Video UP-SCALING to HD

Up-scaling your video to HD is a wise option to consider when digitizing your old video tapes. Professionally up-scaled footage results in a nicer image when viewed on a large TV or computer monitor! We think you'll be surprised.

Mini-DV and Hi8 tapes are the formats that benefit most from up-scaling.

Our FilmFix up-scaling is a five-step process:

1. Exposure prep – we correct (as much as possible) for overexposed whites and underexposed blacks.
2. Deinterlacing – this removes the jagged "stair-case" edges on diagonal lines.
3. Up-scaling from SD to HD.
4. Sharpening.
5. Cropping to the final size with clean edges, and filling the sides with your choice of black or diffused side-bars.

Most companies only do step 3.

For "computer geeks": If you're comfortable using command lines in a terminal, here is how to go about doing the up-scaling yourself.

Above is the HD result, after up-scaling the SD video capture. Click on image to view full-size. It's best viewed on a large monitor. (Shown here with diffused side-bars.)

Original SD capture from video tape (before up-scaling). Note: Not shown here -- on a wide screen, all standard SD captures present with a thick, black side-bar to the left and right of the image. (Not all TVs can play back an SD .avi or QuickTime file.)

FilmFix's up-scaling - benefits and extras:

The up-scaled file is an MP4 file and can be viewed on any modern device. While a "Smart TV" has its limitations, it knows what to do with an MP4 file. To note: .avi and .mov files will not play on each and every device.

Your up-scaled image quality will be superior to your original capture in SD, when viewed on an HD monitor. Up-scaling strongly reduces the typical jagged edges on diagonal sharp lines -- which, in SD, look like jagged "stair-case" edges.

Standard Definition (SD) video – no up-scaling

After up-scaling SD to HD: this is where the deinterlacing takes effect

In step 1, we correct (as much as possible) for overexposed whites and underexposed blacks.

Without up-scaling, the video misses out on overexposure correction

Up-scaling to HD includes overexposure correction, providing more detail in highlights

Most video tapes were shot in 4:3, so on a 16:9 screen something has to fill the sides. You choose the look when ordering; both options are shown below. Black bars are the traditional video look. Diffused side-bars, commonplace in today's videos on the Internet and on TV, are a softly blurred, enlarged copy of the picture. One thing to consider: in footage with a lot of camera movement, diffused sides can emphasize the motion, so for lively hand-held footage black bars may be the calmer choice.

Option 1 - HD up-scaling with traditional black side-bars

Option 2 - HD up-scaling with diffused side-bars

Finally, in step 5, we crop off just the messy-looking first and last couple of lines (on the top and bottom of the image) as well as a minimal amount on the left and right of the image, to present a cleaner-looking view.

NOTE: Some of the more advanced TVs offer an 'internal up-scaling' option, but the quality does not compare to ours. Ours is far superior, and not only because of the extra steps! The algorithm our computer uses is far more sophisticated and processor-intensive than the quick on-the-spot TV up-scale feature. (Sample video to follow, as soon as a particular customer gives us their approval.)

We can fit up to 23 hours of up-scaled video onto a 256 GB flash drive.

Author: Nathaniel Courtens