Advice for old video files

Topaz Video General
1

I’ve had Topaz Video (AI) for ages, but barely used it because I’m a photographer and I get lost in video formats and settings. Furthermore, my main purpose would be to clean up old family videos to make them watchable on a big TV (converted 8mm, VHS, and video from old crappy cameras). I have a lot, and so this would be a big commitment that I want to get right the first time. My priorities are:

  • more steady and less grainy, but avoiding hilarious artefacts
  • Increase resolution a bit, probably to DVD quality with high compression, because I don’t have unlimited cloud space.
  • Feasible to do in batch mode over a period of days or weeks, not years.

System: i9-13900F 64GB + RTX 4060 ti 8GB

I’m looking for basic advice on a good durable format for video and sound as well as meaningful settings that will work adequately across formats so I don’t need to fiddle with every video.

I have access to 300 monthly credits, but I realize this is only for Starlight and from the look of it I would burn these instantly using Starlight, and starlight locally seems impossibly slow. Furthermore, my experiments with Starlight cloud always loose my sound.

2

Hi.

I’m not a video person therefore, wouldn’t be able to give you the best advice for video however, may I ask are you a Founder Member of Topaz Studio which includes Topaz Video if so, then you should have 3,600 Credits for you too use for Video Rendering.

Please check your Account to see if this correct if it is correct then, you have until your Subscription Renewals to use them up or you will Loose Them after your Auto-Renewal Date Resets again, check your Account to find out when that date is.

Here’s the link to access your Account information.

Account Page

Here’s the Topaz Video Quick Start Guide

Here are some handy Video Tutorials from Topaz about using Topaz Video AI 6 I know it’s a different version to the one you have but it’s still relevant and virtually the same Application and will give you an insight into using Topaz Video.

Also included, with theses Video Tutorials is a Video about Enhancing Low Quality Videos from Standard Definition to High Definition.

The main difference between this version and the one you have is it doesn’t have StarLight but, that’s only another AI Model to choose from.

Here’s another handy link from Topaz about Cloud Rendering

Hope this helps

1 Like
3

Thanks. 3600 credits would be nice. I thought I was a founder member, and I got the “Legacy Plan: Topaz Studio” but I see only my 300 monthly credits in my account.

4

With your demands Starlight mini would be the best.

But, as you already noticed it’d be extremely slow to run locally (if it runs at all as your GPU has too few VRAM?) and be insanely expensive if running the cloud.

So you might try IrisLQ V1 (the LQ V1 models as per you request that the model should avoid strange things which especially MQ does).

This does clean up old videos very well (grain, chroma noise,…) and also gives a bit of extra sharpness/details without overdoing it too much.

And it should run sufficiently fast.

Still, you’ll encounter the occasional „monster-face“ and sometimes a bit strange Eye parts when there are faces.

1 Like
5

I have done and are doing upscale of old VHS and SD videos. I bring them up by 2 times to output to BluRay DVD as these are capable of FHD Full High Definition often referred to as 1080p. I use BluRay so I can have my videos at hand to play when and if required.

I have Topaz Video that can run Starlight - both Starlight Mini and Starlight Sharp. I run all this on a Dell Precision 7780 laptop fitted with an i9 processor 128GB CAMM (a lot less say 64 GB Ram would be ample and I think 32GB is the minimum with this Topaz setup. The GPU are 2 one Intel(R) UHD Graphics and the other NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop (about equivalent to desktop 4070 in terms of performance). Starliight uses the NVIDIA GPU

Because of processing requirements, I first edit the video - I use Edius - The “finished” video is exported to a format that suits - I export to H.264. This means processing time is only used on the “used” video.

For ease of operation I have one SSD drive on the computer labelled - Topaz. This is set up as a Catalogue so for example I have Country - Then Video name. In the Video name I have a folder for Original Video (Exported from edit suite) and an Upscale folder. This makes it easy to find input and output rather than clogging up C drive and having to hunt around for the input and output.

