I’m having trouble with my Telegram bot’s video previews. When I use the sendVideo method with a file URL, Telegram creates a preview on its own. It’s supposed to calculate the video duration and aspect ratio automatically.
However, the aspect ratio is coming out wrong, making the preview look odd. It seems like the preview defaults to a square shape, resulting in a 1:1 ratio even when it shouldn’t.
Has anyone encountered this issue before and found a solution? I tried setting the width and height manually in the API call, but Telegram doesn’t seem to take those parameters into account. Any insights or workarounds would be really helpful!
hey harry, i’ve run into this too. frustrating right? have u tried using the thumb parameter when sending the video? u can generate a custom thumbnail with the right aspect ratio and attach it. might trick telegram into displaying it correctly. worth a shot!
I’ve faced a similar issue with Telegram bot video previews. One workaround I found effective was to pre-process the video before sending it. Using a tool like FFmpeg, you can create a thumbnail image with the correct aspect ratio and attach it to your sendVideo request. This way, Telegram uses your provided thumbnail instead of generating its own.
Another approach that sometimes works is ensuring your video’s metadata is correctly set. Some video encoding tools allow you to explicitly define the aspect ratio in the file’s metadata. Telegram might be misreading this information, leading to the incorrect preview.
If all else fails, you might consider sending the video as a document instead. While this loses the inline preview, it preserves the correct aspect ratio when the user opens the file.
I’ve grappled with this exact problem in my Telegram bot projects. One unconventional solution that worked for me was to add a tiny, transparent border to the video file before uploading. This seems to force Telegram to recalculate the aspect ratio correctly.
You can achieve this using FFmpeg with a command like:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf ‘pad=width=iw+2:height=ih+2:x=1:y=1:color=black@0’ output.mp4
This adds a 1-pixel transparent border around the video. It’s hardly noticeable in the final product, but it nudges Telegram to reassess the dimensions.
If that doesn’t work, you might need to dive into the nitty-gritty of your video’s container format and ensure it’s fully compatible with Telegram’s processing pipeline. Sometimes, certain containers can cause quirks in how Telegram interprets the video properties.