Best Upscaling Software? - Video Enhance AI vs ScaleUp vs Detail Preserving Upscale in After Effects
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- Опубліковано 13 чер 2024
- Is this the best upscaler? Compare Topaz Labs' Video Enhance AI versus ScaleUp (a plugin for After Effects and Premiere Pro) versus After Effects' Detail Preserving Upscale effect when upscaling from 720 to 4k across a variety of video footage. Overall, Video Enhance AI provides excellent results, but the software comes with some annoyances and lacks some professional features.
0:00 Intro
0:32 Detail Preserving Upscale (free) vs ScaleUp (plugin)
1:22 Using Video Enhance AI
3:23 Comparison example with the upscaling methods
3:52 YUV to RGB conversion color space issue
5:02 Other problems with Video Enhance AI
5:49 Testing methodology
6:49 More comparisons
9:04 Upscaling text
9:36 Outro
Grab a trial of ScaleUp here: aescripts.com/scaleup/
Video Enhance AI trial here: www.topazlabs.com/video-enhan...
An interesting comparison of Topaz Labs' upscalers by @MDMZ : • The Fastest Way to Enh...
All footage shown in the video is available from Artgrid: artgrid.io/Linden-501741 (referral link)
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Thank you very much for the review! I really am curious about its performance compared to others as well. Very much great help man!
Hope you grow more :)
Thank you! I hope so too. The performance is compared to AE's detail preserving upscale and ScaleUp (the times are listed for each shot at the bottom). It would be cool to test with other upscalers too.
@@CGStirk Indeed, awesome to see other more!
What a comprehensive video, great work.
Thank you! Hopefully the comparisons are useful!
Best video I found on this topic, thanks a lot!
Thanks!!
Comparing the quality of this video with the number of views it has is absolutely shocking :O .
Thanks man. Clearly I'm doing something wrong with the all powerful algorithm. The more effort I put into a video, the fewer views it gets 😂
@@CGStirk Bro I feel this way too hard. I damn near almost coughed when i saw you only had 600 views. Now tbh, this is going to skyrocket because this is now the first search result on google!
Oh sweet, it is now. Hopefully, it continues to grow. Thanks man 👍
@Eli Bishop lol most will say it’s not possible
The video was definitely helpful. Thanks : )
Thanks! Let me know how you get on with upscaling 👍
"And it's a big butt" 3:56 you were laughing there. I hear it. We are all laughing at the same point... and watching... hard
Glad my viewers have a sense of humor 😂
This is an exceptionally produced video
Thank you very much!
My tests with the Topaz products confirm that their AI modeling is distributed among their products, meaning that no one single product is a complete solution for its intended use. Therefore, to get superior results for video, you may have better results using the frame-by-frame AI from Sharpen AI instead of VEAI...you have to try one or the other. The color space issue is a problem, therefore, I would suggest editing the video footage first, then using VEAI or Sharpen AI as a final touch. That's just me though. This way, you settle for the color space output you get at the end but you edit in the color space from the raw footage. The other advantage is that you then have the option to upscale with better technology at a later date if and when something new comes out instead of having to re-render the original files all over again and risk losing all the work you did on the project.
The main problems with using Sharpen AI are that the upscale is not temporal and it would lack temporal film grain. I'm coming at this from a VFX point-of-view, and in most professional work, the final color is done by a colorist after the shot is complete. There are cases when certain elements or renders need upscaling due to various reasons (not very common in my experience, but it still happens), but it would have to be done before outputting the final sequence. You make a good point about better technology, and it's definitely more convenient to render out the shot at native resolution and then upscale the whole thing later.
@@CGStirk Ah...I use the Studio version of DaVinci Resolve. I tend to assume everyone is using an advanced NLE who uses this software.
@@matrixate Premiere is clearly not advanced enough
Very much appreciated!
Thank you!
Your review is so excellently done. Have you done a video comparing it with the latest Topaz Enhance AI? Apparently it's been redesigned from the ground up.
Thank you! I haven't fired it up in a while, but I should take a look at the new version.
could you calculate how much size to export movie with dvd vesion to full hd.
Example i have 3d movie with resolution 720x576 with size 4GB RAW, and i want upscale to full hd 1080p.
How much size after upscaling the video, thanks
That depends on the quality and codec you use, but it would probably be at least 4x larger.
Amazing video. What do you think of Da Vinci Resolve's upscaler?
Thanks! That would be an interesting comparison. Resolve is on my list of software to learn.
Great vid tx
Thank you 👍
Nice! Do these work for higher resolutions? Like 4k upscaling to 8K and beyond? Would be nice for Big screens and LFD.
Yes!
Hey, Great video. I'm just getting started with enhancing video and this was helpful as a start to understanding what's involved. I see most comments are 6-8mos old, any more recent updates especially regarding Topaz AI software?
Thanks! I actually haven't done much upscaling since with VEAI, so I'm not sure if there are updates to the process.
