Cropping a video in Astra would be hugely helpful. What I’ve been doing is upscaling with Starlight Precise 2.6 and then cropping the video in Topaz Video to the part I want, but then of course the resolution is reduced. I’m not sure if a temporary workaround would be to crop in Topaz Video first and then upscale with Starlight Precise 2.6. I’m trying not to compress the video before upscaling. and I think resaving a cropped video would compress the quality. I’m trying to keep it as source quality as possible so as not to lose any of the details. A simple cropping tool within Astra would solve this problem.
Crop into Topaz is very limited or in the past not working correctly. What I do is crop the source material optimally beforehand whenever cropping is required, while trying to avoid scaling, or keep scaling to an absolute minimum during the cropping process. I do this in VirtualDub2 and export the result as FFV1 - 4:2:0 - 10bit (for SDR Content)
One recurring problem is when the source has a 16:9 aspect ratio but a resolution such as 848×480, 852×480, 854×480 or something similar. None of these resolutions is actually an exact 16:9 format. When upscalin it result in either stretching the image or ending up with a final resolution that is not exactly 16:9, Topaz sets a DAR or you have floating when upscale happens.
However, there is a solution to this, and it would be great if Topaz could integrate it as an optional feature you can select
If the source is something like 848×480, create a letterbox around the video, for example in VirtualDub, without scaling the actual image content:
848×480 → 864×486 with letterboxing
864×486 is exactly 16:9, there are no upscale floating-point involved, avoiding any unnecessary stretching or distortion. After upscale you can cut the letterbox away
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I’m able to crop in many common aspect ratios and custom crops in the Topaz Video app. The problem is when I crop and save, the video file gets compressed. Then when I upscale it in Astra, I’m upscaling a file that I’ve lost some data on. I’ve also tried upscaling with Starlight Precise 2.6 in Topaz video and not using Astra. The problem there is that I can crop & upscale, but can’t also use frame interpolation, like I can in Astra. So, I’m stuck with having to use 2 different apps for 3 core features: Crop, upscale, and frame interpolation. If all 3 could be done in the same app, that would preserve the original source file completely and give the generative ai model the best source to improve upon, thus delivering the best possible final result. My suggestion is simple: add a custom crop feature to Astra, or allow Frame Interpolation & Starlight Precise 2.6 to both work in Topaz Video on the same pass.
Topaz does lossy re-encode when you crop? One more reason not to crop in Topaz.
I take a different approach: every input and output in my workflow is lossless (FFV1), so it doesn’t matter how many processing steps I go through. When I do frame interpolation, it’s at the very end as a separate step.
