Can VEGAS Upscale or Topaz Video Enhance AI make a better job of this?

NickHope wrote on 6/10/2022, 11:37 AM

An independent filmmaker would like to use one of my clips of 2 octopuses fighting/courting.

I've uploaded a 419MB zip file here. It contains:

1. octopus-DV.avi - The original clip, in all its over-saturated, vignetted, noisy, 4:3, standard definition, interlaced glory.

2. octopus.veg -VEGAS Pro 17 project with color curves, color correction (secondary).

3. octopus-24p-MagicYUV-for-upscale.avi - The same clip, color-corrected, de-vignetted, de-interlaced, re-timed to 24p in MagicYUV format, ready for upscaling. I used this AviSynth script:

SetMemoryMax(16384)
AviSource("d:\fs.avi")
AssumeBFF()
ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true)
QTGMC(Preset="Slower", EdiThreads=4, FPSDivisor=2)
super = MSuper()
backward_vec2 = MAnalyse(super, isb = true, delta = 2, overlap=4)
forward_vec2 = MAnalyse(super, isb = false, delta = 2, overlap=4)
backward_vec4 = MAnalyse(super, isb = true, delta = 4, overlap=4)
forward_vec4 = MAnalyse(super, isb = false, delta = 4, overlap=4)
backward_vec6 = MAnalyse(super, isb = true, delta = 6, overlap=4)
forward_vec6 = MAnalyse(super, isb = false, delta = 6, overlap=4)
MDegrain3(super,backward_vec2,forward_vec2,backward_vec4,forward_vec4,backward_vec6,forward_vec6,thSCD1=400,thSAD=400)
LSFmod(strength=300)
AssumeFPS(24)
Prefetch(16)

4. octopus-1080-24p-Lanczos4-ProRes-422.mov - My best effort using non-AI techniques (basically the same script as above but with...

Lanczos4Resize(1920,1080)

...before the "super" line). I stretched the footage, rather than crop, to get from 4:3 to 16:9.

I would love to try VEGAS Upscale in VEGAS Pro 19 or Topaz Video Enhance AI for this. I have licenses for both but unfortunately I can't use them yet because I'm stuck on an old version of Windows.

Would anyone care to have a go at this in either of those? I wouldn't expect anyone to start with the DV clip (unless you really want to), but rather upscale octopus-24p-MagicYUV-for-upscale.avi. Obviously you'd need to have MagicYUV. I'd be interested in 1080-HD or UHD output.

Comments

john_dennis wrote on 6/10/2022, 12:06 PM

@NickHope

Working...

john_dennis wrote on 6/10/2022, 12:52 PM

@NickHope

Check your messages...

"I have licenses for both but unfortunately I can't use them yet because I'm stuck on an old version of Windows."

That's why dual boot was invented in 1990 something. I once had three different boot systems that I maintained and ran every day. I got over it when we still used tapes for image backup, but I've considered doing it again to test 19-550 and 19-636 differences. I did a dry run a few days ago, but didn't save the disk mage.

NickHope wrote on 6/10/2022, 3:11 PM

In messages with John I learnt, at least for VEGAS Upscale, I should have stretched my file to 1024x576 in advance, to avoid pillarboxing. Here is such a file. In comparing 4:3 versions, VEGAS Upscale is slightly clearer than my best non-AI effort. Obviously trying to upscale DV to UHD is asking an awful lot, however you attempt it.

Musicvid wrote on 6/10/2022, 6:26 PM

I started with your original DV so I could use Vegas Smart Deinterlace and Upscale together, which they do quite well. So my grading is a little different as well. I used a reasonable scale factor which came out to 1.88.

Here is my Vegas version:

And Topaz, from a deinterlaced SD 576 intermediate:

Former user wrote on 6/10/2022, 6:26 PM

I tried Topaz Artemis medium. The reason for this, is Artemis High would bring out the detail in what looks like very strange camera noise. Artemis medium adds more noise reduction, however the noise reduction when reviewed with others is not very good. I think I would use Neat NR before using Artemis High. I also had a look at the resources artemis uses, it is very CPU orientated so should be good with a medium spec GPU

edit: having looked at version I uploaded artemis medium, and artemis high, I think they both fail where the octopus moves quickly near the beginning, The octopus body becomes smooth and loses features. It does not look like that in the original or the Vegas version.

