Upconversion conversion

[carlmart]

There's something that has puzzled me for a long time, and I haven't yet found a satisfactory answer.

How to upscale a DVD with good quality image to close to HD using software in a way that resembles what better DVD players did or Bluray players do.

That is they process the DVD so well and feed it through their HDMI output, with better results that I could get until now using so considered professional tools.

Today I had the chance to compare a film broadcasted in HD, and which apparently was upscaled from an SD master. As I had the DVD I could compare it, both in my LCD computer screen and on my 42" plasma TV. In this case the HD broadcast loses a lot when compared with the DVD, particularly on the plasma screen, when upscaled by my LG BD-390 player.

Now what I wonder is this: I would very much like to enhance the DVD and process it up to "semi-HD" quality. The HD broadcast shows gross error on what should NOT be made: halo enhancements on borders, contrast-gama-desaturation processing that looks "plasticky", loss of detail.

Two years ago I had to mix some SD images with HDV ones on an HD project of mine which I edited in Avid Media Composer.

First I processed the SD up to HD, and then I did some tweaks within Avid. The results were just average, IMHO.

What I wonder if present programs and/or plugins can improve on that.

Are there any HD filters that can be applied on SD images that might make it look "better"? Of course this involves some "cheating", deceiving processing, as you can't create something that isn't there.

The main difference between SD and HD is resolution, but also elimination of all enhancement video players use without we being aware of. Telecine projectors too.

But as I said at the beginning, some upscalings are so "clean" that they do approach full-HD.

[filmboss80]

You should not use a "broadcast" HD signal as a benchmark or baseline for comparative assessments, because some local OTA broadcasters, dish providers, and--especially--cable tv providers will recompress the HD signal to a point where the HD resolution may remain intact, but blotchy pixel clusters, mosquito noise, and other compression artifacts are introduced. With the DVD, you may have SD resolution, but the compression may be done so well that there are few, if any, perceivable artifacts.

Image enhancement circuitry can make the DVD upconversion look very good to the naked eye (so much so, that I'm usually pleased with the DVD movies in my collection and see no need for Bluray replacements); but technically, no real resolution is added.

If you want to do a true comparison, you'd have to go side-by-side between DVD and a well-mastered Bluray.

Addition: AVS forum has an ongoing dialog about HD compression by cable providers and such:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1008271

[jagabo]

http://www.infognition.com/articles/video_resize_shootout.html

[carlmart]

Of course I'm not taking broadcast HD signals as a comparison basis. In fact I have seen quite beautiful results on some broadcast HDs that did show a remarkable improvement over DVD images.

As I am also dealing with my own projects, where sometimes I need to mix SD with HD images, I'm trying to see how to approach this problem from a high quality point of view. All these things I deal with every day for my personal use help me learn what to do with my video projects when they come by.

My main concern still is how to convert DVD upscaling process onto a software based one, and that hasn't yet got through.

The most exciting thing in these HD times is that to deal with the better resolution they have to re-master the films, and that shows up even on DVDs. IMHO and based on several DVDs I remastered for my private use from MKV files, when upscaled those DVDs show very little difference from the HD originals, even if compressed. In fact that also made me angry because they (the DVD manufacturers) could output far better DVDs than they do, and it's my opinion they are not interested in that so they can justify the higher price of the BD discs. Am I wrong?

[jagabo]

when upscaled those DVDs show very little difference from the HD originals

You must be looking at poor HD video. Upscaled DVD never looks anything like good quality HD material.

[_Al_]

You want to best result, but you have to understand, that even everything works 100%, smooth upscale etc., you still get the edges in video thicker , artifacts are going to be twice that bigger, it will be always giveaway that it was upscaled,

you can go with some smart methods for upscaling perhaps that will reconstract frames like one jagabo link above, that uses frames before or after to calculate given frame (never tested that), and compare it with simple upscale (Lanczos method from progressive source), but I'm still not sure how it will treat this fundamental upscale giveaway , thicker edges, bigger artifacts.

[carlmart]

Those tools Jagabo mentioned above are quite likely better tried in short video scenes, as they probably take a long time to convert. In fact I will look into them for my pro stuff, that is a doc I'm working on.

Analyzing before and after frames to reconstuct is probably the way to do it, but that takes time and/or computer power to achieve. Fortunately the latter is no longer a problem as it was until two or three years ago.

The film that started this curiosity is a western classic: Nevada Smith. The DVD is quite good and I wonder if anything can be done to improve it. It's quite likely it won't take long until a BD version is released, but in any case, as I said, learning to use some of these Avisynth tools has always been useful.

So where can we start? What do I capture for you to see? That is what images are usually most critical for you to see the problems?