Are you using something else?
I usually just use ScaleUp because I can do it directly in After Effects or Premiere, and for text upscaling, I find it better.
Excellent video 👍
Thank you
@@CGStirk I have question: i rendert a movie from 360p to 720p (HD) Puuuuh very long rendered (3 hours film in 2 days and 8 h)! So i use GAIA HIGH QUALITY V5 but i think Artemis is better for old Movies ( Year 2000)! SO what is you mean? Or what do you prefer? Regards from Germany 😃
That's a very long time haha! I never tested such long or old videos. There are multiple algorithms for a reason, so use whichever one you think produces the best quality.
I miss at least 4x better zoom in this video for full comparison of the details in release videos. Please think about this next time ;)
I agree. If I ever do another comparison like this I will do so. I was not expecting the compression to be so heavy either, so quite a bit of detail is missing.
there is compression available if you use mp4 format in the paid version. i used to remaster old music videos on my channel. i have video enhance ai, its worth the money. but i dont use only that program, i have to use other software such as vegas to edit colors to add on top of what video enhance ai does. video ai does produce artifacts, thats the one thing i dont like about it but overall the videos still look better than the original low res, so its still worth it.
My use case would require lossless compression, which VEAI doesn't seem to offer. The upscale quality is good, but I was there was a more robust feature set.
@@CGStirk I usually dont do compression in veai because I don't like their compression. So in my workflow I use veai to convert lossless but no compression to 8k. I won't lie to you it takes a lot of space 😂😂😂. A 4 minute 8k file is about 50 to 80 gb. Then I compress the file with luxea video editor and far as lookwise it almost keeps majority of the look of the video. This is an example of a 2 minute sample of avatar I remastered using this method ua-cam.com/video/wvnkFHotzmY/v-deo.html
How about not upscaling but just sharpening and enhancing details at 100% scale? Which one you would recommend? It would be good idea to compare in built sharpening vs sharpening via scaleup and VEAI at 100% scale
I have not tried that but I'm not sure if that's actually possible with VEAI. It's definitely not possible with ScaleUp.
@@AshenMemories Good to know
Can you do your ranking of best Top 5 video upscalers, plus pros & cons of each? Also, what would work best converting VHS quality into more 4K 60fps quality in your opinion.
It would be a good idea. I just don't have the money to throw at buying any more software just for a comparison. Since I've only tried two upscalers and AE's upscale, I'd say VEAI is probably the best, but it's expensive. It'll also take millennia to process movie-length videos from very low VHS quality, and I never tested below 720p, so I don't know how well that would hold up. On another note, 60 fps is only possible with frame interpolation, and that's a different issue that would have to be solved with other software. Depending on the quality, it could be better to leave it at its native framerate.
@@CGStirk Thank you for your reply. In my quick Google search for video upscaler, another name came up: AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI. Have you ever heard of it or use it? I wonder how it compares to Topaz Video Enhance AI.
Also, future video idea is comparing upscaled video in native frame rate vs increasing it to 60fps, and comparing the results, would also be appreciated. Thank you so much once again.
That's a confusing name haha. Now there are two VEAIs. It would be interesting to compare. Many years ago, I worked on a project to slow down a shot of a cyclist for a Garmin commercial. We used Twixtor, which is a frame interpolator, but quite pricey. I actually don't know of any other software that does it well.
@@CGStirk VEAI does frame interpolation. 👍
@@VintageBoxingTM Sweet. I should look at VEAI again
I don't know if the problem is youtube video configuration or my monitor but every shot was the same as the others except color space problems.
Some of the comparisons are subtle, but you really need to be at 4K. Try pausing on a frame to compare the differences. Admittedly, UA-cam's compression is worse than I expected. I would upload a separate one to Vimeo, but I can't justify the cost.
I'd rather just upscale with Handbrake because It only adjusts the resolution. It doesn't adjust the detail, grain, or etc.
If that's all you need, then just do that!
It's been a year. How do they compare now, since at least the one has had an update?
I haven't compared them since. I only use ScaleUp and sparingly. I don't have much use for upscaling work right now.
What about avisynth methods for upscaling? It's free. :) There are no problems with colorspace and very good results.
Yes, it would be curious to compare it.
Informative, however I’m more interested in finding extreme cases shot from earlier decades to aesthetically improve; not cinematic clip art produced professionals but rather crappy home videos shot by n00bs that needs a polish. Thanks for the suggested links. Peace.
I should make a follow up video and include some old footage. Thank you for the suggestion.
Would this softwares help me to increase detail in old video from the 80's?
VEAI is probably the best option of the three.
With Topaz video AI, what is the best model to upscale the gameplay recorded playing with the PC? Thanks in advance for your reply.
I'd start with Gaia. There is a CG model too, but I never tested it extensively. Artemis is pretty good too, but it can sharpen too much.
@@CGStirk What is the CG model and what settings do you recommend for gaia?
