[Feature Request] AI Bit Depth Expansion like Topaz -- Remarkable

mark-y wrote on 3/11/2024, 12:09 AM

The new version of Topaz Gigapixel AI (for stills) has quite a remarkable feature -- the apparent ability to "fill in" the missing colors when wrapping 8 bit originals to 16 bit files. Previously unheard of, all we had before AI was the ability to put 8 bits in a 10 bit bucket, "adding air" without increasing the signal density.

Now, we can apparently fill in the "tweener colors" (as @wwjd once called them).

Quoting no one in particular, this is a BFD. AI has proved itself with upscaling, now it looks like it has done it again with color depth and dynamic range.

If what I suspect is true, Vegas needs to hop on this and give us AI Bit Depth Enhancement. @VEGASDerek @fr0sty @john_dennis

Comments

Dexcon wrote on 3/11/2024, 3:26 AM

Very, very impressive!

Thanks for posting @mark-y

mark-y wrote on 3/11/2024, 7:22 AM

Still testing my premise, but the output histogram is filled in, unlike the swiss-cheese example above, making a wider working dynamic range possible, perhaps a couple of stops in this underexposed film example.

Here's hoping I'm not deluding myself, but SDR->PseudoHDR uplifting "might" become a reality this decade.

mark-y wrote on 3/11/2024, 8:45 AM

Sorry to play the televangelist, but this looks like the real deal. I'm working with a 1953 Kodachrome slide.

I'm finding this new technology works best with underexposed analog source. Look how the bilateral expansion of dynamic range makes this throwaway image acceptable.

Overexposed film doesn't work as well, because the highlights have a harder ceiling, with very little latent detail.

john_dennis wrote on 3/11/2024, 11:14 AM

Is it fast enough to correct a one-minute PNG image sequence in my lifetime with a 13900K?

mark-y wrote on 3/11/2024, 2:29 PM

Here's hoping I'm not deluding myself, but SDR->PseudoHDR uplifting "might" become a reality this decade.

mark-y wrote on 3/12/2024, 2:05 PM

So I ran some tests, and the 16 bit Topaz file with no enhancements is twice the size of the 8 bit source file. So far so good.

I put the two image files in Vegas to get a peek at the histograms in 8 bit integer and 32 bit float projects.

Wow, the third histogram is filled in, with no 8 bit banding. Conclusion: it has twice the number of bits.

How is that different from rendering an 8 bit source file in a 10 bit encoder without mediation from Topaz? Well sorry, a bigger bucket without more water just didn't work. Note the actual 10 bit file is ~25% larger than either of the renders from 8 bit source.

And so the internet soothsayers, alchemists, and shamans of the last two decades have finally been appeased ;?)

Patience has it's rewards. 😎

mark-y wrote on 3/13/2024, 12:00 PM

Finally, I was a bit amazed that the difference composite between the original and Topaz version is this accurate.

Topaz Technical Support has stated that their Video Enhance AI does not support bit depth upsampling.

@john_dennis has raised a good point about processing time vs. human life expectancy.