Why is the frame width / height not always set?

Question

There are a huge number of questions and corresponding answers of people asking how to set the height / width of the frame. A small sample below:

• Unable to change frame height, width in OpenCV
• OpenCV (via python) on Linux: set frame width / height?
• Setting QuickCam Pro 3000 frame size with OpenCV?
• Increase camera capture resolution in OpenCV

I realized that OpenCV sometimes has problems setting the height / width of the frame. In my case, I can set the width / height range to 640 x 512. The drivers for the camera are provided by the manufacturer (ie not v4l2 or something like that). What debugging information can I provide or how can I help them understand why I cannot set higher width / frames. Is this a problem with drivers, with OpenCV with both?

import cv2 c = cv2.VideoCapture(1) c.set(cv2.cv.CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_WIDTH, 1280) c.set(cv2.cv.CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_HEIGHT, 1024) 

I am using Ubuntu 14.04 and using OpenCV 2.4.8 in Python.

I found this question that has an accepted answer, suggesting that I should be able to make it work. I do not know how to do this part:

What you can do is study your camera driver, make a patch for OpenCV and send it to code.opencv.org. In this way, others will enjoy your work, just as you enjoy the work of others.