Given the odd choice of 320*224 by the design team, it couldn't have gotten any worse. Coupled with the Mdec (using mjpeg codec), the resulting videos are unimpressive by today's standards and look even worse on the high resolution LCD monitors we now have. Because space was still too limited, the design team had no choice but to use a low end resolution (this goes for the game backgrounds too). Even then, it would take 3CD's to fit the necessary number of FMV into the game. Back in 1997, CD was the media available to Final Fantasy VII staff, who had ditched N64 for precisely the reason that 64MB cartridges were too limiting. The PAL version of FF7 suffers even more because PAL has a greater vertical resolution than NTSC (576 v 525). The PC game suffers the same black border issue that the PSX did, because it is using the same field backgrounds and FMV's. It wasn't good for TV and it isn't good for PC, either.
![softimage 3d ff7 softimage 3d ff7](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wpb4Dtr550s/maxresdefault.jpg)
The problem with 320*224 is that is a totally awkward non-standard resolution. Others have surmised that the original choice of 224 vertical resolution was to avoid overscan with older TV sets. This still doesn't explain why other games use the much more logical 320*240. Why would they do that? Because they used the same engine and didn't want to redesign? Gemini offered the view that: Could this have been an early design choice? The problem with my argument is that FF8 and 9 continued to use 320*224. Could it be that in the transition from FF6 (SNES) to FF7, they simply kept the none standard 224 vertical pixels? I have been told that FF7 had been intended for the N64 originally. I did a little digging and found out that the SNES uses 256*224 Progressive. 320*224 (1.42857 AR) does not conform to any known standard that I am aware of. The reason for the more blatant black borders in FF7 is that to fit a 320*240 profile, the Playstation/TV has had to compensate for the choice of resolution. A normal resolution for a Playstation game is the sane 320*240 or 640*480, which is 1.33 AR, or 4:3, the TV standard. It has been said elsewhere that the "normal" resolution of the Playstation is 320*224, but this is a nonsense.
![softimage 3d ff7 softimage 3d ff7](https://xsisupport.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/softimage_3d_v38sp3.png)
The question still remains- why this resolution? The fields match up perfectly to the FMV, like the opening FMV into the District 1 (Yeah, I am not using erroneous names like Sector anymore) Station field.
![softimage 3d ff7 softimage 3d ff7](https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/4202/images/89/89-1640232517-1319778908.jpeg)
When playing FF7, it becomes clear that the FMV are 320*224 to fit in with the game play. In fact, the only games I know to this day that use this resolution are the square games FF7,8 and 9. Later, I had done a lot of work with video editing and I still hadn't encountered anything else that used 320*224 or a multiple of it. At first, I took this resolution to be a side effect of the Playstation. A decade later, I had decoded some of the FMV to discover that they were were a very odd resolution (320*224). When I first played FF7 back in 1997, I was surprised to find blatant black borders during game play. Starting with the Playstation through to the ported PC version, which has the same underlining issues. This thread has been created to discuss the resolution used in Final Fantasy VII. How about a little music to go with this?Įdited 26.June.2012 to reflect new information.