NTSC 720×480 (SAR 8:9, DAR 4:3) videos are incorrectly cropped to 640×480 in Topaz Video AI 7.x

Video AI General
1

Version: Topaz Video AI v7.x
OS: Windows 11 Pro
Source: Captured with I-O DATA video capture (NTSC 720×480 MPEG-2)

Expected Behavior:
Topaz should respect SAR=8:9 (non-square pixels) and display/output as 720×480 with 4:3 DAR.

Actual Behavior:
Even though ffprobe shows SAR=8:9 and DAR=4:3, Topaz Video AI converts the source to 640×480, ignoring the correct aspect ratio. This results in image distortion and unintended cropping.

Steps to Reproduce:

  1. Capture NTSC video with an I-O DATA device (MPEG-2, 720×480).
  2. Verify with ffprobe:
    sample_aspect_ratio=8:9
    display_aspect_ratio=4:3
  3. Import the file into Topaz Video AI 7.x.
    → It is interpreted as 640×480 instead of 720×480.

Additional Notes:

  • Other editors/players (DaVinci Resolve, Premiere, VLC) honor the aspect ratio correctly.
  • This strongly suggests Topaz Video AI is ignoring the SAR field in the MPEG header for NTSC sources.
  • Workaround: pre-convert to square pixels (e.g., scale=720:540, setsar=1) before importing into Topaz. Please confirm whether proper SAR/DAR handling is planned.
2

I’ve imported a NTSC source into TVAI. Is yours not showing the same as below in the sources screen?

Screenshot 1
Screenshot 11558×486 33.2 KB

3

Yes Topaz does it wrong.

This blow up scale is not Ai enhanced. I would remove SAR/DAR values of the source by remux and upscale the native 720x480 pixels as it is, for example when doing 3x gives you 2160x1440. Then set manual the 4:3 DAR on upscaled video (again remux) OR compress the width from 2160x1440 to 1920x1440