[MEncoder-users] Low res video playback in high res

[Bill Crockett]

>>> Just wondering if it is possible to either re-encode or play back
>>> a 1280x720 video in 1920x1080 resolution without losing sharpness, 
>>> detail
>>> ...etc?
>>
>> Sorry to have to say this, but it is impossible.  See for yourself:
>>
>> mplayer -vf scale=1920:1080 your_video
>>
>> It is like zooming in.  Quality goes out the window.
>
> There are better scaling windows (-sws) but if you consider that as 
> quality
> going out the window probably nothing will make you happy...
> Though if sharpness, detail, .. is the only concern you can use
> nearest-neighbour scaling.  It will not lose any, but it will likely look 
> a bit
> strange and bad since every other line/column becomes twice as
> high/wide. Definitely no loss of sharpness or anything though.  As the 
> scale
> factor is 1.5 it should be possible to do better by not just duplicating 
> every
> other row/column but instead inserting the average.  But it will likely 
> look
> more blurry even though it is not.

I thought the -sws 9 (lanczos) was the best choice.   -sws 4 nearest 
neighbour (bad quality)  Are you referring to -vf  ilpack=0 
nearest-neighbour sampling?  Are these option the best?

mencoder -sws 9 -vf scale=1920:1800 (encoding options) -o 
1920_1800_video.mpg 1280_720_video.mpg