Restoring Early Mobile Phone Footage - Nokia (Circa 2005)

[taigi]

I'm seeking advice on restoring digital video recorded with a Nokia camera phone (y 2005 model). I've included a short test clip featuring friendly kittens. This video was recorded using the highest quality settings available on the device.

I understand that restoring footage from such a source can be challenging. I would be grateful for any recommendations regarding workflows.

Thank you in advance.

MI:

General
Complete name : /media/oem/PvzUSBback2023Rgs18/Video006.3gp
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : 3GPP Media Release 5
Codec ID : 3gp5 (3gp5/3gp4/3g2a/isom)
File size : 459 KiB
Duration : 49 s 840 ms
Overall bit rate : 75.4 kb/s
Frame rate : 13.819 FPS
Encoded date : 2008-11-30 09:29:49 UTC
Tagged date : 2008-11-30 09:29:49 UTC

Video
ID : 1
Format : H.263
Format profile : BaseLine@1.0
Codec ID : s263
Duration : 49 s 642 ms
Bit rate : 61.4 kb/s
Width : 176 pixels
Height : 144 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 13.819 FPS
Minimum frame rate : 3.802 FPS
Maximum frame rate : 18.529 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.175
Stream size : 372 KiB (81%)
Writing library : Nokia
Language : English
Encoded date : 2008-11-30 09:29:49 UTC
Tagged date : 2008-11-30 09:29:49 UTC

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AMR
Format/Info : Adaptive Multi-Rate
Format profile : Narrow band
Codec ID : samr
Duration : 49 s 840 ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 12.8 kb/s
Channel(s) : 1 channel
Sampling rate : 8 000 Hz
Bit depth : 13 bits
Stream size : 77.9 KiB (17%)
Writing library : Nokia
Language : English
Encoded date : 2008-11-30 09:29:49 UTC
Tagged date : 2008-11-30 09:29:49 UTC

[buzz1891]

I'd say it's hopeless - aside from smoothing ugly blockyness, little can be done here:

[johnmeyer]

I did this for an early 1990s digital video. I have also done it for early flip phone cell video. Here's a thread I started that describes what I did:

Ideas for restoring early generation (really old) digital video

Even though my old post is fourteen years old, all the links still work, so you can see the original, and then look at the result I posted on YouTube. If you have time, watch the wonderful performance by the late Geoffrey Lewis (used to be on "Rawhide" with Clint Eastwood, and was in lots of his movies).

[dellsam34]

I understand that restoring footage from such a source can be challenging. I would be grateful for any recommendations regarding workflows.

Like they say, You can't make chicken salad out of chicken $hit, And I don't mean just the low resolution and the primitive compression, the shooting skills are zero to begin with, a shaky footage makes the compression algorithms go nuts even the very modern ones, I hope you get something out of it.

[Selur]

not worth the effort