I just discovered Topaz

[kagharaht]

Yeah I'm a little slow. Just got the new iMac M3 and starting to explore what I can do with it. I've had these old photos from the 40's, 50's of family that are in terrible shape. As well as old videos shot on mini VHS things I can't remember the name. Those were covered into QuickTime mov files using El Gato 15 years ago...look like crap. lol I saw this program and is it really that good? I may just get this thing to fix these files or make them better. I forgot to ask. Is this the only good app for videos and pictures? How about one for just fixing or enhancing photos? I saw on the App Store AI Photo Enhance by Pictura.

 

[Rich B22]

Yeah I'm a little slow. Just got the new iMac M3 and starting to explore what I can do with it. I've had these old photos from the 40's, 50's of family that are in terrible shape. As well as old videos shot on mini VHS things I can't remember the name. Those were covered into QuickTime mov files using El Gato 15 years ago...look like crap. lol I saw this program and is it really that good? I may just get this thing to fix these files or make them better. I forgot to ask. Is this the only good app for videos and pictures? How about one for just fixing or enhancing photos? I saw on the App Store AI Photo Enhance by Pictura.

I cannot vouch for the video program as I don't have it, however the Topaz Suite is outstanding for still photos. I have DeNoise, Sharpen, Gigapixel and an older version of PhotoAI and they are all easy to use with great results.

 

[bousozoku]

I would guess that, unless you have millions of dollars to hire someone very talented, your VHS videos are not going to improve much no matter what you use.

The Topaz Suite supposedly works wonders on 1080p and up video and dSLR and mirrorless still photos. Plenty of people have recommended it.

The most I've bought for video was Camerabag Pro on Mac, having spent my money on Capture One Pro and Silkypix Pro for still photos.

 

[phrehdd]

Yeah I'm a little slow. Just got the new iMac M3 and starting to explore what I can do with it. I've had these old photos from the 40's, 50's of family that are in terrible shape. As well as old videos shot on mini VHS things I can't remember the name. Those were covered into QuickTime mov files using El Gato 15 years ago...look like crap. lol I saw this program and is it really that good? I may just get this thing to fix these files or make them better. I forgot to ask. Is this the only good app for videos and pictures? How about one for just fixing or enhancing photos? I saw on the App Store AI Photo Enhance by Pictura.

Tricky situation. Pity the El Gato mov files are not very good. You could certainly try having them upscaled (and enhanced) by software such as Topaz Video AI or, if the original mini VHS "things" are in reasonable shape, go for a service that can do as best quality direct transfer (conversion).

I have Topaz Video AI along with the other Topaz software for still photos. The latter are not a single solution but valuable to other solutions such as photo editing software such as Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Pixelmator Pro etc (all available on Mac) and of course for free - GIMP. I happen to use Affinity Photo as I don't really like subscription software.

One thing I can tell you (and would love to know from others as well) is that Topaz Video AI at times can create exceptionally large files and take hours to process depending on the size of the original file. I am unsure if Topaz Video AI is truly optimized for M-chip Macs.

My suggestion is to look for a service first for the video and try one video. If the results are good then continue. You might want to afterwards use Topaz. As for the photos, look on Youtube for various ways to re-photograph them and then pic some software to edit. Alternatively, if you are on FB, there are groups of people who will do it for free. Some do amazing work and some well.. nah. I know this as from time to time I donate time to one of the groups. Just look up "Photo restoration" and some groups will be listed.

 

[kagharaht]

Wow guys thanks. I have more research to do. I looked at the old tape and its VHS C tapes. Since I just retired I want to learn and do this myself.

 

[phrehdd]

Wow guys thanks. I have more research to do. I looked at the old tape and its VHS C tapes. Since I just retired I want to learn and do this myself.

just some viewing if you desire - simple search to convert vhs-c to digital

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=convert+vhs-c+tapes+to+digital+

 

[kagharaht]

just some viewing if you desire - simple search to convert vhs-c to digital

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=convert+vhs-c+tapes+to+digital+

Got it and thanks.

 

[ZoieluvuseMac]

Frankly speaking, if it is a video taken a long time ago, it is difficult for most AI enhancement tools on the market to completely restore it to high definition for you. Topaz I think their picture enhancement is very good, but video enhancement is not very useful for old videos that are too blurry. But you can try it. In addition, there are several video enhancement tools such as HitPaw Video Enhancer and Moiva ai. You can try them all.

 

[kagharaht]

I'm glad that I finally have the iMac M3 to use Topaz Suite of software. I don't expect to upscale my 2008 VHS-C recording to 1080p or 4K, but wow. Just using Video AI to Clean up the video and not upscale it gave me amazing results! Gigapixel and Photo Ai is like magic on some images... I wonder how amazing these apps will be in 5 or 10 years. For now they are pretty awesome.

 

[phrehdd]

I'm glad that I finally have the iMac M3 to use Topaz Suite of software. I don't expect to upscale my 2008 VHS-C recording to 1080p or 4K, but wow. Just using Video AI to Clean up the video and not upscale it gave me amazing results! Gigapixel and Photo Ai is like magic on some images... I wonder how amazing these apps will be in 5 or 10 years. For now they are pretty awesome.

I do quite a bit of digital photo restorations and use Topaz software regularly. Sometimes it misses but when it doesn't the results are more than impressive. I have used the Video AI with moderate success due to my lack of experience as the product itself is impressive.

When you use Video AI, do your conversions take a significant amount of time and computer resources?

 

[kagharaht]

I do quite a bit of digital photo restorations and use Topaz software regularly. Sometimes it misses but when it doesn't the results are more than impressive. I have used the Video AI with moderate success due to my lack of experience as the product itself is impressive.

When you use Video AI, do your conversions take a significant amount of time and computer resources?

Yes it's impressive software. When I use Video AI and not upscaling to HD the benchmarks is spot on. The best part is I can keep using the iMac as normal and feel zero slow down with normal usage. I don't experience any Memory swapping or delays switching between apps. I ran this benchmark when version 5.5.0 came out. Of course having an M4 Pro or Max or whatever is way faster. The PC versions is also even faster but I prefer Mac and I'm in no rush with this fun project.

 

[phrehdd]

Yes it's impressive software. When I use Video AI and not upscaling to HD the benchmarks is spot on. The best part is I can keep using the iMac as normal and feel zero slow down with normal usage. I don't experience any Memory swapping or delays switching between apps. I ran this benchmark when version 5.5.0 came out. Of course having an M4 Pro or Max or whatever is way faster. The PC versions is also even faster but I prefer Mac and I'm in no rush with this fun project.View attachment 2467510

Did you find when you did try upscaling it was a very long process?

 

[kagharaht]

Did you find when you did try upscaling it was a very long process?

Yes If I try to upscale lets say a DVD Movie. Certain movies can take 5-6fps, some movies will do 20-23fps for 1080P Upscale. I'm not a pro but I guess some DVDs are lower bit rate and some are higher? I guess thats why some are quicker and some are slower. I'm using Proteus when upscaling to FHD 1080p. I just use default Presets from the app. So the really slow ones can take up to 6-9 hours on the little iMac.