want to hire a video clarity restoration specialist.

[cocobabka]

I am looking to have a short video on youtube sharpened so that a person (face) in the video can be seen clearly, maybe even blown up if possible.

The segment in question is about 10 seconds long from a TV show 10 years ago.

I am willing to pay to have this done.

Anyone interested?

If this isnt the right place to post such a request or someone can refer me to a professional service please advise.

Thanks.

[guns1inger]

You have been watching too many episodes of CSI, methinks.

If I read your request correctly, the source of the video is a youtube clip. Youtube is very low resolution (320 x 240) most of the time, although they display it slightly larger. Some newer clips have a higher resolution, but even then, they are heavily compressed. All the information required is long gone.

Perhaps, if you had the original broadcast tapes, you might have some luck. But if youtube is the best you have to start with, then you aren't going to get much better than a simple resize. You might want to try the demo of VideoEnhancer, to see if it can blow the image up without doing too much damage, but nothing will put back detail that simply doesn't exist anymore.

[jagabo]

If you post a link I'm sure a few people will give you some idea of what might be done. But don't expect much from a youtube video.

[cocobabka]

Thanks for taking the time to answer my post, Guns1inger - this makes complete sense, even to one who knows nothing about video production. Thought it was worth a shot anyway - your answer is appreciated.

You have been watching too many episodes of CSI, methinks.

If I read your request correctly, the source of the video is a youtube clip. Youtube is very low resolution (320 x 240) most of the time, although they display it slightly larger. Some newer clips have a higher resolution, but even then, they are heavily compressed. All the information required is long gone.

Perhaps, if you had the original broadcast tapes, you might have some luck. But if youtube is the best you have to start with, then you aren't going to get much better than a simple resize. You might want to try the demo of VideoEnhancer, to see if it can blow the image up without doing too much damage, but nothing will put back detail that simply doesn't exist anymore.

[cocobabka]

I am not sure if I would want to post it publicly, its related to a pretty high profile situation for lack of better explaination.

If you or anyone wants to have a look confidentially I am game to see what can be done. That would be great. Maybe via private message or something. Let me know.

If you post a link I'm sure a few people will give you some idea of what might be done. But don't expect much from a youtube video.

[redwudz]

OK. Can you open it in VirtualDub Mod or other video player? If so, most have a feature to grab a frame off the paused video. VirtualDub Mod can do that in 'Video'. Then open the resulting jpg or other saved format in a graphics program. PhotoShop is one, but a bit pricey. You might try Gimp. It is similar to PhotoShop but freeware: http://www.gimp.org/

From there, you can apply filters and try to clean it up.

[jagabo]

Here's an example of what you might expect:



On the left is a 320x200 image similar in size to what you will find on youtube. It's sharper and cleaner than most videos you will find there. In the middle is an enlargment made from that picture. You might get a little better results by working harder at it or by using "super resolution" techniques. (Super resolution techniques use data from multiple frames to get better results.) On the right is what you won't get! (The left image was made form the same large image the right image was cropped from.)

[AlanHK]

Look into Super-resolution

This uses low res images from a video sequence and tries to combine the information from several frames to get higher resolution.

So if you have a sequence where the person's face on screen and not moving for a few seconds, you should be able to produce a sharper still frame.

There are links in the Wikipedia article to some implementations, have never used them myself.

[hech54]

I am looking to have a short video on youtube sharpened so that a person (face) in the video can be seen clearly, maybe even blown up if possible.

Have you tried contacting the YouTuber who put up the video
to ask for the original? If you personally "cannot" ask for it....
have someone else ask for it.

[halsboss]

Hmm... confidential ... but it's up on YouTube for the wide world to see ... hmm. Never stand up in court. Post the link, it wasn't yours to start with.

[live4fun]

may be this software will helpful to you,
http://movavi.com/enhancemovie/index.html

[guns1inger]

may be this software will helpful to you,
http://movavi.com/enhancemovie/index.html

Probably not - not actually very good at doing what it claims to do

Video Enhancer is a cheap, practical (if slow) implementation of the Super Resolution idea posted earlier.

[piano632]

Never tried it, but...

http://www.thedeemon.com/VideoEnhancer/

[Marvingj]

You guys are killing my Business (smile), Great information!!!

[cocobabka]

You are correct halsboss, the youtibe is in the public domain and does not belong to me. The caveat is what could be revealed through restoration we are seeking.
Thanks.

Hmm... confidential ... but it's up on YouTube for the wide world to see ... hmm. Never stand up in court. Post the link, it wasn't yours to start with.

[cocobabka]

Thanks for the visual and details. From what I have learned about this so far I need to get the original tape or a copy in order to do what we need to accomplish.

Look into Super-resolution

This uses low res images from a video sequence and tries to combine the information from several frames to get higher resolution.

So if you have a sequence where the person's face on screen and not moving for a few seconds, you should be able to produce a sharper still frame.

There are links in the Wikipedia article to some implementations, have never used them myself.

[jagabo]

Although VideoEnhancer can to a little better than simple bicubic or lanczos3 resizing filters I find thedeemon's site to be a bit disingenuous showing point resized images next to VideoEnhancer results. And one image is obviously fake (right above the Download V1.8 link).

At least it does link to a decent comparison:

http://www.thedeemon.com/articles/video_upsize_methods_comparison.html