Resizing Video Best Filter to Use?

[meeshu]

I have a mp4 video at 544 x 360 size which I wish to resize to 640 x 480.

Using either Handbrake, ffmpeg, or some other application (suggestion?), what is the best filter to use to ensure highest possible output video quality?

Thank you.

Source video details as per MediaInfo -


[Attachment 77428 - Click to enlarge]

[sum_guy]

VirtualDub. As to the quality you get out of it, garbage in --> garbage out. Resizing almost always messes up the look.

[meeshu]

Thanks for the comment.

But which filter to use?

[davexnet]

Thanks for the comment.

But which filter to use?

As a guideline, from soft to sharp,
Precise Bilinear, Bicubic 060, Bicubic 075 Lanczos3

Bicubic 075 seems to be closest to neutral
Use the mark in and mark out buttons to make a short clip and try them out

[Alwyn]

The Resize filter. However, be aware that 544x360 is 1.5:1 and 640x480 is 1.3333:1? If you want to keep the same aspect ratio, you'll need to do some cropping or accept black bars top and bottom.

Resize filter:

[Attachment 77478 - Click to enlarge]

Result:

[Attachment 77479 - Click to enlarge]

If you want to keep the 3:2 (1.5:1) ratio of the original file, tick "Disable" then type 640 and 428 into the "Absolute" values. Then tick "Do not letterbox or crop" like this:

[Attachment 77480 - Click to enlarge]

[meeshu]

Thanks for the comment.

But which filter to use?

As a guideline, from soft to sharp,
Precise Bilinear, Bicubic 060, Bicubic 075 Lanczos3

Bicubic 075 seems to be closest to neutral
Use the mark in and mark out buttons to make a short clip and try them out

Thank you for that! This is very useful!

[meeshu]

The Resize filter. However, be aware that 544x360 is 1.5:1 and 640x480 is 1.3333:1? If you want to keep the same aspect ratio, you'll need to do some cropping or accept black bars top and bottom.

Resize filter:

[Attachment 77478 - Click to enlarge]

Result:

[Attachment 77479 - Click to enlarge]

If you want to keep the 3:2 (1.5:1) ratio of the original file, tick "Disable" then type 640 and 428 into the "Absolute" values. Then tick "Do not letterbox or crop" like this:

[Attachment 77480 - Click to enlarge]

Thank you for the detailed reply!

I didn't see a "resize" filter within my Virtualdub2 x64 plugins folder. So I assumed a filter had to be added/imported into this directory in order to perform a resize function!?

But on opening a test video within Virtualdub2 and then selecting Filters under the Video tab, there were no filters listed within the filters message box. Then I realized you have to "Add" filters to this filters box. On adding filters, I found and added the resize filter and made appropriate adjustments to the settings within the resize filter, and am now doing test runs to see how the processed video turns out.

Yes, thanks. I was aware that the aspect ratios were different between the source and wanted target videos; I made allowance for that in the filter settings.

[Alwyn]

I didn't see a "resize" filter within my Virtualdub2 x64 plugins folder. So I assumed a filter had to be added/imported into this directory in order to perform a resize function!?

There are a number of "internal" filters, including the Resize filter, which won't show up in the plugins folders but are embedded into the program and, as you've found, are accessible via the Filters menu.

[lollo]

However, be aware that 544x360 is 1.5:1 and 640x480 is 1.3333:1? If you want to keep the same aspect ratio...

1.5:1 and 1.3:1 are not the aspect ratio, but the SAR(Storage Aspect Ratio) or better the ratio of the pixels width and heigth as Cornucopia would say

Nobody knows the DAR (Display Aspect Ratio) nor the PAR (Pixel Aspect Ratio) of OP's source.

[meeshu]

The Display Aspect Ratio is 3:2 as shown by MediaInfo screenshot in my first post.

[Alwyn]

It's an HEVC. Is it really going to have one of those weird analogue PARs/DARs/SARs that is not the PWH? I'll bet the PWH is the DAR, as per the DAR from the Mediainfo report. And yes, I know some types of files don't store the DAR in the metadata. I doubt that HEVC is one of them.

You could ask the OP for a sample...

[lollo]

Mediainfo is just a tag reader. When the real DAR is not specified, it writes in the field "Display aspect ratio" the PWH, as in the case of avi derived from an Analog Capture.



But Alwyn is right, probably the "deep" aspects are not worthy here