Need opinions.
I’ve been upscaling some DVD–> to mp4 with Handbrake. I then enhance using Proteus and sometimes upscale afterwards. Has anyone noticed a difference between Enhancing first and then upscaling vs Upscaling and just letting Topaz add its own enhancing. Any recommended settings for DVD/MP4?
I think running it through Handbrake is fine for deinterlacing or just plain de-DVDing, but I would not upscale it any with it. Personally I think the 2X models of TVAI are the best versions and those should get activated going from DVD to FHD.
Even with good settings Handbrake crunches it in size. I decided this is my new path:
Rip DVD to full size mkv using MakeMKV–>Convert to MP4->Open in Vegas and render at 4K 60fps. This takes about 30 minutes.
Last step is to Enhance in TVAI.
Sounds like you’re using Vegas to upsacle. Personally I think TVAI does the best job at upscaling. True it’s slower, but that’s the trade off.
I suggest, at the very least, make a 10 second clip and try all the different variations of how you want to upscale it.
After running through Topaz, I recommend running it through Handbrake again - often I find that videos don’t play correctly when they come fresh out of Topaz. After that, I use MKVToolnix and edit the original MKV file - I remove the original video, and replace it with the upscaled video from Topaz/Handbrake. That way the original sound and subtitle tracks and chapters are all left in tact - nothing’s been processed or lost.
The whole workflow:
MakeMKV to rip the DVD
Handbrake to transcode to a constant FPS (I usually remove the sound and subtitle tracks)
Upscale with Topaz VEAI
Handbrake again
MKVToolnix
This has given me great results!
I know this thread is old but if you are still following…
What quality settings are you using in handbrake?
Also what setting in Topaz AI?
Thanks
I use tiff output in TVAI. You could use FFV1 though. Handbrake is a GUI for ffmpeg—if I remember correctly. You should be able to get it to output to H.265 without hardware encoding. I do CRF 18 on the slow profile. Takes hours to encode, but worth the small size at great quality.
I use:
In Topaz I just use Enhancement/Proteus Enhance MQ/Auto, and play with the Recover Detail slider. Wish it didnt take so long to render.
I do it different because “very slow” increases encoding time enormous. I set it to “normal” instead “very slow”, with CFR 12, or sometimes I use lossless flag when source is SD. It generate large files and you must store it on SSD Volume, HD increase the time. Then I delete this when the final is done.
For the final then I do CFR about 16 with x265, which is roughly the bit rate of Blu-ray movies and this comes on my NAS.
Thanks for the replies. I am very familiar with handbrake, been using it for 15 years, just wondering what settings everyone was using.
Here is what I’ve decided on. Use DVDFab to export to VOB passthrough. Use TVAI Rhea with FFV1 then encode with handbrake CQ20 Med. Then run through MKVToolnix to remux with chapters and subs. Whole process takes about 6 or 7 hours for an hour and half movie. I tried very slow but my handbrake encode went from 40 minutes to 17 hours, the file got larger with no noticeable improvement in video quality. Final file size was about 4Gb. Don’t know if these setting will work for everything but it made an old DVD look like a modern Blu Ray.
This was an old John Wayne movie (Donavan’s Reef). I had lost hope that it would ever be released on Blu Ray.
Important to know is “CFR” settings are logarithmic not linear. Means one more or less can make a difference. Personally I think CFR 20 is a upper limit to permanently add movies to a collection, but everyone has to know that for themselves. Maybe you can’t see any difference, then it’s ok and you saved storage space.
But there are things like “banding” and “posterization” when it comes to watching movies on a TV in a dark room, which can be very sensitive to our eyes, sure it also depends on film content and TV, so it’s hard to say…but it could be you realize later this effects has become due to a lack of encoding. For me I decided doing CFR 15/16 @ preset “slow”