To the upscale

To get very acceptable results I follow these steps: -

  1. I run the original using Topaz Video with Enhancement set to -
    1. Output resolution - 720 x 576 (Original) …..[PAL]
    2. Pixel Type Original Original Pixel Type
    3. Video Type - Interlaced
    4. AI Model - Dionne DV
    5. Add Noise - 0
    6. Field Order - Auto-detect
    7. Focus fix - Off
    8. Grain - Off

No second enhancement but I select “Stabilization”

I direct the output of this “Export” to The allocated file name it has the video’s name and the enhancements applied so you will see - “Video Name_H_ddv3_stab_ddv3). Plus the adjustable settings Output type, Codec etc.

AND Save to [folder image] E:/Country/Edited Files/File Name - folder names etc as per your setup

  1. I reimport the output of the above into Topaz
    1. Run the Enhancement set to -
      1. Output resolution - select X2 (more takes almost no longer, and if you require 4K equivalent then Yes, you will get, better result, larger file. But if outputting to BluRay there is no advantage as it will be downscaled to 1080p
      2. Pixel Type Original Original Pixel Type
      3. Video Type - Progressive
      4. AI Model - Starlight
        1. A note that Starlight is sand alone and can’t be used with others
      5. Model Variant - Starlight Sharp (best results for this older format video)

Again, I direct the output of this “Export” to The allocated file name it has the video’s name and the enhancements applied so you will see - “Video Name_H_ddv3_stab_sls). Plus the adjustable settings Output type, Codec etc.

Run time on my rig is about one hour processing for one minute of input video.

It is very worthwhile as the output is nicely enhanced. I note here that the output in 4K for an original 720x576 input is still in the 4:3 format, but very slightly narrower than the original. I’ve loaded the 1080 and the 4K back into the original Edius Project with New Video and Audio Tracks above the original to compare results and see this narrowing in the playback window. But video is excellent quality.

I use the Edit Suite to write the BluRay, but only bring the 1080p upscale in for this purpose.

Good luck and feel free to ask any clarifications required. If I see them I will respond as best I can

1 Like
6

Thanks Duncan! I appreciate the time and care you took. I think the pre-processing that you use may help reduce the cloud credits. For now I’m just doing a small sets of the most precious videos from an early digital cam each time my 300 credits come available. I makes for nice family memories as I go. If I am more confident, I’ll jump into the old digitized VHS (and 8mm!), but I think that will need to be reduced to much smaller vignettes to be realistically completed. No-one wants to watch 100 hours of old video anyway.

7

Good day Nick,

I think if you have a recent Computer you may be able to run Topaz Video on that.

From Topaz site: -

Minimum Requirements

MacWindows

Operating System Windows 10 (latest version) (1)
CPU Intel or AMD, with AVX instructions, released after 2016
undefined ----
System Memory 16 GB RAM
undefined ----
Dedicated Graphics NVIDIA - 6GB VRAM (2)
undefined ----
AMD - 6GB VRAM (2)
undefined ----
Intel - 6GB VRAM (2)
undefined ----
Integrated Graphics Intel UHD 600 Graphics (3)
undefined ----
Intel Iris Xe (3)
undefined ----
Available Internal Storage 45 GB (4)
undefined ----

The results are much better if the video is first deinterlaced. My 20min video with the first step only takes about 17 minutes. It is the upscale that consumes the time ~ just under 1 minute pre minute.

If you can edit the footage first then a massive time saving as only required footage is processed.

I’ve not tried the cloud, so I’m not able to comment on it knowingly

Good luck.

8

Also, most of the videos that I make are under 20 minutes. For ideas on editing, what a film or documentary not for content, rather for construction. The ear is more sensitive that the eye, so music is important in most cases to tie it together. Keep the clips brisk, first pass then review and cut clips by half until they are missing something. That keeps the “film” interesting.