Downscale Video Resolution

While Resi’s multisite encoders and decoders allow you to broadcast at resolutions up to 4K, it may be more prudent for your organization to stream at a lower resolution. This process is known as downscaling. Because downscaling is sometimes necessary to stream to certain platforms, you should have an understanding of what downscaling is, when to use it, and which steps you can take to do it with your broadcasts.

Why Should I Downscale My Video?

Streaming to social or web

If you are shooting at 4K resolution and intend on broadcasting to the web or social media, you will need to downscale your video to 1080p or lower in order to comply with the current limitations of both of those platforms.

Streaming at a lower bandwidth

Network and bandwidth limitations are a good reason for downscaling a video. By doing so, you can still broadcast your video over a weak or unreliable network. This will also lower the bandwidth usage for your Resi streaming plan.

How Do I Downscale My Video?

Resi encoders are not configured to downscale out of the box. However, any server-grade encoder is technically capable of downscaling from 4K (at a framerate of up to 30 fps for the E1200 or E2211 and up to 60 fps for the E4300). To downscale, contact Resi support and they can create a custom encoder preset at a lower resolution that will work for your organization.

There are two other ways to downscale a live video broadcast:

• Shoot it at a lower resolution
• Run your signal through a video resolution scaler before it reaches your encoder

Alternatively, if you would like to record at a higher resolution for posterity, you can use a capture card with scaling capabilities in between your video recording device and switcher/encoder, depending on your setup.

If you would like to upload a 4K video to your content Library, you can. However, you will only be able to broadcast it in 4K at a multisite venue. For pre-recorded content that you would like to upload to Studio and distribute to a platform that can only broadcast up to 1080p, like Facebook or YouTube, you will need to make sure that you downscale your video beforehand. You can do this using a number of video transcoding applications, such as HandBrake (free) or Adobe Premiere Pro. For more information, you can read our guide on how to Export or Convert Your Video for Use with Resi.