Niamh Mac Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 HI all I have an MP4 (h264) file 480 x 360 that I need to use as part of a doc which will be broadcast on TV. The footage itself is a hundred yrs old and only available on film which we cant afford to convert at this point in the project. Working in Avid, does anybody know if there is a way to up res this footage to make it work for broadcast? Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Phil Rhodes Posted January 13, 2016 Premium Member Share Posted January 13, 2016 I've no idea about Avid, but you could certainly do it in free tools like ffmpeg. It's possible, yes. Whether it's a particularly good idea or not... P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Dunn Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 That is going to look crummy in SD and abysmal in HD. You can't add detail that isn't there. Surely it wasn't transferred at that resolution- can you not get access to the original scan? Even recording the aerial image off a Steenbeck would look better than what you have. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Walters Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 (edited) Red Giant has a really nifty plug-in called Instant 4k that does a pretty good job at upscaling images; as it sharpens certain details to give, what appears to be, a higher quality image. Doesn't have to be to 4k I don't think, but can be used for any upscaling I believe (though I'd check first before buying it).It's not Avid compatible though. May have to throw the clip into something like After Effects first, if it's available to you.https://www.redgiant.com/products/instant-4k/ Edited January 13, 2016 by Nathan Walters 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Tyler Purcell Posted January 13, 2016 Premium Member Share Posted January 13, 2016 Umm, most of the transcode programs will up res, but the scaling tools bring out digital noise. The best thing to do is simply scale in Avid. Bring the media in normally and use the 3D warp tool and which will allow you to scale in pretty decent quality. I'd then take the effect, drag it to an "effects" bin and label it. So next time you need to put another clip in, just drag the effect over and you're all good. Yes it will need to be rendered on older Avid systems, but anything from 6.3 onwards, it should render that effect on the fly. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niamh Mac Posted January 14, 2016 Author Share Posted January 14, 2016 Thanks everybody. the footage is over 100 years old so the loss of quality would be *I think * unnoticeable, and the frame would always have to be adjusted or sit 4.3 inside 16.9 with a frame anyway. We have access to the original film reel but no money to digitise . We'll give the red giant plugin and 3D warp a bash and see how it turns out. Thanks a million for the advice! I'll check back in when we've found a workable solution! Thanks :) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Dunn Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 New is not always best. You'd be surprised at the quality of old 35mm, assuming it's the negative or a decent print. You're seeing a pale shadow of the original quality. Just take a look at the work of Mitchell & Kenyon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freya Black Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 What film format is it? 8mm, 16mm, 35mm?? Where in the world are you? Freya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberto Pirodda Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 i adopt this technique : in quicktime - export in a folder - image sequence, then open these images in photoshop and upscale each image in batch processing, then back to quicktime to create a file.mov from these image sequences at frame rate of your choice. Hope it helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Dunn Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 What film format is it? 8mm, 16mm, 35mm?? Where in the world are you? Freya OP says it's 100 years old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberto Pirodda Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 you could try this http://www.squared5.com/ it is free, but to me not as good as quicktime-photoshop-quicktime procedure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freya Black Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 OP says it's 100 years old. OP says the footage is 100 years old. The print might be newer. I used to have 16mm films that were almost 100 years old (from the 20's) too. Freya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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