Sizing Image for Background

[hollang]

For the life of me, I can't seem to get the right image size for a Zoom background. From what I've read, the recommended pixel size is 1920X1080. My photo app says the image I'm uploading for a background is 1920x1080, but when I set it for my background, I end up with black bars on the right & left sizes which the help files says indicates "wrong size". Any suggestions welcome. I've uploaded the desired background photo in png format (have tried JPG too which behaves the same way) and also a screen grab of what the background looks like with it's black bars. Any/all suggestions appreciated. Platform I'm on is a windows 10 PC, no green screen if that makes any difference. I've got the most recent Zoom client version, too.

[Bort · Accepted solution]

Hi @hollang 

Try going to the Video tab of the Settings window (visible in your screenshot of your settings), and ensuring the HD option under Camera is checked. This should make your video feed widescreen and better fit your background. 

Hope that helps and let me know if you have any further questions. Otherwise, make sure to mark the solution as accepted if this information is what you needed.

[hollang · Accepted solution]

Hi Bort. That solves it, but doesn't the HD setting require higher internet/network bandwidth? Any idea what the pixel sizing of a background photo to have the standard resolution fill the screen?

[Bort · Accepted solution]

Hi @hollang 

Try going to the Video tab of the Settings window (visible in your screenshot of your settings), and ensuring the HD option under Camera is checked. This should make your video feed widescreen and better fit your background. 

Hope that helps and let me know if you have any further questions. Otherwise, make sure to mark the solution as accepted if this information is what you needed.

[hollang · Accepted solution]

Hi Bort. That solves it, but doesn't the HD setting require higher internet/network bandwidth? Any idea what the pixel sizing of a background photo to have the standard resolution fill the screen?

[Bort · Accepted solution]

The HD setting on the client is really just allowing more video area to be captured by Zoom (fullscreen 4:3 vs widescreen 16:9), but actually sending HD video is dependent on other factors. This means your bandwidth usage for video will be slightly higher, but it doesn't guarantee that you will be sending full 1080 HD, which would have a greater impact on bandwidth usage. 

If you wanted to resize the image for fullscreen, you would want to crop that background to a 4:3 ratio. Not sure what exact dimensions that would be, but most image editors have an option to crop at a specific ratio, so it would do the math for you.