low res video recovery

[Negativepitch]

Hi.
First post.
Sorry if the title doesn't make much sense.
I lost my hard drive but managed to recover most of it. I have some video clips of my daughters when they were young, around 2007-ish
The video clips are really blocky/low res. Now Im not sure if this is because the way it recovered or the fact it was an old mobile phone around that time...or a matter of both of these.
When I right click (Im on a macbook pro) and get info it says it's .mov file, but when I click on it it converts to a quicktime format all on it's own then opens up with quick time.
I have tried converting it to MP4 which makes it a little better as long as it plays as a thumbnail.
So after all this waffling, is there a way to improve the resolution/quality/
Thanks for any replies.
PS...I haven't got a clue what Im talking about here.
I don't mind uploading the clip as it's only a few seconds long if that helps anyone, or even mail them.

[johnmeyer]

I had the identical problem. You can read the advice I got, and see the results, here:

Ideas for restoring early generation (really old) digital video

[Cornucopia]

@Negativepitch, what's happening on your MBP is this: Your recent era OS doesn't approach Quicktime MOV files the same way as the old QT used to.
Old way (QT 7.x or earlier) - would need pro license to export/convert, but it would play whatever it had a component (plugin) for. And the architecture was highly extensible.
New way (QT X) - no "pro" capability, or need. If codec is one of "modern, acceptable" list (HEVC/AVC/AAC/MP4, ProRes/LPCM, AIC/ALAC, or DV), it will play it natively using the new architecture. If not on that list, it passes to a legacy-converter process, that converts it to one of those on the modern/acceptable list (usually via predetermine pathways)*. But only certain legacy codecs are even recognized, and you can't add to them.
Plus, there is NO plugin extensibility allowed in the new architecture.

So for some clips using 3rd party codecs, the only way to convert is to:
1. Use an OLD mac (or maybe a PC if codecs supported) with QT7, pro, and those component plugins installed. Then convert to some acceptable interim format.
2. Use ffmpeg scripts (on whatever machine) to convert to interim, assuming it supports the 3rd party codec.

Hope that helps,

Scott

<edit>and Apple is migrating (aka abandoning users) further, using HEVC for much, and deprecated DV, AIC, and will probably deprecate AVC, etc down the road.</edit>

*Other codecs are in-between (JPEG, MPG2, Animation...) - may play (for now) but can only export to new formats.

[Negativepitch]

Thanks both.
I haven't tried anything as yet as Im tied up.
I have uploaded them as attachments. (They are virus free if they open on you pc/mac.)
But here are some some some of the bits.
The first clip named quicktime.move is the original .mov and it converts to the quicktime.
The one image quicktime.mov (name shown top left of the image) screen capture shows the original specs before I convert it to mp4
The second movie is of when I have converted it to mp4.
And the last image is a screen capture of the spec (name top left of the image) when it has been converted to mp4.
Hope all this explains a bit.
The original video before all above is a Tiny thumb nail, which really does not show the scale if I upload it to here. But this will also play at the tiny thumbnail.

[mike20021969]

is there a way to improve the resolution/quality/

In a word, no.

[jagabo]

You can't get true high resolution video out of it but you can fix some issues and get better upscaling. In the attached video you can see how a graphics card would upscale (bicubic resize) the video to 960x720, on the right advanced upscaling, moderate noise reduction, mild stabilization, and minor levels/color tweaks.

[Negativepitch]

is there a way to improve the resolution/quality/

In a word, no.

Thanks

[Negativepitch]

You can't get true high resolution video out of it but you can fix some issues and get better upscaling. In the attached video you can see how a graphics card would upscale (bicubic resize) the video to 960x720, on the right advanced upscaling, moderate noise reduction, mild stabilization, and minor levels/color tweaks.

Can I ask what you used to do that.
Is it software that you can purchase as I have a few of them.

[jagabo]

It's free software: AviSynth. Only available for Windows.

[divo2000]

And what software/tool have you used in the first place to recover your files?

[lordsmurf]

Im on a macbook pro

You'll probably need Avisynth in a Windows VM (Virtualbox, Parallels, VMware).