How to upscale low resolution video?

[Hunk91]

Hi everybody, 20 years ago I encoded a PAL 8mm video cassette to 160x120 pixels.

I recorded at a frame rate of 30 fps (should have been 25 fps as it is PAL) and the video was encoded to MPEG1 and audio to MPEG2.

The video has some compression artefacts.

I would like to know if there would be a way to upscale this video to something better (at least to DVD resolution) and to reduce or clean the compression artefacts.

What would you recomend to do ?

Thanks a lot

Please have a nice day

Best regards

[krykmoon]

Without some samples posted no one can suggest you anything, I suppose.

Anyway.. I think source resolution is WAYS too low to allow an upscale to DVD resolution (or any enhancement at all)

nasty 30fps pal conversion .. also not a good thing at all to deal with.


Source material should ALWAYS be CAPTURED with no changes in setting (resolution, framerate) and with less processing possible.

From a good and respectfully CAPTURED footage you can then do all the processing, conversion, changes.. and whatever.. you want.. to obtain a video that suits you in the present.

But.. ALWAYS keep those original good source captures stored somewhere.. because tomorrow there may be a better way to process them.. or some of the choices made when processing the source material may reveal themselves to be WRONG, at some point.

[dellsam34]

The best way is to recapture the original tape, That will be a huge upscale from 160x120 to 720x576 original pixels PAL. If the original tape is gone, just leave the video alone, you can't make chicken salad out of chicken $hit.

[Hunk91]

Thank both of you for your replies.
Unfortunatly, the tape is long gone and this video file is all that is left.
I was wondering if I play this video (full screen) on an old computer with a display resolution of 640x480 and then with the s-video output of the video card to plug it on the s-video input of my capturing device and then recording it to NTSC DVD resolution (720x480 at 29.90 fps) could do something ?

Best regards

[Selur]

Everything does something, but working with the original video is probably the better choice,....

[jagabo]

Here's an example upscale 160x120 to 640x480 with AviSynth. The small inset is the 160x120 source. On the left is a simple LanczosResize() to 640x480, on the right is nnedi3() + awarpsharp2() + sharpen().

[Hunk91]

Thank you jagabo fie tour reply !
It is very impressive !
Can you please paste here the avisynth scripts for both case or send them to me via private message ?
Thanks a lot
Best regards

Edit: I could do something with LanczosResize and the result is interesting. I would like to try with nnedi3() + awarpsharp2() + sharpen().

[jagabo]

LWLibavVideoSource("source160x120.mkv", cache=false, prefer_hw=2) 

# do any cleanup here (deblocking, noise reduction, brightness/color adjustments, etc.)

# upscale in steps with sharpening after each

nnedi3_rpow2(2, cshift="Spline36Resize") # 320x240
aWarpSharp2(depth=5)
Sharpen(0.5)

nnedi3_rpow2(2, cshift="Spline36Resize") # 640x480
aWarpSharp2(depth=5)
Sharpen(0.5)

If you don't want exactly 2x at each step use fwidth=X and fheight=Y to specify the width and height in nnedi3_rpow2. For example:

nnedi3_rpow2(2, cshift="Spline36Resize", fwidth=720, fheight=576)

[Hunk91]

Thank you jagabo for your reply and the script.

I tried 2 different things : Lanczos4Resize() of 640x480 + VirtualDub filter "2d cleaner optimized 0.9" with a threshold value of 30 , and nnedi3() + awarpsharp2() + sharpen() (your script)

In the video On the top left the small inset is the 160x120 source. On the left is Lanczos4Resize() to 640x480 + VirtualDub filter "2d cleaner optimized 0.9" with a threshold value of 30, on the right is nnedi3() + awarpsharp2() + sharpen().

I think I should clean the source file as the MPEG1 compression used 20 years ago was to much.

I would be interested on how to improve the quality of the original clip and the upscale.

Thansk a lot for your help

Best regards

[jagabo]

You should provide a sample of the original MPEG1 video, not reencoded.

[Hunk91]

As requested here is a sample of the MPEG1 video.

Thanks a lot

Best regards

[jagabo]

Here are some things you can try:

Mpeg2Source("videohelp-M1V.d2v", CPU2="ooooxx", Info=3) # apply de-ringing filters -- only works in 32 bit version
TDecimate(Cycle=6, CycleR=1) # discard duplicate frames from 25p to 30p conversion
src = last # remember the source from here (for comparison later)

ColorYUV(off_y=-8) # pull levels down a bit
deblock_qed(quant1=35, quant2=30) # smooth out MPEG1 blocks
QTGMC(InputType=2) # stabilize poor deinterlacing/scaling artifacts

#######################################################
#
# Use one or the other:
# DepanEstimate() to smooth X,Y shaking.
# MDepan() to smooth rotations too.
#
#######################################################

maxstabH=20
maxstabV=15

vectors = MSuper().MAnalyse(isb = false)
mdata = MDepan(vectors, pixaspect=1.0, thSCD1=400)
#mdata = DePanEstimate(last,trust=1.0,dxmax=maxstabH,dymax=maxstabV)
DePanStabilize(last,data=mdata,dxmax=maxstabH,dymax=maxstabV,rotmax=3.0,method=1,mirror=0,cutoff=0.3,damping=3.0,prev=10,next=10,blur=0)

#######################################################

#CAS(0.5) # alternate contrast aware sharpening
Sharpen(0.3) # dump sharpen everything

nnedi3_rpow2(2, cshift="Spline36Resize", fwidth=320, fheight=240)
aWarpSharp2(depth=3)
Sharpen(0.3)

nnedi3_rpow2(2, cshift="Spline36Resize", fwidth=640, fheight=480)
aWarpSharp2(depth=3)
Sharpen(0.3)

StackHorizontal(src.LanczosResize(width, height), last) # show simple upscale and cleaned upscale

The sharper you make things the more artificial it will look and the more buzzing edges you'll get. You'll especially notice it on people's faces -- they start looking like mannequins with painted features rather than like humans.

[Hunk91]

Thank you jagabo for your help. I'm getting a good result. I have to tweak a little bit the script.
Best regards

[Hunk91]

I finaly found a VHS transfert from the 8mm tape made at the same time. So I digitized the VHS to Mpeg2 (PAL DVD resolution 752x576 25fps, as the VHS was in PAL format).

I was wondering, if I play this video file from my bluray player and plug the HDMI video output to my HDMI acquisition device in order to get a 1920x1080 25 fps video file. Do you think the upscale would be good or this should be a waste of time ? This would be a hardware upscale not software upscale.

Edit : Problem solved as I found a copy of the 8mm video on VHS tape and digitized this VHS tape to PAL DVD.

[jagabo]

A hardware upscale by your Blu-ray player won't be as good as a tailored software upscale with nnedi3. But hardware upscale from VHS will look better than a software upscale from that 160x120 MPEG1 video you have.

[pm-s]

A hardware upscale by your Blu-ray player won't be as good as a tailored software upscale with nnedi3. But hardware upscale from VHS will look better than a software upscale from that 160x120 MPEG1 video you have.

man said he doesn't own original tapes

[jagabo]

A hardware upscale by your Blu-ray player won't be as good as a tailored software upscale with nnedi3. But hardware upscale from VHS will look better than a software upscale from that 160x120 MPEG1 video you have.

man said he doesn't own original tapes

I was speaking generally.