GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - SD to HD Up-Res?

loveinallitsforms69 · 02-22-2023, 10:48 PM

Hi.

This thread has not been updated since 2015, and things have improved significantly.

Using artificial intelligence (AI) programs that themselves continue to improve, I have been able to convert SD videos into what most certainly resemble HD videos. It should be very exciting to a collector of older adult DVDs to realize that you could significantly improve the visual quality to a much more intimate level by upscaling from 480 to 960.

Beyond the 960, the visual improvements have generally been less dramatic compared to the initial upscale. But the 960 is also a kind of hybrid intermediate between HD and Full HD, and I have found it to be an almost magical and most watchable improvement. Your favorite models have come back for your viewing pleasure more intimately than ever before!

I think there is an overemphasis on whether the video you have upscaled is true HD. Obviously, unless originally filmed in HD, the result cannot be true HD. But in my view the key question is: Does the resulting video give you the HD experience? If you can answer yes to that question, then I think you have what you really want!

It is true that you don't want to overdo the parameter settings you use to help with the video enhancement, but it is fun to tinker. Also, one video may require a different set of parameter settings than another video. But that can be part of the fun, too.

I won't name which programs to try, but the one I purchased was a holiday special sale at $99.99 instead of the usual $299.99. It was for Win10. I have used a 16 GB RAM desktop with a Ryzen chip that uses 2 GB VRAM. So there was not a true graphics card, but the results have been quite impressive. If you have an old favorite SD scene, you often see things you really did not appreciate were there in the 480 version.

Remember, too, that there can be a tremendous difference in the quality of DVD source files themselves (the VOBs). Most of us have probably already seen this. I have one DVD (Area 69 by Synister) that already looks like an HD at times, because the bit rate of about 7.5 Mbps is much higher than the standard DVD bit rate of about 4.5 Mbps. The duration of the DVD is less than 90 min.

In fact, a DVD's video stream can get close to the basic DVD limit of about 10 Mbps, if one chooses to encode it that way. Of course, one has to allow some room for the audio stream, too. In practical terms, it has been found that an SD DVD video maxes out in quality at about 7.5 Mbps.

Another area where AI can shine is to take very low-res videos and improve them significantly. This has been true especially for videos at 240 that are upscaled to 480. I had one obscure (and almost obscured!) video of a favorite model at 180 that looked quite watchable when upscaled to 360.

What about the speed of conversion and the new file size? This is going to depend on many things, including the source file resolution, the duration, the frames per second, the power of your computer, and the chosen quality of your output file. By chosen quality, I mean the adjustable RF (constant rate factor) value associated with x264 or x265 encoders. You can see this parameter in a free program like HandBrake.

My standard finding is that for an SD video file from an NTFS DVD, the conversion rate from 480 to 960 takes about 10x as long as the duration of the original video itself, if one has set the conversion factor to a value of 10 units, which is a very high quality setting. (The two 10's are not working in tandem.) So yes it takes some time to do a conversion. And this is also reported by those who have true graphics cards.

The nice thing about the AI program I have used is that you can do highly detailed previews of segments before you encode, and even zoom in and move the screen around. It is a very thorough preview. You can also choose the segments of the video to encode. The output file size is going to be very large compared to the original. Don't be too surprised if it is 5x or greater.

It really is an exciting technology that continues to improve. It is a bit like the good old days as we watched laptop screens grow from 10.4" to 15.1."

02-22-2023, 10:48 PM
loveinallitsforms69 Registered User Industry Role: Join Date: Feb 2023 Posts: 36	Hi. This thread has not been updated since 2015, and things have improved significantly. Using artificial intelligence (AI) programs that themselves continue to improve, I have been able to convert SD videos into what most certainly resemble HD videos. It should be very exciting to a collector of older adult DVDs to realize that you could significantly improve the visual quality to a much more intimate level by upscaling from 480 to 960. Beyond the 960, the visual improvements have generally been less dramatic compared to the initial upscale. But the 960 is also a kind of hybrid intermediate between HD and Full HD, and I have found it to be an almost magical and most watchable improvement. Your favorite models have come back for your viewing pleasure more intimately than ever before! I think there is an overemphasis on whether the video you have upscaled is true HD. Obviously, unless originally filmed in HD, the result cannot be true HD. But in my view the key question is: Does the resulting video give you the HD experience? If you can answer yes to that question, then I think you have what you really want! It is true that you don't want to overdo the parameter settings you use to help with the video enhancement, but it is fun to tinker. Also, one video may require a different set of parameter settings than another video. But that can be part of the fun, too. I won't name which programs to try, but the one I purchased was a holiday special sale at $99.99 instead of the usual $299.99. It was for Win10. I have used a 16 GB RAM desktop with a Ryzen chip that uses 2 GB VRAM. So there was not a true graphics card, but the results have been quite impressive. If you have an old favorite SD scene, you often see things you really did not appreciate were there in the 480 version. Remember, too, that there can be a tremendous difference in the quality of DVD source files themselves (the VOBs). Most of us have probably already seen this. I have one DVD (Area 69 by Synister) that already looks like an HD at times, because the bit rate of about 7.5 Mbps is much higher than the standard DVD bit rate of about 4.5 Mbps. The duration of the DVD is less than 90 min. In fact, a DVD's video stream can get close to the basic DVD limit of about 10 Mbps, if one chooses to encode it that way. Of course, one has to allow some room for the audio stream, too. In practical terms, it has been found that an SD DVD video maxes out in quality at about 7.5 Mbps. Another area where AI can shine is to take very low-res videos and improve them significantly. This has been true especially for videos at 240 that are upscaled to 480. I had one obscure (and almost obscured!) video of a favorite model at 180 that looked quite watchable when upscaled to 360. What about the speed of conversion and the new file size? This is going to depend on many things, including the source file resolution, the duration, the frames per second, the power of your computer, and the chosen quality of your output file. By chosen quality, I mean the adjustable RF (constant rate factor) value associated with x264 or x265 encoders. You can see this parameter in a free program like HandBrake. My standard finding is that for an SD video file from an NTFS DVD, the conversion rate from 480 to 960 takes about 10x as long as the duration of the original video itself, if one has set the conversion factor to a value of 10 units, which is a very high quality setting. (The two 10's are not working in tandem.) So yes it takes some time to do a conversion. And this is also reported by those who have true graphics cards. The nice thing about the AI program I have used is that you can do highly detailed previews of segments before you encode, and even zoom in and move the screen around. It is a very thorough preview. You can also choose the segments of the video to encode. The output file size is going to be very large compared to the original. Don't be too surprised if it is 5x or greater. It really is an exciting technology that continues to improve. It is a bit like the good old days as we watched laptop screens grow from 10.4" to 15.1."