Videos are small on the screen. Any way of enlarging them?

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Level 2

372 points

Videos are small on the screen. Any way of enlarging them?

Discovered that many movies I've transferred over to Photos (from iPad, from cameras) are small. Is there any way of making them bigger?

In particular, I have several slow-motion movies of birds flying (to and from feeders in the backyard) and I'd like to zoom in closer and watch the flights. Right now, in Photos, I seem able to only make it as large as the screen is vertically--and that's too small.

In QuickTime Player, the same thing happens; plus, oddly, I cannot turn off "Fit to Screen".

All this is different from viewing photos where I can pinch-zoom in Photos and resize to my heart's content.

If I'm stuck with the display size of these movies, then it won't be worth doing slow-motion videos. Which would be a shame! 😟

iPhone 4, iOS 6.1.2, Keeps on running...

Posted on May 5, 2016 6:04 AM

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Answer 1

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

May 5, 2016 12:26 PM in response to AstroMacMan

What resolution are the videos shot at? That is going to determine the size you can view them at

there are many possible standard video resolutions - which are you using

Digital TV standards[edit]

Standard	Resolution (dots × lines)	DAR (H:V)	Pixels
PixelVision	120 × 90	4:3	10,800
Video CD	352 × 240 (NTSC)	4:3	84,480
Video CD	352 × 288 (PAL)	4:3	101,376
UMD	480 × 272	~16:9 (30:17)	130,560
China Video Disc	352 × 480 (NTSC)	4:3 or 16:9	168,960
China Video Disc	352 × 576 (PAL)	4:3 or 16:9	202,725
SVCD	480 × 480 (NTSC)	4:3 or 16:9	230,400
SVCD	480 × 576 (PAL)	4:3 or 16:9	276,480
SDTV 480i, EDTV 480p, SMPTE 293M	640 × 480	4:3 or 16:9 or 3:2	307,200
	704 × 480		337,920
	720 × 480		345,600
	852 × 480		408,960
SDTV 576i, EDTV 576p	480 × 576	4:3 or 16:9	276,480
	544 × 576		313,344
	704 × 576		405,504
	720 × 576		414,720
	768 × 576		442,368
DVD	720 × 480 (NTSC)	4:3 or 16:9	345,600
DVD	720 × 576 (PAL)	4:3 or 16:9	414,720
720p (HDTV)	1280 × 720	16:9	921,600
720p (HDTV)	1366 × 768 (FWXGA)	16:9	1,049,088
1080i, 1080p (HDTV, Blu-ray)	1920 × 1080	16:9	2,073,600
2160p (UHDTV)	3840 × 2160	16:9	8,294,400
4320p (UHDTV)	7680 × 4320	16:9	33,177,600

LN

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Answer 2

AstroMacMan Author

Level 2

372 points

May 15, 2016 5:43 AM in response to LarryHN

Appreciate the replies!

I'll give it another go at explaining the problem! I take a slow-motion movie with my iPad Air 2, and then sync it into Photos. When I double-click it to display it on the screen, it opens up to fill the Photos pane-- i.e., the top of the movie hits the top of the Photos pane, the bottom goes to the bottom. There is no way of enlarging the movie, however. You're stuck with the size of the Photos pane.

That means a slow-motion movie of birds going to and from a backyard feeder remains tiny and indistinct. While one can drag the Photos window to make things a tad larger, or enter Full Screen, the movie display remains too small, the birds too small, and the slow-motion flight hard to see.

In contrast, a photo of the same scene can be enlarged at will to show the birds at larger sizes, even if it eventually becomes grainy.

Does that help?

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

200,639 points

May 15, 2016 6:01 AM in response to AstroMacMan

You could open the video in iMovie and then crop it to the section you want. or add a Ken Burns effect.

I have not tested if slow motion video clips will survive the round trip to iMovie, but I am using iMovie to trim and stabilize and crop most of my iPhone video clips.

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Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

215,706 points

May 5, 2016 8:47 AM in response to AstroMacMan

Move the slider at the top left of the window to enlarge the size of the thumbnails

or double click on the image to open it in the larger view mode.

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