The Ultimate Superheroines Forum

Hi all! So I have a bunch of old low def videos from the late 90's to the mid 00's that have some great stuff but look unwatchable on modern tv's and monitors. I've been waiting for years for AI to get to the point where it can make them look brand new and fix the awful white balance on some of these (they look overlit usually because they were more concerned about putting the pictures on their sites back in the day). I'm wondering: are we there yet? Does anyone know a good program that can take an overlit video from 20 years ago and make it look new now? If we're not there yet I'll just keep waiting because I think it will eventually happen. If anyone has seen dramatic success restoring an older video please let me know what worked for you. Thank you all and have a great day

No experience so you'll have to try..

https://www.vidnoz.com/ai-solutions/ai- ... ation.html

sideshowbob4791 wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Hi all! So I have a bunch of old low def videos from the late 90's to the mid 00's that have some great stuff but look unwatchable on modern tv's and monitors. I've been waiting for years for AI to get to the point where it can make them look brand new and fix the awful white balance on some of these (they look overlit usually because they were more concerned about putting the pictures on their sites back in the day). I'm wondering: are we there yet? Does anyone know a good program that can take an overlit video from 20 years ago and make it look new now? If we're not there yet I'll just keep waiting because I think it will eventually happen. If anyone has seen dramatic success restoring an older video please let me know what worked for you. Thank you all and have a great day

I use Topaz Video AI 5.5.1 and it works very well but it has limits. There is a pro version for movie professionals but it's quite pricey. I use it strictly for enhancement and upscaling. You'll need a full blown video editor like, Davinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, etc., for color correction, lighting and editing. You will also find that Video AI produces extremely large files, so you will also need a good quality encoder like HandBrake. It's free and is what I use to reduce file size without much loss of quality. Of course the original lossless files will be the best quality but that means very large files.

As for quality results, it really depends on how bad the original quality is. The old saying, "garbage in, garbage out" still holds true in most cases. Now, I don't claim to be a pro but I have had some decent results with low quality 360p VHS tapes that were digitized. What I've noticed is machine learning has trouble with fingers, toes and eyes when the original quality is low. It does amazingly well with closeups, but as the camera pulls back and the objects get smaller it doesn't do as well. Distortion like compression artifacts in the original are at times exaggerated when upscaled.

Overall AI upscaling does extremely well but you will need some GPU horsepower with lots of VRAM and in most cases a CPU with AVX/AVX2 instructions. Video AI needs a dedicated GPU, my system runs circles around integrated systems, even Apple M4's. So my advice is to 1st invest in some serious hardware before purchasing AI software.

Not that this will help you now but Topaz has a sale every year for Black Friday. I actually re-upped my subscription. Keep your eyes open, they might discount again as we get closer to the holidays.

MightyHypnotic wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Not that this will help you now but Topaz has a sale every year for Black Friday. I actually re-upped my subscription. Keep your eyes open, they might discount again as we get closer to the holidays.

Yep, that's what I did. I caught a package deal on Photo AI, Gigapixel and Video AI, so I bought all 3. The 2 Photo apps are nothing short of amazing. I used to restore old photos for family and friends using various apps like Photoshop but my restoration skills don't come close to these new AI apps. I still have to use various brushes and healing tools to repair tears, stains, etc., but the upscaling and enhancement done by AI is beyond my skills.

Thanks for all the recommendations:)