Formats — landscape & Shorts
When to use 16:9 landscape vs 9:16 vertical, and how each format behaves.
VidNext produces two formats. Both export in 1080p HD.
Landscape (16:9)
1920×1080 — for YouTube videos and long-form content.
- Duration: 30 seconds to 30 minutes. Presets: 1 min (quick explainer), 3 min, 5 min (standard), 10 min (in-depth), 15 min (deep dive), 20 min (documentary), 30 min (full length).
- Best for: documentaries, explainers, top-10 rankings, reviews, educational content.
- Chapter headings, infographics, maps, and mid-roll ad placement suggestions all make the most sense here.
Shorts (9:16)
1080×1920 vertical — for YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram Reels.
- Duration: 15 seconds to 3 minutes. Presets: 30 s (quick fact), 1 min (standard), 2 min (in-depth).
- Best for: hooks, quick facts, single-idea stories, clips that grab attention in the first second.
Clip fit for vertical
Source footage is usually widescreen, so Shorts offer two ways to fit it:
- Fullscreen — crops and zooms the clip so it fills the vertical frame with no bars.
- Blurred — shows the whole clip with a blurred backdrop filling the rest of the frame.
In landscape, clips that don't match the output aspect ratio get a background image instead — pick from neon frames, soft gradients, studio backdrops, or plain black in the Design & Background step:
Choosing between them
Duration is approximate in both formats — the actual length follows the generated script and narration pacing.
| Landscape | Shorts | |
|---|---|---|
| Aspect ratio | 16:9 (1920×1080) | 9:16 (1080×1920) |
| Duration range | 30 s – 30 min | 15 s – 3 min |
| Platforms | YouTube, embeds | Shorts, TikTok, Reels |
| Pacing | Narration-led, chaptered | Fast, hook-first |
If you're building a channel, many creators generate a landscape video first, then create Shorts on the same topic as teasers — each is its own project, so you can reuse the same prompt with the Shorts format selected.