How To Upconvert 8mm Films with DaVinci Resolve and Topaz Video AI
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- Опубліковано 26 кві 2023
- How To Upconvert 8mm Films with DaVinci Resolve and Topaz Video AI
This video provides a tutorial on how to upconvert your 8mm movies from 1080p (and 720p) to 4k. We do the up-conversions with two different programs, DaVinci Resolve (Studio) and Topaz Video AI. It is an easy-to-follow step-by-step tutorial. It includes 2k to 4k comparisons with both software’s, along with a 4k to 4k comparison to see if one up-conversion software fared any better than the other.
Links to my 3-part series:
“How To Digitize 8mm Films”
Part 1 - Film to Digital
Part 1 includes a hands-on tutorial on how to digitize 8mm movies. I also make suggestions and show how I organize my movie files for efficiency, which will make your editing easier.
Part 1 Link
• How To Digitize 8mm Fi...
Part 2 - Syncing Sound and Fixing Drift
Part 2 covers specific and unique important information for syncing the sound of 8mm films. I will also include downloadable files to help you with the 8mm editing process. Those downloadable file links will be in the Description of Part 2.
Part 2 Link
• How To Digitize 8mm Fi...
Part 3 - Color Correction and Sharpen
Part 3 is a step-by-step tutorial about how to color-correct and sharpen your 8mm films.
Part 3 Link
• How To Digitize 8mm Fi...
If you don’t have an editing program, I suggest you download the free version of DaVinci Resolve, yes free. It does not expire and is fully functional. The only difference between the free version and the Studio (paid) version is some of the plugins are not there. In most cases, the free version should suffice. I placed a link to Black Magic Design (DaVinci Resolve) below.
LINKS:
Wolverine MovieMaker Pro $399.99 (1080p @ 20fps)
www.amazon.com/Wolverine-Digi...
DaVinci Resolve 18 Free and Studio versions (Fully functional free version / Studio $295.00 US)
www.blackmagicdesign.com/prod...
Topaz Video AI (Great sales around holidays)
www.topazlabs.com/topaz-video-ai
MrAlexTech (DaVinci Resolve tutorials)
/ mralextech
Casey Faris (DaVinci Resolve tutorials)
/ caseyfaris777
Film Simplified (DaVinci Resolve training courses)
*View free tutorials and then wait for a huge full bundle sale
filmsimplified.com
Jamie Fenn (DaVinci Resolve advanced tutorials)
/ jamiefenn
8mm Restoration (My 8mm UA-cam Channel)
/ @8mmrestoration - Фільми й анімація
For many hard drive space is so cheap that it might not be a factor when it comes to file size, however the render time is and will probably be a factor for a long time. No pun intended. At least 6X more time to render with Topaz AI. Topaz shines when "improving" VHS, SuperVHS, and Hi8 to something that is almost watchable, but again the render times are horrendous. On a 2hr VHS tape, start the Topaz process, walk away, come back in a day or so and it should be finished. The price one pays.
One minor point. Even though the 8mm film was shot on a tripod, the video image may have been helped in post production with a little image stabilization due to the fact that the "sprocket holes" in the 8mm film don't always register with 100% accuracy.
Thanks for the comparison and the work you put into this presentation. DaVinci Resolve is an amazing product and so is Topaz Video AI.
Neat channel! I never did the 8mm film route, but shot many "home movies" with VHS, and DV tape camcorders. Eventually I digitized all of those movies and they currently live on my media server. I too have DR Studio for my video work. I can see many similarities here with my experiences. I haven't done video upscaling, but plan to try it once I get a more powerful GPU. Resolve has some great tools for video manipulation and restoration. Black Magic keeps improving and I bet that they'll be able to improve on AI usage and that 4k upscaled video quality. I wish Davinci Fairlight Audio had more tools for audio restoration. Maybe I just have to accept that DR can't be all things to all people. I going to watch more of your 8mm digitization series. I'm quite sure there's things I can use here. Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much for the kind words. I agree 100% about their Fairlight section. The other thing I wish they would do is allow us to detach and move way more adjustment tool boxes like other programs do. I’m not sure if you’ve ever tried topaz video AI or not but they have a full functioning 30 day trial period. That program I think would be really helpful at fixing various issues with your your video tapes and DV tapes. Thanks Bob!