@@michaelmichael8758 There is a version of Gaia called "Gaia Computer Graphics". The only real thing to play with is film grain, and that is shot dependent. If your footage doesn't have much grain, then use a lower setting, but you'll have to play around with that.
@@CGStirk Thanks.
@@michaelmichael8758 No prob
How about compared to NVidia shield Pro real time AI upscale?
That would be a good comparison. Unfortunately, the Nvidia Shield and a capture card to record the output is cost prohibitive for this channel.
what program is better for upscale animation?
VEAI probably, but I never tested it. It has received a lot of updates since this video was made though.
it has file naming my vidz have "Topaz fix" as I set it.
Image sequences, not videos. There still does not appear to be a way to name image sequences.
For your usecase you should use Gigapixel AI. It is also cheaper
I'd like to do my own comparisons with it. My concern is there doesn't appear to be any option to reapply film grain and the processing time would be ridiculous. This is based on MDMZ's video, but it'd be interesting to try out.
@@CGStirk Well, It is also free to try :-)
That's true!
Topaz upscaler looks good. But the fact that you can't export with alpha (RGBa) is kind of a dealbreaker for my work.
Not sure if they've added this option since I reviewed it, but I agree that the options for more professional use cases are lacking.
Excellent video. I was cautious about Video Enhance AI simply because it does want to run in it's own program instead of natively as a plug-in. Seems like Scale-Up is the one I'll go with. Those "Quirks" are a bit much for me.
Thanks! VEAI is definitely better in some circumstances, but if you want a convenient solution and don't need to upscale from such a low resolution, ScaleUp is pretty good 👍
For topaz. It has to be a tif? It wont take a mp4?
It can import mp4 and export mp4, but a more high-end use case would require tifs or png sequences. When using image sequences, you have to export with a sequence as opposed to a video to avoid their botched RGB to YUV color conversion.
@@CGStirk oh ok thanks
No prob
I use only mp4. tif will be the highest quality but it takes tooooooo long ahaha, i actually render files to 8k resolution mp4 in topaz but i am using an rtx 3070, your graphics card has to be powerful to do that. i then will edit colors using another program like luxea or vegas pro
great contet
Thanks!
me watching in 360p: mmm, interesting...
Blasphemy 😂
Upscale it
he he first watched the video and saw no difference at all .. it all looked blurry ..then noticed that UA-cam for what ever gave me the video in 360p 😁
Haha that'll do it
topaz is the best always have been it cost the most it should be the best
Not always the case, but often you get what you pay for.
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Proteus is better than gaia high quality. But you must know how to use it. 😊😊😊
I don't believe that was available at the time but good to know!
I have a Geforce 710.. lol..
Will it even start? Haha
RIP. VEAI has a CPU mode though
@@CGStirk Yeah RIP.. lol.. The professionals do it the other way around.. They shoot in 4,5 or 8 k, and from that it is easy to downscale.. Instead of upscale.. I am curious when people start filming in 8k.. Getting a high quality source is for sure the best approach..
@@TheRealJohnHooper Definitely, but there are professional applications for upscaling. Often you receive footage that is not available at higher resolutions, and renders are often done at lower resolutions and upscaled due to hardware and time limitations. Sadly, this is case for quite a few team projects I've worked on since it would have been impossible to finish without upscaling. It's always better to use the native resolution, like you said. Another user case would be for prosumers. Most prosumer cameras cannot film above 4K or cannot do 4K at 120 FPS, for example. So one application would be to upscale from 1080 at 120 FPS to 4K at 120 FPS.
hi
hello :)
@@CGStirk sup
Personally I expected much more for the price. Their enhance is poor and you can't really tweak it at all, video export settings are horrible / non existent
I think the upscaling for certain plates is good, but I agree the export settings suck.
If most people, including myself, are making video for YT I'm not convinced that the cost of the software and the time it takes is beneficial to the viewers experience since YT re-processes it anyway.
I agree that UA-cam's compression can be somewhat aggressive, but the better the source, the better the re-process. Upscaling is rather a niche topic and most people shouldn't need to use it.
Yeah, I watched this whole vid in 720p 😂
Very nice lol
video enhance ai takes 1 day to process a 2 min video
Ooh, that's rough. VEAI is very hardware dependent, unfortunately.
No it doesn't. Maybe you have it set to CPU only or something. I can do full 2 hour movies in under a day with a 2060 so check your settings.
Yeah, CPU-only or an older CPU will hamper performance, and anything less than a 6GB GPU is probably going to be very slow. It also depends on other hardware, and of course, the video you're upscaling and the settings you use. Overall, it's very hardware dependent.
That 🍑!!!
Now in 4K
After effects import footage live link Maya and placing 3d car and create render look like a real
Are you asking for a tutorial?
@@CGStirk yes
@@gtatak9805 Okay. It's a possibility
@@CGStirk Yes tutorial release on this week and provide project file
That's not happening this week