Twitter updates video playback to ensure a better viewing experience

Here’s a quick but important update – Twitter has announced that it has improved its video display process to ensure better playback performance.

So, what does this mean in practice? Do you know how videos that are sometimes tweeted are pixelated back to Commodore 64 times when they start playing in-stream? That shouldn’t happen, or it should happen much less, with Twitter’s updated formatting process now working to provide a better, smoother video player experience.

As for the technical specifications, nothing has changed – the current of Twitter video upload specifications is:

• Minimum resolution: 32 x 32
• Maximum resolution: 1920 x 1200 (and 1200 x 1900)
• Aspect Ratios: 1: 2.39 – 2.39: 1 series (inclusive)
• Maximum frame rate: 40 fps
• Maximum bitrate: 25 Mbps

Twitter also notes that for video ads:

1200 x 1200 pixels is recommended for 1: 1 aspect ratio. 1920 x 1080 pixels is recommended for a 16: 9 aspect ratio. Larger videos are better optimized for when users click to expand videos.”

This update does not affect these requirements, but Twitter’s back-end processing will now be better equipped to ensure that your videos look their best when someone encounters them in-stream.

So, now your tweeted videos do not look like you are watching them through a dirty window on a rainy day, a good update for everyone.