Are you seeing black bars around your course content in Thinkific? You’re not alone. This is a common issue faced by Thinkific users, and it can be frustrating to deal with. Black bars can make your course look unprofessional and cluttered and can be distracting for your students. However, there are ways to remove these black bars, and we’ll be discussing them in this article.
The purpose of this article is to provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to remove black bars in Thinkific, so you can improve the look of your course and create a more engaging learning experience for your students. We’ll cover several different methods for removing black bars in Thinkific, so you can choose the one that works best for you.
Causes of Black Bars in Thinkific
If you are experiencing black bars when viewing videos on Thinkific, you are not alone. This issue can be caused by various factors, including the aspect ratio of the video, the size of the video player, or how the video was encoded.
Aspect Ratio
One of the most common reasons for black bars appearing in Thinkific is due to the video’s aspect ratio. Thinkific supports several aspect ratios, including 16:9, 4:3, and 1:1. If the aspect ratio of your video doesn’t match the aspect ratio of the player, black bars will appear either on the top and bottom of the video or on the sides.
Video Player Size
Another reason for black bars appearing in Thinkific is the size of the video player. If the video player’s size is smaller than the size of the video you’re playing, black bars will appear to fill the empty space. This issue is common when the video player is set to a fixed size or when viewing on mobile devices.
Encoding
The way a video is encoded can also cause black bars to appear. If a video is encoded with black bars already embedded, it will be shown in the video player with black bars. This issue is common when videos are downloaded from video-sharing sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, or Facebook.
Understanding the different causes of black bars appearing in Thinkific can help you identify the root of the problem and fix it. In the next section, we’ll discuss how to remove black bars in Thinkific.
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Solutions for Removing Black Bars in Thinkific
Are you struggling with black bars appearing in your Thinkific course videos? Don’t worry – there are a few simple solutions you can try to remove those unsightly bars and improve your students’ viewing experience.
Adjusting Video Aspect Ratio in Thinkific
One of the most common reasons for black bars appearing in Thinkific is an incorrect video aspect ratio. To adjust the aspect ratio in Thinkific, follow these steps:
- log in to your Thinkific account and navigate to the course video that is displaying black bars.
- Click on the “Edit” button to open the video editor.
- Under “Video settings”, select “Custom” from the “Aspect Ratio” drop-down menu.
- Enter the correct aspect ratio for your video in the “Custom Aspect Ratio” fields.
- Save your changes and preview the video to ensure the black bars have been removed.
Resize Videos to the Correct Aspect Ratio Before Uploading to Thinkific
To prevent black bars from appearing in your Thinkific course videos, it’s important to resize your videos to the correct aspect ratio before uploading them. The correct aspect ratio for Thinkific videos is 16:9. If your video has a different aspect ratio, you can use video editing software to resize it.
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Benefits of Using Video Editing Software to Adjust Aspect Ratios
Using video editing software to adjust the aspect ratio of your videos has several benefits. It allows you to crop your video to the correct size, ensuring that your students can view your content without any black bars. Additionally, it gives you more control over the quality of your videos, allowing you to adjust the brightness, contrast, and color saturation to ensure that your videos look their best.
By following these simple steps and tips, you can remove black bars from your Thinkific course videos and improve your students’ learning experience.
Additional Tips for Optimizing Video Playback on Thinkific
If you’ve successfully removed black bars from your Thinkific videos, there are still several other ways to optimize the playback experience for your students. In this section, we’ll discuss some additional tips for ensuring that your videos look and sound great on Thinkific.
Adjust Video Settings
In addition to adjusting the aspect ratio, you can optimize video playback on Thinkific by adjusting other video settings. These may include the bitrate, resolution, and frame rate of your video. By tweaking these settings, you can improve the quality of your video while minimizing buffering and loading times.
Compress Your Videos
To ensure that your videos load quickly on Thinkific, it’s a good idea to compress them before uploading them. Video compression reduces the file size of your video without sacrificing quality, allowing for faster load times and smoother playback. There are many video compression tools available online, and most of them are free.
Test Video Playback
Finally, it’s a good idea to test video playback on Thinkific across different devices and browsers. Make sure that your videos are playing back smoothly on desktop and mobile devices and across different browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. This will ensure that your students can access your videos no matter how they choose to access your course.
By following these tips, you can ensure that your videos look and sound great on Thinkific, and provide a high-quality learning experience for your students.
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Conclusion
As a recap, black bars appearing in Thinkific videos can occur due to various reasons, such as video aspect ratio mismatch. However, there are various ways to remove these black bars and optimize video playback on Thinkific for a better user experience.
It is essential to ensure that videos uploaded to Thinkific have the correct aspect ratio, and that other video settings are appropriately configured. Compressing videos for faster load times and testing playback on different devices and browsers are also beneficial.
Optimizing video playback on Thinkific is crucial to ensure a better user experience, which can increase engagement and course completion rates.
In conclusion, optimizing videos on Thinkific can enhance the learning experience for students and improve course outcomes. For more information and resources on optimizing video playback on Thinkific, be sure to consult Thinkific’s support center and explore the various tools available for video editing and optimization.