Systems and methods for encoding alternative streams of video for playback on playback devices having predetermined display aspect ratios and network connection maximum data rates

An adaptive bitrate streaming system comprising:

• a set of one or more source encoding servers, wherein each encoding server of the set of encoding servers comprises:
• a non-volatile storage containing an encoding application;
• and
• at least one processor;
• wherein the encoding applications cause the processors of the encoding servers to encode source content as a plurality of alternative streams of video for playback on a playback device and direct the processors of the encoding servers to:
• receive multimedia content, where the multimedia content comprises source video data having a primary resolution, a primary display aspect ratio, and a primary frame rate;
• determine a plurality of encoding combinations, wherein each encoding combination comprises one of a plurality of resolutions and one of a plurality of sample aspect ratios, wherein the resolution and the sample aspect ratio of each encoding combination results in a common display aspect ratio corresponding to the primary display aspect ratio of the original source video;
• determine a recommended encoding combination for each maximum bitrate of a plurality of maximum bitrates by:
• determining an estimated bitrate for each encoding combination based on the resolution of the encoding combination, wherein the estimated bitrate for at least one encoding combination is less than the determined maximum bitrate for the at least one encoding combination;
• and
• selecting an encoding combination with an estimated bitrate less than the maximum bitrate as the determined encoding combination;
• and
• encode the source video data as alternative streams of video for each maximum bitrate of the plurality of maximum bitrates, wherein each alternative stream of video is encoded with the recommended encoding combination for each maximum bitrate, wherein each pixel of encoded video is scaled to an integer number of pixels on a display of the playback device.