Enhancing Video Quality

[JonnyAlpha]

Hi,

A mate of mine has some video footage that he needs to enhance. I think it was taken by a door cam and he need to see if the video can be enhanced for security reasons.
The video is a .mov file with a resolution of 568 x 320 H.264.

Is there anyway of improving the quality?

Many thanks

[johnmeyer]

Almost always the answer is "no." The reasons:

1. Security camera sensors are low-quality and don't take sharp images. In addition, they use cheap plastic lenses.

2. 568x320 is really low resolution.

3. You cannot make something out of nothing. Hollywood movies make it look like you can get detail from an image where none existed on first inspection. That is 100% fiction.

I have dealt with dozens of requests to try to get license plate numbers from security cameras, doorbell cameras, and dashboard cameras. Even with other people pitching in and trying to help, I have not been involved in even one instance where we were able to get an actual license plate number. Not one time.

[Cornucopia]

Almost always the answer is "no." The reasons:

1. Security camera sensors are low-quality and don't take sharp images. In addition, they use cheap plastic lenses.

2. 568x320 is really low resolution.

3. You cannot make something out of nothing. Hollywood movies make it look like you can get detail from an image where none existed on first inspection. That is 100% fiction.

I have dealt with dozens of requests to try to get license plate numbers from security cameras, doorbell cameras, and dashboard cameras. Even with other people pitching in and trying to help, I have not been involved in even one instance where we were able to get an actual license plate number. Not one time.

I agree. I think my record is 1 or 2 actual successes out of hundreds of attempts (and those required $$$$ proprietary commercial forensic enhancement suites, much higher quality starting datasets, lots of detailed motion-tracking, stabilization & isolation).


Scott

[JonnyAlpha]

@johnmeyer
Understood, I guess if Harrison Ford was really a Bladerunner and we lived in 2049 or whenever it was, anything would be possible 😂😂😁

[jagabo]

And the AVC encoding obliterates the little detail that is left, both spatially and temporally.

The original Blade Runner was set in 2019.

[johnmeyer]

The original Blade Runner was set in 2019.

It's amazing how many "future" dates used in movies that some of us who saw when the movie was originally released, are now in the past. "1984" is far behind us now (although much of its predictions are eerily coming true right now). In the original "Terminator," Skynet became self-aware on August 29, 1997, at 02:14 a.m., EDT. That is now a quarter century behind us (some of its predictions may also come true, if you believe all the AI nonsense).

Then there is "2001: A Space Odyssey." That's 23 years ago.

"Back to the Future II" was set in 2015. (It accurately predicted that the Cubs would win the World Series, although that actually happened in 2016.)

There are many more. Only Star Trek had enough sense to set itself way out in the future.

[rgr]

Hi,

A mate of mine has some video footage that he needs to enhance. I think it was taken by a door cam and he need to see if the video can be enhanced for security reasons.
The video is a .mov file with a resolution of 568 x 320 H.264.

Is there anyway of improving the quality?

Many thanks

You can try Topaz Video and its Enhance feature -- it works fine *sometimes*, but don't count on too much.

[JonnyAlpha]

Hi,

A mate of mine has some video footage that he needs to enhance. I think it was taken by a door cam and he need to see if the video can be enhanced for security reasons.
The video is a .mov file with a resolution of 568 x 320 H.264.

Is there anyway of improving the quality?

Many thanks

You can try Topaz Video and its Enhance feature -- it works fine *sometimes*, but don't count on too much.

£299

[johnmeyer]

£299

They do let you try it for free. Good software can be expensive, but bad software is even more expensive, even if it's free.

If the software can do what you want, you will at least know that you can get the job done, and then decide if it is worth spending the money on it.

So, I recommend downloading the free trial and deciding for yourself.

[sophisticles]

There are many more. Only Star Trek had enough sense to set itself way out in the future.

Not that far, i watch it all the time and just laugh at where they seem to think we would be in 200 years:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Star_Trek

Love the show, but I always felt it should have been set at least 1000 years in the future.

[rgr]

£299

30 days free.