AI Upscaling

[DarkRaven671]

Originally Posted by sumacs77

Addressed, as you say, but far from properly.

I'd argue otherwise, together with the fine tuning options of Proteus it's pretty good.

[DJboutit]

I just upgraded from a MSI GTX 770 to a XFX RX 6600 I have have a I7 3770 CPU. I Tried to upslace a scene with Topaz Video AI it was gonna take 6 1/2 days I have also tried with a much over video card and it was gonna take 6 1/2 days to. Is there any AI Upscaler program that is faster than Topaz Video AI??

[DarkRaven671]

I don't know if other AI upscalers are faster, there aren't that many to choose from anyway.

However, you probably got something wrong because that doesn't sound right. Are you sure that Topaz is using the GPU and not the CPU? In the settings, you can choose the processing device. If the same scene with the same setting always takes 6 1/2 days, no matter what GPU you have in the system, then it's likely that Topaz is using your CPU instead.

Also, 6 1/2 days for a single scene (depending on length and framerate, maybe between 30.000 and 60.000 frames?) sounds very much like CPU processing speed.

For example, a test scene I often use for reference is 12m45s and 50fps, that's just over 38.000 frames. The resolution is 768x576 and I'm doubling it to 1536x1152, using Proteus. My old GTX 1070 took around 0.3s and 0.4s per frame, resulting in a total time for this scene of, let's say, roughly 4 hours, maybe a bit less. The RX 6600 should be as fast at least, if not a bit faster.

Not sure how well Radeons are supported by Topaz, but based on raw power, this GPU should be able to process somewhere around 12.000 frames per hour for 200% scale for SD content, which is over 1.8 million frames in 6 1/2 days, which is over 10 hours of video at 50fps

Most numbers are rough estimations, but you should at least be somewhere near them. That's why I wonder if it's really your GPU who's doing the processing.

[DJboutit]

I tried a newer version of Topaz on Windows 10 I converted like 3 min of a scenes with 2 different set of settings and both times the video looked like crap. To fully process the scene it would take 7 to 8 hrs why better than 6 1/2 days/

[asstravel]

Originally Posted by DarkRaven671

I'd argue otherwise, together with the fine tuning options of Proteus it's pretty good.

Would you have any advise on Proteus settings to start with for keeping skin detail?

[DarkRaven671]

Originally Posted by asstravel

Would you have any advise on Proteus settings to start with for keeping skin detail?

The "correct" Proteus settings depend on the quality of your input video and also on your personal taste. Many Proteus settings should be adjusted according to the video quality, there is no setting that directly affects skin detail.

For a decent quality DVD video (quality 8 out of 10, I'd say), I've used the following settings and the result was pretty good:

Revert Compression 33
Recover Details 13
Sharpen 20
Reduce Noise 1
Dehalo 35
Antialias / DeBlur 2

Note that these are based on the specific input video quality. You have to evaluate the overall impression and quality of the video to find the correct values, it's a try and error process. Topaz offers the preview and comparison feature so you don't have to process the entire video only to find out that your settings were wrong. Especially setting them too high will cause problems which will become immediately apparent, because new artifacts will be introduced to the video which weren't there previously.

For a more realistic look, I think grain is more important than the Proteus settings. I went for Amount 1.1 and Size 0.8 and quite like it, however this is also based on personal taste and try and error. Different videos might also require different grain settings.

[DJboutit]

I have played around some with Topaz Video AI with 2 different clips output quality with every combo of settings I tried output quality is 5 out at 10 at best. IMO these type of programs are 3 to 5 years away from being able to take a 480p and upscaling it to 1080p 9000 bitrate 60fps and the video looking really good. You will never be able to take a 480p upscale it to 4K at 27k bitrate 60fps and the video looks really good.

One thing I have learned about Topaz Video AI from reading the Topaz Labs Reddit sub that Topaz only use like 15% to 20% of your Video Card resources. This is why for a mid level computer with a nice mid level video card like a RX 6600 RX 6600 XT 1070 or 1070 TI which is min for Topaz a 5 min video takes 90 min to upscale. If the program used like 50% to 75% of the Video card it would drop 40% to 60% off of the time on mid level computers. People are saying in the next version of Topaz they want the program to use a lot more of your Video Card 3.0 will come in 2 to 4 months. IMO Topaz will start using more of your Video Card in next 2 or 3 version.

My Computer I7 3770 24gb DDR3 ram and RX 6600 with high quality setting quality I get .23 to .36 frames a second mid quality settings I get .14 to .20 frames a second. So a 5min clip takes me with my computer 30min to 1hr 45min.

[DarkRaven671]

Originally Posted by DJboutit

I have played around some with Topaz Video AI with 2 different clips output quality with every combo of settings I tried output quality is 5 out at 10 at best. IMO these type of programs are 3 to 5 years away from being able to take a 480p and upscaling it to 1080p 9000 bitrate 60fps and the video looking really good. You will never be able to take a 480p upscale it to 4K at 27k bitrate 60fps and the video looks really good.

Based on this, and other things you've said in this thread, I think your expectations are somewhat off. This technology is not magic. And when you say things like "480p", it's almost meaningless in this context. The input resolution is not as important as the quality. Thinking about the resulting bitrate is also a waste of time, as I've explained before. And it shouldn't be necessary to change the framerate in the process, your input video should already have the correct framerate.

[DJboutit]

I am looking for a program than can do with 35% better than Topaz Video AI I know it is not possible to do 1080p 12500 bitrate 60fp right now

[Millesexual]

I think upscaling is a little overrated at the moment. I've found that getting high quality rips with minimal/lossless compression tends to be the ideal situation at the moment (which can also help to create better upscales). While hardware limitations definitely play into it, I think the software itself needs to be more efficient and optimized compared the machine it's running on.

I think the place upscaling shines more than anything is getting really garbage quality stuff up to an acceptable level. Think really bad 480P or lower rips. Like those DVDs that were basically just straight VHS transfers. Touching it up enough to get it to look good enough that it's no longer unwatchable. Doubling from 240P/360P to 480P/720P can do wonders for vintage stuff (porn or otherwise). I'm reminded of the Nvidia Shield TV real-time upscaler. It's not the best, but it can make something that's not good look much better.

As for 1080P/2160P stuff, we're a while from doing that efficiently. Considering you need some pretty badass hardware and several hours for what I see as fairly marginal output, it may take another decade(ish) before it becomes less of a slog. Sure, you could get some dual NVLink 3090 Ti's (as well as the massive power requirements) to brute force a pretty good result. But again, that's a lot of power for the somewhat lackluster gains we're getting.

My plan is to get a low-profile GTX 1650 to do lossless (or as close as I can) rips and conversions. Maybe some lower end upscaling as previously stated. But nothing beyond 720P at the absolute max. Too much time, money and power for anything beyond that for me.