Understanding the size of screen and images on it.

Question

First, a quick thanks to you Todd and others who are providing excellent help. Even deciding what a given thing is can be problematic, let alone knowing where to look for an answer.
I created a credit sequence with 20 pt font. It seemed appropriate in the basic frame, which is perhaps a third or bit less than the screen width. I have the magnification ratio set at 100%, with view set at 1 at the bottom right of the screen.
However, when I previewed the credits at full screen using the check box in the preview pane, the font stayed the same size, rather than appearing much bigger as expected, and almost all of the text was visible on the screen, instead of most of it being concealed below the screen line. My first question is, which image is the correctly proportioned one? Or rather, how can I view the credits in the exact proportion as they would appear on another device, like a television or movie screen? And can I preview the credits on my full computer screen, to better simulate how the image would appear on a bigger screen?

Answer 1

jmm2255 wrote:
I have to admit that I cannot comprehend that answer on any level. My first (perhaps naive) question is, what happens if people try to share a video or file of a video encoded say at 1280 by 720, and their player's are not compatible with the codec? Will the video appear as jibberish? Will it be compressed in the horizontal or vertical orientation? Will it play too fast or slow?
Resolution and codecs do not directly effect each other.  If a device or application does not have access to the codec a given media item uses, it will be unable to play the file, simple as that.  Natively, there are many files formats that a Mac or Windows PC are unable to play, but most are usually playable with simple software installations.  An iPhone or iPad, as another example, cannot play Flash video files.
I just cannot believe that in this day and age when it appears to an external observer -who is not tech savvy- that everything is interconnected, and people will watch the very same video content on everything from a computer (with all kinds of playback options, Windows media player, Real Player, and many others) to a TV, blackberry, iPad, DVD player, or even a fridge(!), that there is no conformity of standards, or that video cannot be played on multiple media sources. It just makes makes no sense. How do you explain the apparent ease with which video content is exchanged between persons, programs, or devices?
Unfortunately, the variables within the digital video world are greater and more confusing than ever before.  Long gone are the days when video was just PAL or NTSC.  There are thousands of permutations of video codecs, resolutions and playback devices to consider.  Even YouTube provides multiple playback resolutions to suit different viewers, different platforms and different bandwidth issues.  There are, of course, more common file formats and resolutions that are often preferable if the end user is unknown. 
In general, design for the highest common denominator.  You can easily make a big video smaller, but doing the opposite is very hard if you want top quality.  So if your audience ranges from HD blu-ray watchers to low-end Youtube, design in HD (1080p) and then create multiple output resolutions as required.
Remember, AE is a design and compositing tool, not a compression tool.  For the best results, render lossless files from After Effects, then use a dedicated compression tool like Adobe Media Encoder to create your final delivery files.