Need advice on upscaling old movies

[VidScaler]

Hi All,

I'm new to this forum. I want to upscale some of my old movie collections to a higher resolution. I have two versions of the same video on my hands at the moment. One from streaming services, and one ripped from DVD. Details of the files extracted using K-lite codec pack are shown in the picture attached.


[Attachment 54698 - Click to enlarge]

I understand that comparing two files encoded using different codecs are difficult. However, based on the given information, can I claim that the "wmv" version is the higher quality source file for upscaling? Since VC-1 should have a better compression ratio than MPEG-2, and their nominal bitrates are not that far away from each other.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[manono]

The WMV one was encoded using constant bitrate, and a relatively low one at that. I don't think it's at all clear that it has the better quality.

I also think wasting time upscaling these is a fool's errand. Whatever display device you use has its own upscaling abilities.

[jagabo]

I have two versions of the same video on my hands at the moment. One from streaming services, and one ripped from DVD. Details of the files extracted using K-lite codec pack are shown in the picture attached.


[Attachment 54698 - Click to enlarge]

I understand that comparing two files encoded using different codecs are difficult. However, based on the given information, can I claim that the "wmv" version is the higher quality source file for upscaling?

Not necessarily. Why don't you just watch them and see for yourself?

And are you sure the WMV is upscaled from an SD source? If the movie was shot on film they may have gone back and digitized the film -- which has much more resolution than SD video. Even if it was upscaled from SD they probably started with a better source than your DVD.

[VidScaler]

The WMV one was encoded using constant bitrate, and a relatively low one at that. I don't think it's at all clear that it has the better quality.

I also think wasting time upscaling these is a fool's errand. Whatever display device you use has its own upscaling abilities.

I'm using MadVR to improve it on my video player at the moment. I'm just thinking if I upscale it using some professional software like Topaz lab or Davinci Resolve will improve the viewing experience by a little at least.

[VidScaler]

I have two versions of the same video on my hands at the moment. One from streaming services, and one ripped from DVD. Details of the files extracted using K-lite codec pack are shown in the picture attached.


[Attachment 54698 - Click to enlarge]

I understand that comparing two files encoded using different codecs are difficult. However, based on the given information, can I claim that the "wmv" version is the higher quality source file for upscaling?

Not necessarily. Why don't you just watch them and see for yourself?

And are you sure the WMV is upscaled from an SD source? If the movie was shot on film they may have gone back and digitized the film -- which has much more resolution than SD video. Even if it was upscaled from SD they probably started with a better source than your DVD.

I don't think that the wmv version is upscaled from the SD source. There are being distributed through different platforms (one digitally, and the other in physical DVD) both from the original vendor. Thus I believe that what you said is right. The producer digitized the original film in WMV, and so it should be a higher quality source than the DVD one right?

I'm relatively new in this, especially dealing with different codecs. However, it's so sad to see so many good old movies become crappy on the modern displays. That's why I'm trying to upscale/re-master them myself.

[poisondeathray]

People make mistakes, maybe one or both are botched. Maybe the high school kid they hired that summer ran it though the VHS first. Maybe one was a PAL conversion . Stranger things have happened

The only way to be certain is to check out the same frames on different scenes. The numbers by themselves do not necessarily indicate anything. If it was me, I'd want to be sure

[jagabo]

I don't think that the wmv version is upscaled from the SD source. There are being distributed through different platforms (one digitally, and the other in physical DVD) both from the original vendor. Thus I believe that what you said is right. The producer digitized the original film in WMV, and so it should be a higher quality source than the DVD one right?

If you have the files why don't you just view them and see for yourself? Look for small low contrast detail, especially in the shadows. Compare the sharpness of the two videos when viewed at the same size (ie, both full screen, or both in a 1280x720 window. Look at the edges of moving objects -- are they rough or smooth? Watch for posterization artifacts, DCT blocking, DCT ringing, etc.

I'm relatively new in this, especially dealing with different codecs. However, it's so sad to see so many good old movies become crappy on the modern displays. That's why I'm trying to upscale/re-master them myself.

Some of the better neural network (A.I.) upscaling algorithms are better than most TVs can provide. But you also need to have a clean sharp source to get clean sharp upscaling. A lesser source might be cleaned and sharpened in software before upscaling.

[VidScaler]

People make mistakes, maybe one or both are botched. Maybe the high school kid they hired that summer ran it though the VHS first. Maybe one was a PAL conversion . Stranger things have happened

The only way to be certain is to check out the same frames on different scenes. The numbers by themselves do not necessarily indicate anything. If it was me, I'd want to be sure

Thanks for the input.

[VidScaler]

I don't think that the wmv version is upscaled from the SD source. There are being distributed through different platforms (one digitally, and the other in physical DVD) both from the original vendor. Thus I believe that what you said is right. The producer digitized the original film in WMV, and so it should be a higher quality source than the DVD one right?

If you have the files why don't you just view them and see for yourself? Look for small low contrast detail, especially in the shadows. Compare the sharpness of the two videos when viewed at the same size (ie, both full screen, or both in a 1280x720 window. Look at the edges of moving objects -- are they rough or smooth? Watch for posterization artifacts, DCT blocking, DCT ringing, etc.

I'm relatively new in this, especially dealing with different codecs. However, it's so sad to see so many good old movies become crappy on the modern displays. That's why I'm trying to upscale/re-master them myself.

Some of the better neural network (A.I.) upscaling algorithms are better than most TVs can provide. But you also need to have a clean sharp source to get clean sharp upscaling. A lesser source might be cleaned and sharpened in software before upscaling.

I'll try to compare the videos using the parameters as you suggested. Thank you. I learned a lot.