Can video frame size be increased?

Question

I have two videos that need to fit these specs:

"The minimum frame size is 1280w X 720h pixels (either progressive or interlaced is acceptable)."

Video A is: 480 × 640 [.mov]

&

Video B is: 476 × 360 [.mp4]

Is this possible? & If so what program do I need to do it? Can this be done in Handbrake? (I use an iMac but have access to a PC at work)

full specs required:

RECOMMENDED QUALITY: We recommend uploading HD quality video so it is easy for us to review. The preferred bit rate for your videos is 3000-5000kbps at a frame rate of 24 or 30 frames per second depending on how the material was shot. The minimum frame size is 1280w X 720h pixels (either progressive or interlaced is acceptable). WHAT ENCODING MODE SHOULD I USE WHEN I SAVE AND UPLOAD MY VIDEOS? We recommend you use the Best/Multi-pass/2-pass encoding mode optimized for "download." RECOMMENDED FILE SIZE: Both videos should be under 3GB in size. RECOMMENDED AUDIO FORMAT: We would recommend encoding audio in the AAC format with a bit rate of between 128-256kbps. Alternatively, you can use 256kbps Video A and 96kbps for Video B.

- FURTHER INFORMATION: [Mistakenly first added in a reply rather than an edit]

These videos are for a tv show idea submission.

'video B' is my example of previous work so i cant just recreate it. it was originally shot on tape & i only have is this digital version. i was hoping to find a way to work with it.

'video A' is the show pitch & was shot recently w/an ipad & can be reshot. In the comments, AJ pointed out how it is 'portrait orientation' -oops.

Also to AJ's point, it does say 'RECOMMENDED QUALITY' but it also says 'minimum frame size' & I read 'minimum' as a requirement vs a recommendation. It should be ok to submit 'Video B' w/out being HD, but i dont think i can submit it with less than the minimum frame size.

If the frame size cant be increased, is it possible to add some black filler to the sides somehow to force 'Video B' to fit the specs like you can with a jpeg in photoshop?

Also, I will have access to Sony Vegas Pro next week, can I use that?

Answer 1

There are a few problems here that need to be addressed.

First, the pitch shot is vertically oriented or "portrait" (vs landscape). This is considered very, very bad practice. This is a huge and constant amateur mistake because many amateurs now shoot video with their tablets and smartphones and hold the device the way they normally do, vertically, but this doesn't match up with the target format, which is generally either TV or even web video, which is generally displayed horizontally to make the most use of the space.

You should always shoot your video "landscape" or horizontal, just like you would see it on a TV so that it makes full use of the screen when being played back. This orientation stems from the fact that we have a wider field of vision than we have tall, so a wide angle shot fill more of field of view and is more immersive. A vertical or portrait shot does the opposite and doesn't fill well on a TV and barely scratches our field of view making it feel much less immersive.

The second major issue is that of video quality. You can technically increase the number of pixels stored in the video by a process called upsampling or upscaling, but that doesn't increase the quality of your video (in fact, it generally decreases it further). The easiest way to think about it is think about if you had 4 pixel image that had black square a white square and then on the next line a white square and a black square.

XO
OX

You can increase the number of pixels by duplicating what is there, but it doesn't invent more resolution (actual meaningful detail). Say we scale it up to 9 by 9, you end up with this.

XXXXYOOOO
XXXXYOOOO
XXXXYOOOO
XXXXYOOOO
YYYYYYYYY
OOOOYXXXX
OOOOYXXXX
OOOOYXXXX
OOOOYXXXX

Note that there isn't any more detail than there was before, and we actually lost some detail because the new image had to invent pixels to fill where there are Ys because the original didn't evenly break up in to the new size, so it had to average the pixels that should have been there and made new grey Y pixels. This means the image is now even less clear than it was before, when we had sharply defined squares because now we have fuzzy ones.

You could technically upscale to an exact multiple of your original to avoid interpolating, such as scaling up to 1428 by 1080 which will make the format meet the file format requirement technically, but it still won't meet it in spirit because the image will still be a 360p image (substantially lower than SD), rather than the requested 720P HD image requested. Additionally, it would still be another encoding and thus another generation of compression loss to re-encode to the upscaled video, which would further sacrifice quality on your already abysmally low resolution video.

Third issue, though this one less major is that your aspect ratio is wrong. This isn't necessarily a problem, but the formats they are recommending are widescreen formats. Your current file is 4:3 rather than 16:9. This may or may not be a problem for them. Normally, if you have sufficient resolution and shot planning to do 16:9 it's pretty easy to crop down the video to a 16:9 form factor, but if you made full use of the vertical space in a way that you can't crop the top and/or bottom, then you are pretty much stuck at 4:3. You also don't have enough resolution to start with to be able to sacrifice anything, which makes this a bigger concern.

Overall, my recommendation would be to re-shoot the pitch/interview portion using high resolution and proper orientation and aspect ratio. For the existing video sample that you can't reshoot. Submit it as is and hope for the best. You can't meaningfully enhance it in a way that they are not going to see right through and probably dock you for trying to sneak around it. Just explain the situation and why a higher quality version isn't available. Either they'll go for it or they won't. Nothing you artificially do is going to change that.