouTube will recommend a selection of videos users may want to watch next. Often, these recommendations will not include more of your videos.

To keep viewers on your channel, you can create your End Card which recommends other content you have created.

Elements of an End Card

An end card includes clips from two or three of your videos, muted, and shrunk down to thumbnail-size. Using spotlight annotations you can make these thumbnails click-able.

It is also important that your end card includes multiple calls to action. A call to action is meant to spur a viewer to some kind of action. Writing ‘Check out this video’ above one of your thumbnails is a call to action.

You should also have a subscribe link somewhere in your end card, ideally a very noticeable button with a proven call to action like ‘Subscribe Now!’.

Some creators will leave their end cards at that and play music overtop, but it can be even more effective to include a voiceover where you ask viewers to subscribe and watch your other videos.

How To Make an End Card

1. Choose a static background. You may want to download an end card template or create one in a drawing program. If you do, make sure to include calls to action like ‘Watch more!’ and ‘Subscribe’.
2. Drag your background into your timeline at the end of your video.
3. Import two or three of your previous videos and drag them into your picture in picture tracks. Each clip should be on its track.
4. Trim the clips in your picture in picture track down to the same length as your end card.
5. Shrink your clips down to thumbnail-size by dragging their corners in the preview window.
6. Position your clips so they are spaced evenly by dragging them in the preview screen.
7. Mute your clips.
8. If your background does not include any calls to action, choose a title from the Text/Titles menu in Filmora and create at least two – one asking viewers to subscribe, and one asking them to watch your suggested videos.
9. Export your video from Filmora and upload it to YouTube.
10. Go to your Video Manager and select Annotations in the drop-down menu next to your video.
11. Go to your end card in the previewer, as that is where you want to add your annotations.
12. Click Add Annotation and add a spotlight annotation to your video. Stretch it over one of your thumbnails and then check the Link box under your Annotation’s timing. Insert a link to the video you are previewing.
13. Repeat for any other thumbnails. For your subscribe button, change where it said ‘Video’ to ‘Subscribe’ and enter your channel URL.
14. Click Apply Changes.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox