Upgrade video to 4K resolution and enhance video quality

[satimis]

Hi all,

I tried upgrade an old .mp4 video to 4K resolution with following step:

Desktop computer - AMD Ryzen5 8-core CPU
Display - 32" 4K Dell display
RAM - 32G onboard

OS - Ubuntu 22.04 desktop (Linux)

On Terminal run following command:
$ ffmpeg -i old_video.mp4 -vf scale=3840:2160 new_video_4k.mp4

It works, taking about 9 min to finish
File size - increasing from 37.5 MB to 283.9 MB

The 4K new video takes up the full 32" 4K display. But there is no improvement on its quality. Is there any way to enhance the video quality as well.

Please advise. Thanks

Regards

[davexnet]

But there is no improvement on its quality.

Well of course not, all you did was a straight upscale.
For any questions about improving quality you need to give a good explanation
of the problems (at a mimimum). Better still, also provide a video sample

[Sharc]

Hi all,

I tried upgrade an old .mp4 video to 4K resolution with following step:

Desktop computer - AMD Ryzen5 8-core CPU
Display - 32" 4K Dell display
RAM - 32G onboard

OS - Ubuntu 22.04 desktop (Linux)

On Terminal run following command:
$ ffmpeg -i old_video.mp4 -vf scale=3840:2160 new_video_4k.mp4

It works, taking about 9 min to finish
File size - increasing from 37.5 MB to 283.9 MB

The 4K new video takes up the full 32" 4K display. But there is no improvement on its quality. Is there any way to enhance the video quality as well.

Please advise. Thanks

Regards

Not sure what are your expectations on upscaling. Just upscaling does not reveal more picture details. It blows up the filesize only, as you have noticed. You can usually leave the upscaling to the TV and keep the original resolution (frame size) as is.
You may however want to try some AI upscaling methods which is a subject of its own. Maybe someone more knowledgable will chime in.....

P.S. Did you by a camcorder by now for playing and digitizing your Video8 tapes?

[johnmeyer]

There is no point to upscaling. If you have a 4K display, the display/TV will do that for you, thus filling up the display to the edges. The quality, however, cannot be improved by upscaling. There is some hope that various AI algorithms, with lots of training, may someday be able to create details where none existed before, but I am very skeptical. At this point in time, the best you can do is (sometimes) create the illusion of more detail using sharpening. However, it usually creates artifacts which detract from the illusion of sharpening so I never do it.

[Bwaak]

Move in. Stop. Pan right and pull back. Stop. Enhance 34 to 36. Go right. Stop. Enhance 57 to 19. Track 45 left. Stop.

[4kblurayguru]

37.5 MB

already compressed, can't get a better quality from that file.

[satimis]

Hi,

Thanks for your advice. After upgrade the movie is blurry, not clear. Please see the screenshot attached here.

Regards

[johnmeyer]

Thanks for your advice. After upgrade the movie is blurry, not clear.

Yet another reason to not bother upscaling. Your TV set will do it and not make it worse. However, if you do it, and then do it incorrectly, the result will be worse ("blurry") rather than better, and in addition you will have wasted all that time that you could have used to do something else.

[satimis]

Hi all,

On Google searching I found follows:-

1)
BEST Free Video Enhancer to Improve Video Quality
https://www.guru99.com/video-quality-enhancer.html

All of them are NOT FREE

2)
Open Source Video Upscalers
https://sourceforge.net/directory/video-upscalers/

3)
Top 3 AI Video Upscaling Open-Source Software in 2023
https://www.hitpaw.com/video-tips/ai...en-source.html

folks on the forum having experience please shed me some light.

Thanks

[davexnet]

Hi all,

On Google searching I found follows:-

1)
BEST Free Video Enhancer to Improve Video Quality
https://www.guru99.com/video-quality-enhancer.html

All of them are NOT FREE

2)
Open Source Video Upscalers
https://sourceforge.net/directory/video-upscalers/

3)
Top 3 AI Video Upscaling Open-Source Software in 2023
https://www.hitpaw.com/video-tips/ai...en-source.html

folks on the forum having experience please shed me some light.

Thanks

If you want to shed some light, post a video clip showing the problems, cut from the original file

[satimis]

Hi all,

On Google searching I found follows:-

1)
BEST Free Video Enhancer to Improve Video Quality
https://www.guru99.com/video-quality-enhancer.html

All of them are NOT FREE

2)
Open Source Video Upscalers
https://sourceforge.net/directory/video-upscalers/

3)
Top 3 AI Video Upscaling Open-Source Software in 2023
https://www.hitpaw.com/video-tips/ai...en-source.html

folks on the forum having experience please shed me some light.

Thanks

If you want to shed some light, post a video clip showing the problems, cut from the original file

Thanks for your reply.

