Best Resolution for Videos

oneshot2shots wrote:

Thanks Phil.

I understand that I cannot get more pixels from a lower source, as that would be magical. 

My main question is why QT cannot record at a higher resolution initially, at 1920 * 1080?

What are you recording from exactly?

For instance the FaceTime camera on most Macs is limited to 720p video. there's no way to get higher quality video from it. That is a hardware limitation. It's a 720p quality camera. Newer Macs have a 1080p camera.

iMovie would not be able to get 1080p video from a 720p video camera. If you want higher quality video, you would need a higher quality camera.

If you make screen recording instead, it will record at the Mac's full screen resolution and can export to a maximum of that resolution.

You can't export at a higher resolution than what the source video has from Quicktime, as there would be no way to magically get pixels where they do not exist.

That normally is called upscaling, and requires a ton of processing and AI to extrapolate image information and create additional pixels, for a decent result. It's not something Quicktime will do.

720p is what's known as standard resolution, and for your 2K monitor it will look terrible yes.

If you want to produce a 1080p video with an embedded 720 source, you may be better off using iMovie if your Mac supports it.

Link-> https://apps.apple.com/us/app/imovie/id408981434?mt=12

The source video will still be at 720, no way around the, but will be contained in a 1080p video frame. iMovie will also let you have more control of colors and saturation, but still easy enough for beginners to use.

The main point is, you can't get better quality from a lower quality video source.

oneshot2shots wrote:

Ah, perfect. Ok, this clears it up. I will have to invest in a camera as it’s a hardware issue. 

I’m using QT, which I’m assuming uses the default FaceTime camera with limited 720 resolution. 

It’s a Macbook Pro 2019. Seems like an expensive Apple computer should have a higher resolution camera, but guess it’s complicated. 

Thanks!

Yes. That's always been a point of contention with Macs. Only recently has Apple upgraded the camera hardware in Macs to 1080p.

But you can get much better 1080p and 4K webcams if that is what you are wanting to do from places like Amazon.

And with macOS 13 Ventura and iOS 16, you will be able to use an iPhone as the webcam for a Mac. With its full 4K quality.

macOS Ventura Preview - New Features - Apple