MP4 or MOV files

younso wrote on 10/18/2025, 4:38 AM

When looking at my MP4 and MOV files in VR23 under Details I see that they are listed as 1280x720 respectively 1920x1080.

I recently created a couple of short projects in VP13 which contained MP4 files. After switching to VP23 I could import both MOV and MP4 files and decided to stick to MOV files (higher resolution). Going back to my projects from VP13 I want to switch the videos to the MOV versions without having to redo the projects and tried to do this by redirecting the MP4 files in View/Windows/Edit details from the MP4 location to the MOV location.

I then rendered both versions ie before and after redirecting the file locations but there is no difference in the file size of the resulting m2v file (I am rendering to that so I can import it into DVD5.2 where I will create a Blu-Ray disc). What am I missing? I thought the almost 5x larger MOV file would result in a larger m2v file. Do I gain anything at all from making the switch from MP4 to MOV in the previous projects?

Comments

RogerS wrote on 10/18/2025, 4:42 AM

MOV and MP4 are just containers and don't say much about what is in them. I used both back in the days of VP 12.

If it's a high resolution file, great, though just having more data doesn't mean the final render will be a bigger file. It just means you are potentially feeding it more detail or higher quality data and making better use of the finite bits that go onto the DVD.

john_dennis wrote on 10/18/2025, 8:44 AM

@younso said: "What am I missing?"

You're missing the concept that the act of rendering is distilling whatever you have as inputs to a pixel dimensions, frame rate, bit rate and color space to match the pixel dimensions, frame rate, bit rate and color space required by the output medium. Here's an example of what happens when Youtube re-encodes the same video uploaded with various differences. GoPro Hero 5 Black Video Problem

The output generally matches what Youtube is willing to allow. The same is true for the Blu-ray spec. The bit rate can only be so high, the pixel dimensions, frame rate and color space are all constrained by the standard for Blu-ray.

DMT3 wrote on 10/18/2025, 9:10 AM

File size is determined by two things: bitrate and program length. Resolution or codec does not matter in the size of the file.

younso wrote on 10/18/2025, 9:49 AM

So, to summarize, the higher the resolution that I input into VP23, the better it is (ie 1920x1080 is better than 1280x720) BUT the output from VP23 will always be limited by what the purpose of the rendering is (ie in my case the Blu-ray format of 1920x1080)?

3POINT wrote on 10/18/2025, 10:06 AM

@younso Also keep in mind that mp4 and mov is recorded progressive and that (depending on the framerate) Bluray expects interlaced, rendering progressive to interlaced is always a degradation of quality. (IMO forget about rendering for and burning Bluray).