I have many old video needed to ugrade their quality. I'll cut a section of one of them as example. Please advise the max size of file (.mp4) I can upload here? Thanks

Regards

[davexnet]

Hi all,

On Google searching I found follows:-

1)
BEST Free Video Enhancer to Improve Video Quality
https://www.guru99.com/video-quality-enhancer.html

All of them are NOT FREE

2)
Open Source Video Upscalers
https://sourceforge.net/directory/video-upscalers/

3)
Top 3 AI Video Upscaling Open-Source Software in 2023
https://www.hitpaw.com/video-tips/ai...en-source.html

folks on the forum having experience please shed me some light.

Thanks

If you want to shed some light, post a video clip showing the problems, cut from the original file

Thanks for your reply.

I have many old video needed to ugrade their quality. I'll cut a section of one of them as example. Please advise the max size of file (.mp4) I can upload here? Thanks

Regards

You're allowed to post up to 500MB on this site, but it doesn't sound as if you need that much.
30 - 60 seconds that shows the issues should be enough

[johnmeyer]

I have many old video needed to ugrade their quality.

You say "upgrade their quality," but what are you expecting is going to happen? You cannot get more detail. This means you cannot make standard definition video look like high definition (HD) video.

This is the "restoration" forum, not the "magic" forum. The techniques discussed here can remove some artifacts, like dirt on movie film, or noise on video, and dozens of other things (e.g., dot crawl). There is software for changing frame rates. You can remove duplicate and missing frames.

What you cannot do is create detail that isn't there. It is pretty clear that this is what you are trying to do. I won't bother posting again, but just to be clear: you are wasting your time.

[Harry leChein]

I have achieved good results with HitPaw AI Video Enhancer....... no need to upscale, tho', as display device achieves this in-line.
Ouput video size is comparable to a decent H264 rip. (I am upscaling my DVD collection).
The downside is time taken to process - using the 'Fast Denoise Model': approx 4X video duration (RTX4070Ti), or 12X (RTX3050), however my DVDs are now quite watchable on a 4K 75" panel.
Conversion PC runs 'lights out' in the cellar - managed with TeamViewer.
As a guide, the 'Normal Denoise model' takes approx 4 times as long for minimal improvement (IMHO).
Hope this helps.
Cheers ....

[Sharc]

I have many old video needed to ugrade their quality.

You can't turn lead into gold.
If you want to improve something you should actually start with a high quality lossless capture of your videos rather than using a possibly overfiltered and re-encoded variant (your .mp4). But keep in mind VHS (or Video8) is still VHS. You can't expect miracles, and just upscaling is pointless anyway.

Lot of these enhancement promises of those tools is just snake oil, but you are free to try.

[satimis]

I have achieved good results with HitPaw AI Video Enhancer....... no need to upscale, tho', as display device achieves this in-line.
Ouput video size is comparable to a decent H264 rip. (I am upscaling my DVD collection).
The downside is time taken to process - using the 'Fast Denoise Model': approx 4X video duration (RTX4070Ti), or 12X (RTX3050), however my DVDs are now quite watchable on a 4K 75" panel.
Conversion PC runs 'lights out' in the cellar - managed with TeamViewer.
As a guide, the 'Normal Denoise model' takes approx 4 times as long for minimal improvement (IMHO).
Hope this helps.
Cheers ....

Hi,

Thanks for your advice and link.

I have tried following Video Enhancer online;
https://clideo.com/

It has done a good job. Please refer to the screenshot attached. I'll try AI Video Enhancer later to compare their result.

What I'm trying to achieve is to enhance the sharpness of the video.

Regards

Edit
====

Just tried following AI Video Enhancer online
https://www.cutout.pro/ai-video-enhancer

The result is worser. Please see screenshot attached

[Sharc]

Snake oil, as I said. But if you like it, why not.

The Clideo VideoEnhancer (first attached picture) may look better to you, but it clipped the whites badly. Means the sky is just plain flat white for example, loosing any gradation and details. A natural sky is never just plain white. Clipping/crushing of the brights may even be more annoying in other scenes.

The AI Video Enhancer (second attached picture) tried to preserve the gradation at least.

Both still blurry of course. But VHS is VHS. No miracles to be expected.

[jagabo]

If you want sharp results when AI upscaling you need to provide a sharp video to start with. Or select an AI model that does that for you.

[rgr]

The 4K new video takes up the full 32" 4K display. But there is no improvement on its quality. Is there any way to enhance the video quality as well.

Please advise. Thanks

Regards

1. Neat Video (It's a denoiser, but it can also nicely sharpen an upscaled video)
2. Topaz Video AI -- has mixed opinions

Both are paid, but you can try demo versions.

[rgr]

Hi,

Thanks for your advice. After upgrade the movie is blurry, not clear. Please see the screenshot attached here.

Regards

So your player does upscaling better than ffmpeg Which isn't difficult.

[satimis]

Hi,

Thanks for your advice. After upgrade the movie is blurry, not clear. Please see the screenshot attached here.

Regards

So your player does upscaling better than ffmpeg Which isn't difficult.

The quality is more less the same. But ffmpeg version the video is down size