NickHope wrote on 6/11/2022, 2:41 AM

Thank you Musicvid and todd-b.

The output really needs to be 16:9. As there's not really room to crop and keep the action, stretching is the only answer really. At least with this type of subject I can get away with that more than say architecture or humans. And I get to keep more lines of resolution.

The original footage is noisy, as it is for much of my underwater Sony VX2000 DV footage. I was deep and had a UR-PRO color correction filter on, so there was loads of gain.

The "strange camera noise", if that refers to the the versions other than the original DV file, is probably the result of the AviSynth deinterlacing/denoising/sharpening (QTGMC/MDegrain3/LSFMod). The noise tends to be "geometric", but I haven't found a better method (at least not without AI tools).

todd-b's Topaz Artemis version is interesting in overall appearance, but it verges on the "plasticky" look. The AviSynth tools already tend to give a bit of that.

Also, the forum's video compression isn't doing these renderings any favours.

john_dennis very kindly sent me another 1920x1080 rendering based on using the "Sharp" model in VEGAS Upscale, starting with my 1024x576 version. It's slightly clearer than my Lanczos4 version. So as it stands, I'll go with that.

fifonik wrote on 6/11/2022, 6:11 AM

When I compared last time upscalers 1-2 year ago (including the Topaz, but not the most recent version), the avisynth won.

However, I used BlackmanResize resizer instead of Lanczos4Resize that gives slightly better results (on my taste).

I tried my scripts (with tiny deshaking) and they provide results similar to yours. However, a bit hard to compare it directly as you applied CC.

Not sure why you just stretched video. It does not make sense to me. Why not leave just black lined on sides?

P.S. My player shows your video slightly squeezed comparing to original DV version. Not a dramma as it is for further editing.

NickHope wrote on 6/11/2022, 10:17 AM

@fifonik Thanks for the feedback. My choice of resizer was mainly based on work by @wwaag that he shared in this thread: https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/upscaling-quality--121777/

The clip has to fit into a 16:9 production based on 16:9 footage, so it would be strange for the black sides to suddenly show up on one clip. They can always squash it back if they want to.

The video appears slightly squeezed because PAL DV has a pixel aspect ratio of 1.0926, but here, as a MagicYUV file, it will display by default with a PAR of 1.

fr0sty wrote on 6/11/2022, 3:39 PM

Could always do the black bar fill effect if you didn't wanna stretch it.

Former user wrote on 6/11/2022, 7:51 PM

Not sure why you just stretched video. It does not make sense to me. Why not leave just black lined on sides?

@fifonik Another option is superview type setting where the sides are stretched more than centre. Although you wouldn't normally use it here because subject completely fills the frame, the viewer may mentally accept the distortion due to filming under water.... or not.

NickHope wrote on 6/12/2022, 1:08 AM

@Former user That "superview" effect is definitely interesting, and I think fairly readily accepted by viewers because it's a common look from wide angle lenses. How did you do it? But I still think in this case the uniform stretch is probably the right choice.

p.s. I must apologise for the soundtrack 😱. I had totally forgotten about that 😆😆😆. I'll blame my mate who was also filming right next to me 😇. It was really a gobsmacking encounter.

Yelandkeil wrote on 6/12/2022, 1:21 AM

Implemented in VEGAS without any preparation outside.

Used filters: Upscale < pan/crop > UnsharpMask, ColorCorrector, SaturationAdjust, ColorCurves

Former user wrote on 6/12/2022, 3:59 AM

@NickHope I used Resolve and Fusion. This is sort of what I did, but he's made it more complex then it need be. By looking at it however it could be apparent that there is a way of doing the same with lens distortion modules in Vegas. https://oscarliang.com/superview-dji-fpv-footage/

However there's a app to do this, only problem is that there are no variables, you like the result or you don't

https://github.com/meekaah/SuperViou/releases