I have started video recording some of my game sessions recently. Some of the consoles I am using output 720p and I was wondering what the effect would be, if I record them with 1080p:
It is best to match the source dimensions with your recoding dimensions. Using a larger number of pixels requires more data or bandwidth to encode the scaled source. You wont be able to make a sharper image as there isnt any additional information being generated and in fact the scale up might make the image softer or add artifacts like aliasing.
While it is true that you can sometimes gain additional sharpness by recording at higher resolution and then downsampling after you have finished any other changes you plan to make, that isn't applicable in this case as your source material is only 720p.
The only reason that downsampling matters is that it can make sure that information that would have otherwise been destroyed is included, but since the source is 720p, there is no additional information to capture and you gain nothing by recording at higher resolution.
If you're going to reduce to 720p anyway then record in 720p as you'll get more footage on the storage device and use less space.
