Upres from SD to HD? can I pay someone?

[swilliams]

I'de like to be able to edit a project and then send it out to a pro somewhere for upres. I know there are programs that you can buy, but none will work with FCE ( so I hear).

Just curious if there are companies out there doing this. Google didn't return any answers.

Also, i'm a little confused on how this works. I've read that it could make my footage look worse. But i've seen some videos that have been converted and they look great.
Thoughts.....

Steve

[andythefilmer]

Well... If it's not already in progressive, you will have to de-interlace it. Then you can uprez it to 720p. I use a plugin for Premiere called Topaz Enhance which works great. I am not sure if there is any plugins for FCP, go to the Apple website and look in the video section in the downloads. As far as having it professionally done, you will probably have to send it to an editor. I do not think there's a service that just does uprezing. Maybe a visual effects artist would do it. I'll do some googling around for uprez FCP plugins or Mac software for uprez.

[jasonhunter]

For the best up-res you would want to use a hardware transcoder like an AJA or Kona. Software encoders like Apple's Compressor do a decent job, depending on your project's final output (DVD vs. broadcast vs. cinema)

I have done upresing of DV material (480i) to 1080i60 using Apple's Compressor and been happy with the results. It is time and RAM intensive however. Does FCE ship with Compressor? If you know someone with Compressor I'll be happy to email you the profile. Otherwise, PM me and we can talk off-line about your specific needs.

Jason

[Adam J McKay]

It really depends on what your final output is? I have had good results for web videos by simply uprezzing during the export. For this method you simply shoot squeeze 24p and export as 720p.

[swilliams]

i'm just a simple wedding videographer wanting to offer HD without giving up my DVX... Ideally I would like to edit my video and then send it out to a pro to upres and then be able to get it back and burn to DVD. I'm using a generic IMAC (not enough ram to handle HD) and FCE (not many plugins like pro).... I'll look into compressor...

Adam what are your exports setting besides what you gave me? MPEG4/H.264... I stink at the art of exporting (even for the net). Even my SD footage comes out sub par at times. If you dont me asking, I would like to know your secret...

steve

[ArtOfLiving]

I have done upresing of DV material (480i) to 1080i60 using Apple's Compressor and been happy with the results. It is time and RAM intensive however. Does FCE ship with Compressor? If you know someone with Compressor I'll be happy to email you the profile. Otherwise, PM me and we can talk off-line about your specific needs.

Jason

I'm interested in the profile you used for Compressor. And when you say RAM intensive, would 4 gb produce a 5 min video in a reasonable time (eg. under an hour)?

[William_Robinette]

Steve, for what you described there is absolutely no reason for you to uprez your footage. Just export it as an mpeg-2 for DVD when you are done with your edit and burn that.

[shaun1970]

i'm just a simple wedding videographer wanting to offer HD without giving up my DVX... Ideally I would like to edit my video and then send it out to a pro to upres and then be able to get it back and burn to DVD.



steve
Unless you burn it to an HD BD disc there's no point doing this. You should only uprezz your finished edit if its going to be delivered on a blue ray disc.

Why spend money on an uprezz only to get it back in HD then have to re-encode it back to Mpeg2 DVD for burning?? Doesn't make sense what you want here.

If you want to offer HD wedding films in both SD or HD without giving up the DVX you'll need to firstly get yourself a BD burner, and be able to get good uprezzed 720p material from your SD edit.

Simple!! but costly, not too many folk want to pay $50+ for a single copy of their wedding on BD.

[mcvideo]

For the best up-res you would want to use a hardware transcoder like an AJA or Kona. Software encoders like Apple's Compressor do a decent job, depending on your project's final output (DVD vs. broadcast vs. cinema)

I have done upresing of DV material (480i) to 1080i60 using Apple's Compressor and been happy with the results. It is time and RAM intensive however. Does FCE ship with Compressor? If you know someone with Compressor I'll be happy to email you the profile. Otherwise, PM me and we can talk off-line about your specific needs.

Jason

Jason - i find my self in this predicament. Do you mind sending me the compressor profile? I have hvx footage and sd footage i need to edit. final output will be SD on DVD. any help is greatly appreciated. This is a droplet (setting file) in compressor that all to do is drag over my SD footage i want to upres to HD and let compressor do the work? I then bring that into my hd timeline?

[Cranky]

i'm just a simple wedding videographer wanting to offer HD without giving up my DVX...
SD will not magically turn into HD after being upscaled. And by the way, HD is widescreen. Unless you are converting an old time classic like Casablanca or Snow White, your customers would expect widescreen video (actually, when I stopped to watch Snow White Blu-ray demo in an electronics store, someone wondered: "it is supposed to be HD, why it has black bars on the sides?"). With the DVX all you can get in widescreen mode is 360 lines, at the very best. This will not cut as HD. It can look good, but it will not look HD. The best you can do without fooling your customers and yourself is making 24p widescreen DVD-Video with the best MPEG-2 encoder you have in your disposal.