I purchased Topaz to convert/improve old VHS videos (just beginning). I really appreciate demos and accurate comparisons. Like your laid-back style and yet really thorough close comparisons. I believe I'll download the free version of DaVinci Resolve 18 to compare since yours is the first video I've watched that was simple enough for me to follow :) Though I have no 8MM film to work on, I'll keep an eye on your channel for other helpful information. Good form.
Thanks PJ, you pretty much expressed exactly what I was going for. I too prefer complicated material presented clearly with simplicity, if possible. I have no videotapes; however, I am curious to know how this process works for them, which should be pretty much the same process. Thanks again for taking the time to comment.
I just the Black Magic Terranex. Topaz does not impress me and dinner of their demos look worse then the original footage.
Thanks for the upload, always looking to grab a few new tricks in these software packages. I owned both programs you use here, I only use Topaz for my final quality renders (Many times I use DaVinci Resolve last tho,read on…) they have an option for 2 instances of enhancement, big improvement. I seldom use auto settings, motion deblur i never use, ( I use the anti-alias/deblur in the enhancement section ) motion deblur introduces to many artifacts on clips that I have used. I use stabilization a lot but set between 10-15 % full-frame and the other check boxes un checked, on some clips I’ll occasionally go near 20% . You can or will get warpy looking video if set above 20% depending on footage. After export from Topaz video AI and need smaller file sizes I’ll run it thu DaVinci with no corrections other than the deliver tab settings to match input video to output in order to reduce size, always compare the footages afterwards as well as file size. I always use mp4 as many clips I upload to UA-cam.
Thanks for the great and helpful comments! It almost seems crazy what we have to do to properly restore these old movies. I think the final product makes it worth it.
Thanks! Very helpful!
Hi Bob, looks like we are doing the same post process for S8 films. I was just watching the How to Upconvert 8mm.... I suggest you try using IRIS instead of Proteus under Enhancement. After trying many variations and settings (that is crazy time consuming), I use Iris. Manual settings and set sharpness to 100. Nothing else. It's amazing. You might need to back off the 100 sharpness depending on the film.
I'm still trying to decide about rendering 4K. I have a 4k monitor and 4k 65" television. If I play films rendered at 2k, the monitor/television will upres and display at 4K and it looks the same to me as rendered 4k. I'd expect the 2k footage to look worse, but it dosent. Why render 4k at all? Well, I'm not sure if all televisons and monitors will work equal to mine, so I'm still on the fence. This is one thing I'm sure of , Topaz VAI does add detail and its easy to see! I just moved to Resolve from years of using Vegas. It's been slow. The main reason I switched is Resolve has digitised movie film tools. That is only in the paid version. If you didn't know that, I will just refer you to this video. ua-cam.com/video/-QX9uf1FSOk/v-deo.htmlsi=N4uh45QJwydR_wjI
Hi 222dfb (sorry, I don’t know your real name). Thanks for taking the time to give me your input. I have a close friend who also went from Vegas Pro to DaVinci. He's the guy who talked me into using DaVinci instead of Adobe Premier. Thanks for that video link, very helpful, although I was aware of most of it. As for the IRIS vs Proteus Enhancement option in T-VAI, I did play around with other options and I found it to be kind of a 6 of one vs a half of a dozen of the other result. The one thing I couldn't get past was the massive 4x file size increase for such a small improvement. I realize Topaz does a lot more with their processing to get to those huge file sizes. The visual differences between DaVinci's up-conversion (much smaller file size) and Topaz' was noticeable: however, overall rather minimal. Also, the Topaz extensive render time and strain on the computer is unbelievable. I could only see the final differences with an extreme blowup. I too have a 4k tv and computer monitor. The unconverted version looked better at full-screen. Is the 4k up conversion necessary? Probably not, most people look at this stuff anyway on an uncalibrated computer monitor, an iPad or a smartphone. I do feel the up-conversion did look better on the tv and computer monitor.
thx