To stop a looped video from looking stretched or being unexpectedly cut off, scale it to the intended output canvas while preserving its display aspect ratio. In GStreamer, use videoconvertscale with add-borders=true to keep the full picture and add borders when the source and output ratios differ. Crop only when losing content at the edges is acceptable, and check that the final output uses square pixels for YouTube.
Choose whether to preserve the whole frame or crop it
First decide what matters more: retaining every part of the source image or filling the output frame edge to edge. If the source and target aspect ratios differ, preserving the entire image requires unused space to be filled, commonly with black borders. Filling the frame instead requires cropping some of the image. Stretching the source to fit can distort people, objects, and game graphics.
| Treatment | What happens | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Preserve with borders | The whole image remains visible; borders fill the difference between source and target ratios. | Captions, HUD elements, faces, or other edge content must stay in frame. |
| Crop to fill | Parts of the image are cut off so the remaining picture can fill the target ratio. | You need a full-frame look and have confirmed the removed edges do not matter. |
| Stretch | The image is resized to the target dimensions without preserving its display geometry. | Generally avoid: circles and proportions can appear distorted. |
Preserve the picture with GStreamer borders
videoconvertscale combines video scaling and format conversion. Its documented add-borders property is true by default; when necessary, it adds borders to preserve display aspect ratio. A typical raw-video branch before an encoder looks like this:
... ! videoconvertscale add-borders=true ! video/x-raw,width=1280,height=720,pixel-aspect-ratio=1/1 ! ...encoder...This is an illustrative branch, not a complete or tested YouTube pipeline. Replace 1280 and 720 with your intended output canvas dimensions. Confirm that your installed GStreamer build and downstream encoder can negotiate the resulting raw-video format. The GStreamer documentation describes videoconvertscale in the Base Plug-ins and documents add-borders as enabled by default: videoconvertscale documentation.
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The caps filter video/x-raw,width=1280,height=720,pixel-aspect-ratio=1/1 constrains downstream negotiation to the requested dimensions and square pixels. For a 1280×720 canvas, the frame ratio is 16:9. The canvas ratio and the source’s display ratio are separate: borders allow a different source ratio to fit without distortion or cropping.
Crop only when you have checked the framing
GStreamer’s aspectratiocrop element crops the frame to a requested ratio. For example, the documented use case crops 4:3 input to 16:9. Place a crop stage before scaling to the target dimensions:
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... ! aspectratiocrop aspect-ratio=16/9 ! videoconvertscale ! video/x-raw,width=1280,height=720,pixel-aspect-ratio=1/1 ! ...encoder...That example shows the relevant stages, not a complete pipeline. Cropping can remove faces, subtitles, game HUDs, or other material near the edges, so inspect the result before streaming. See the GStreamer aspectratiocrop documentation.
Inspect negotiated caps before sending the stream
- Check the source’s actual dimensions and display geometry. Do not assume pixel width and height alone tell you how the image should appear.
- Set the target canvas dimensions to the ratio you intend to send, such as 1280×720 for 16:9.
- Use
videoconvertscale add-borders=trueto preserve the full picture, or deliberately crop before scaling if edge loss is acceptable. - Run the pipeline with verbose output:
gst-launch-1.0 -v .... Inspect the negotiated raw-video caps, including width, height, framerate, andpixel-aspect-ratio. - Test the stream in YouTube Live Control Room. Check the preview and stream-health messages before relying on the loop for a broadcast.
GStreamer’s tutorial describes caps filters as constraints on media properties negotiated downstream and recommends gst-launch-1.0 -v to inspect pipeline caps: GStreamer tutorial: handy elements. The command is useful for basic pipelines and debugging; for applications, GStreamer points developers to its API and gst_parse_launch(): GStreamer application-development documentation.
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Match YouTube’s live-ingest settings
YouTube’s live encoder recommendations, accessed on October 3, 2026, list RTMP/RTMPS ingest; H.264, H.265, or AV1 video; up to 60 fps; constant-bitrate encoding; and a two-second recommended keyframe interval that should not exceed four seconds. Advanced recommendations include progressive scan and square pixel aspect ratio. Consult YouTube’s current live encoder settings when configuring your encoder, because ingest guidance can change.
| YouTube recommendation (2026) | Recommended bitrate | Published range |
|---|---|---|
| 1080p at 30 fps, H.264 | 10 Mbps | 5–14 Mbps |
| 1080p at 30 fps, AV1 or H.265 | 10 Mbps | 4–10 Mbps |
| 720p at 30 fps, H.264 | 8 Mbps | 3–8 Mbps |
These are YouTube recommendations, not guarantees of picture quality. Choose a bitrate your upload connection can sustain consistently. YouTube advises testing upload speed, testing with audio and movement similar to the real stream, and monitoring stream health during the broadcast.
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Fix common aspect-ratio and stream problems
- The picture looks stretched: Check whether the source is being forced into the target width and height. Preserve its display geometry with
add-borders=trueinstead of stretching it. - Part of the picture is missing: Look for an
aspectratiocropstage or another crop operation. Remove or adjust it if the whole frame must remain visible, then inspect borders in the preview. - The output does not have the expected dimensions: Check the negotiated caps with
gst-launch-1.0 -vand confirm that downstream elements accept the requested width and height. - The image shape is still wrong despite correct dimensions: Inspect
pixel-aspect-ratioin the negotiated caps. YouTube recommends square pixels for ingest. - The stream drops frames or reports health problems: Check that the upload connection can sustain the selected bitrate and that the encoder’s frame rate and format match the stream configuration. Test under conditions similar to the actual loop and monitor YouTube’s health messages.
- The crop cuts off important game or video content: Reframe the source or use borders to retain the complete image. A crop-to-fill pipeline cannot preserve edge content it removes.
The documented GStreamer elements explain scaling, borders, cropping, and caps negotiation, but they do not establish how a particular source file, encoder, or installed build will behave in a specific loop pipeline. Verify the result in your own pipeline and YouTube preview before a real broadcast.
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