[ANGENOUX]

I've never used this program before but it's something I came across when looking to do something like what you're trying to do. The software is called Magic Bullet Instant HD. The website says "When scaling from standard definition (SD) to high definition (HD), Instant HD's algorithms generate the missing pixels with integrated sharpening and anti-aliasing for sharp, clear results inside your favorite video application." It's fairly inexpensive ($99) and they do have a trial available for download. Maybe you can check that out and see if it gives you the results you want? You can find more information on it here http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/magic-bullet-instant-hd/ (http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/magic-bullet-instant-hd/)

[Anomie]

I have the same wish with a slightly different reason. I shoot with a DVX100 and crop my 4:3 footage to 16:9. I would like to upres to 'win back' the 25% loss. So the resolution becomes 720×480 again.

Is what I am saying crazy nonsense?

[Cranky]

I have the same wish with a slightly different reason. I shoot with a DVX100 and crop my 4:3 footage to 16:9. I would like to upres to 'win back' the 25% loss. So the resolution becomes 720×480 again.

Is what I am saying crazy nonsense?
You can resize it back. You will not get your lost pixels back though. Same with uprezzing to HD. It does not give you more information. At best, it smooths out the differences between large pixels. A TV set or a DVD player does it anyway, so there is no point in uprezzing at all, unless you upload on the Web and you get different treatment of your files depending on frame size.

[Joe Calabrese]

I've never used this program before but it's something I came across when looking to do something like what you're trying to do. The software is called Magic Bullet Instant HD. The website says "When scaling from standard definition (SD) to high definition (HD), Instant HD's algorithms generate the missing pixels with integrated sharpening and anti-aliasing for sharp, clear results inside your favorite video application." It's fairly inexpensive ($99) and they do have a trial available for download. Maybe you can check that out and see if it gives you the results you want? You can find more information on it here http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/magic-bullet-instant-hd/ (http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/magic-bullet-instant-hd/)


And Instant HD Advanced analyzes previous and later frames to combine similar pixels to actually generate resolution and detail that is lost from frame to frame. But thats really expensive (like $399). I know this same technique (not necessarily the same software) was used to upress a film from a tape Varicam (720p HD in DVCPRO HD) to 70mm IMAX. I never saw the final product, but I imagine it must have been pretty spectacular. The only downside to this process is that its very time-consuming.

[Anomie]

You can resize it back. You will not get your lost pixels back though. Same with uprezzing to HD. It does not give you more information. At best, it smooths out the differences between large pixels. A TV set or a DVD player does it anyway, so there is no point in uprezzing at all, unless you upload on the Web and you get different treatment of your files depending on frame size.

In my case there will be a presentation in a real (arthouse) theatre. So it's going to be blown up to a bigger screen than TV. Therefore I am very interested in the 'smoothing out' part of your reply.

[groveChuck]

Don't know if you're interested in the $99 Instant HD, but the $99 version only works with AE, PP and FCP if that's relevant.
Instant HD Advanced runs only in AE.
I have Instant HD (came bundled with my MB Looks) but I can't use it because I'm on Avid.

Here's the compatibility page:
http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/magic-bullet-instant-hd/compatibility/

Compatibility
System Requirements
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Our tests have shown that our products perform best when used with the system configurations listed below. Although many of our products will run on older or less-powerful systems, those listed below are the minimum system requirements which we support.

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Apple Macintosh
Mac OSX 10.4.11 and later*
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Please ensure that the host version is compatible with your operating system. Check with application provider for specifics.

[benjamin222]

i'm just a simple wedding videographer wanting to offer HD without giving up my DVX... Ideally I would like to edit my video and then send it out to a pro to upres and then be able to get it back and burn to DVD. I'm using a generic IMAC (not enough ram to handle HD) and FCE (not many plugins like pro).... I'll look into compressor...

Adam what are your exports setting besides what you gave me? MPEG4/H.264... I stink at the art of exporting (even for the net). Even my SD footage comes out sub par at times. If you dont me asking, I would like to know your secret...

steve

Hey like the others said, if your end result for a video is a DVD (a standard-def format), than upres-ing the footage to HD makes no sense whats over. Burning from a 720x480 Mpeg-2 file will give you the exact same quality on a DVD then if you uprezzed the footage and burned it to DVD (which would just downres the footage back to 720x480).

I hear this from a lot of people who want their weddings filmed. They want it filmed in HD, but when it's done edited they want it on DVD.