Im Editing old movies with Topaz Video AI Using Artemis Medium model as it is fairly quick for my RTX3070. (about 3-5 hours per 2h movie). Im happy with it BUT on dark scenes it destroys backgrounds! It turn them to huge pixelblocks.
Same begavior on v5 v6 and v7
I use Medium setting with add noise 2 and Recover detail 30 Nothing else is applied.
Maybe someone can give recmmendations how to solve this?
That’s probably from the output format. The only way I have been able to totally get rid of it is to use a 10 or 12 bit output format.
So for example, I output to lossless tiff, but once I transcode those to a video, that’s where those blocks get introduced.
when source is 8 Bit 4:2:0, does it makes sense export as 10Bit 4:2:2 does colors change/shift? I have no experience here, so any tips are welcome 
I often do post processing (gamma curve adjustements, colors, saturation etc) with my upscales so maybe there is a benefit when it happens in 10Bit colors or doesn’t matter because source was 8-Bit?
That’s part of the issue, TVAI only processes in 12-bit colorspace. All videos get converted to rgb48le before processing. It’s the conversion back down to 8-bit that tends to cause those blocks or strong color banding.
Using the tools available in ffmpeg, I can get 12-bit to 10-bit to look good, but for some reason, going one step more to 8-bit always comes out bad. I have to do it though because my TV won’t play the 10-bit files.
So OK, i found a solution after many days of experiments -
First of all - use 5.3.3 version - everythin newer - ruins image so badly! Look like algo is so broken after this version. (i mean that v5 pixelates aswell but newer version compared to v5 are much worse!)
And lastly main point of solution - export should be done in TIFF images rather then as a video. Topaz codes video SO BADLY. After I take TIFFS and turn them back to video with Resolve. Now i get super crisp and absolutely no pixelasation!
