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SMPL Systems
SMPL Systems
Participant
February 3, 2026
Open for Voting

Padding and Position Controls in Media Encoder

  • February 3, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 21 views

I would like to submit a feature request for Adobe Media Encoder related to frame sizing and layout control.

Currently, Media Encoder allows users to crop and scale source footage to fit an output frame, but it does not provide a way to scale footage smaller than the output resolution and position it within the output canvas (i.e., add padding or margins around the source).

In many real-world delivery workflows, especially those involving mixed source resolutions, there is a need to:

  • Shrink a source video inside a fixed output resolution

  • Control its position on the canvas (centered or offset)

  • Fill the remaining frame area with a defined background (black, color, or transparency)

At present, achieving this requires routing assets through Premiere Pro or After Effects solely for layout purposes, even when no creative editing or compositing is otherwise needed. This adds unnecessary overhead for what is fundamentally a transcoding and formatting task—particularly in batch-processing environments.

A simple implementation within Media Encoder—such as basic Scale, Position (X/Y), Anchor, and Background controls within the Output or Effects settings—would significantly improve efficiency for delivery-focused workflows without turning Media Encoder into a full compositing tool.

      1 reply

      EckiAME
      Community Manager
      EckiAMECommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      February 4, 2026

      This looks pretty much like an editing task to me. How would you envision this to work in AME together with existing cropping and padding?

      Did you think about scripting this in Premiere?

      SMPL Systems
      SMPL SystemsAuthor
      Participant
      February 4, 2026

      Thanks for the reply — I appreciate you taking a look at this.

      I understand why this can read like an editing task on the surface, but the use case I’m describing is more about delivery normalization and signal preparation than editorial layout.

      A concrete example from our workflow involves LED video walls and display processors. Many processors are fed standard raster sources (e.g., 1920×1080 or 3840×2160), while the actual LED wall is a lower pixel count, even if it remains a 16:9 aspect ratio. In these cases, the processor only displays a portion of the incoming frame, rather than scaling and positioning the content internally.

      As a result, we often need to:

      • Scale the source image down to match the LED wall’s native pixel resolution

      • Place that scaled image within a specific region of a standard output frame (often aligned to a corner)

      • Deliver a file that already matches the processor’s expected input format

      Functionally, this is the same operation a hardware video scaler would perform, but many LED processors don’t offer that capability. Today, achieving this requires routing otherwise “ready-to-play” content through Premiere Pro or After Effects purely to resize and position it — even when no creative editing, compositing, or timeline work is needed.

      In terms of how this could work in AME alongside existing cropping, I’d imagine something lightweight, such as:

      • A scale mode (Fit / Fill / Manual)

      • Manual Scale % and Position (X/Y) or anchor presets

      • Optional background fill (black, custom color, or transparency where supported)

      With a clear processing order like: Crop > Scale/Position > Encode.

      Regarding scripting in Premiere: while that can work as a workaround, it still introduces project and sequence management overhead for what is fundamentally a delivery-stage transformation. Keeping this capability in Media Encoder would better align with its role as the batch and normalization tool in the pipeline.

      I hope this example helps clarify why this comes up frequently in real-world, non-editorial workflows. Happy to provide additional details if useful.

      EckiAME
      Community Manager
      EckiAMECommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      February 4, 2026

      I have created a feature request ticket and we will discuss it in the team.

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