How can mp4 result in frame size of 640 x 480?

onionsayswhat wrote on 3/18/2015, 11:17 PM

I shot video that shows as mp4 but when I captured it to my hard drive and checked the properties, it says 640 x 480 frame size?

How does that happen? I thought mp4 was HDef and would be 1480 x 1080?

Assuming I am correct about mp4 being high def., I'm guessing that it might have ended up at the 640 x 480 due to incorrect settings when importing?

I am confused I just thought mp4 was always 1440 x 1080?

The clips do not fill the frame and have black edge. there was an adjustment to set the clip to 1.333 which I did and it filled more of the frame but there still was some black edges.

SO I assume I have it as Standard def due to 640x480?

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 3/18/2015, 11:22 PM

There are no size restrictions on mp4, within reason and modulus 2 boundaries.

onionsayswhat wrote on 3/19/2015, 1:31 PM

so how did it end up 640 x 480? due to my camcorder settings or capture settings.

Is there a way to reset it to 1440 x 1080?

Of course, I can recapture it w the right settings but is there a way to simply adjust the clips already captured to 1440 x 1080?

musicvid10 wrote on 3/19/2015, 2:28 PM

If its the camcorder setting, there is no way to unbake the cake.

Chienworks wrote on 3/19/2015, 5:39 PM

"is there a way to simply adjust the clips already captured to 1440 x 1080?"

If you do that it will still be 640x480 resolution with the pixels stretched out and blurred.

How did you "capture"? What connections, software, and steps were involved? What camera?

onionsayswhat wrote on 3/19/2015, 7:28 PM

Thanks for the answer.

Not sure how I captured I have 50 mini dv tapes and soon as I find that tape I can find out.

As you prob know cause you know a lot about this stuff, it could be that the camcorder was set at the lower resolution when I shot the footage. If so - I am stuck w the lower resolution, unless I re-shoot it.

I can reshoot if necessary as it was just down the road where I shot the footage.

However, it could be that when capturing the footage into my computer, perhaps I simply had the camcorder set to capture in SDEF instead of High def. I know about that setting now but at first I was not aware of it.

If original footage is HDEF, all I have to do is recapture with the capture setting on high def!

I use a firewire cable/port to capture, using sony ms 13 software, using Canon vixia hv40 camcorder.

Yes so it's really simple, what format did I shoot in, was the capture setting sdef or hdef when capturing.

I'll check it ou!

Chienworks wrote on 3/19/2015, 9:17 PM

If you used firewire to capture then the camera should have sent a bit-for-bit copy of the video data into the file. However, something strange seems to have happened since SD would have been captured as .AVI and HD as MPG or M2T. Also SD resolution would have been 720x480, not 640. That you ended up with an MP4 file would seem to indicate that the file has been translated into that format after capturing.

onionsayswhat wrote on 3/31/2015, 10:41 PM

other people said that mp4 can be any size.

Chienworks wrote on 4/2/2015, 8:55 PM

You also would not have captured an MP4 file through firewire. So, obviously you've done something between capturing and ending up with the 640x480 file.