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I’m working on an amateur project, and for part of my project I’ll be using some old, really, really low-res film. I’ve used some free online tools (like deep-image.ai) to upscale low-res photos before, to great success.

I’m trying to find a similar tool for video, but all the tools I’ve come across are for enterprise or cost caboodle.

Is there any free tool out there for AI image upscaling?

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There's a few options I've seen listed at
https://sites.google.com/view/aiupscalingtutorials/ai-upscaling:
(in no particular order)

1. ESRGAN

  • An open source AI upscaler (super sampler) based on a generative adversarial network architecture.
  • Can be run in CPU mode, but requires a CUDA enabled Nvidia graphics card to get the most out of it.
  • Be sure to check out the Upscale Wiki

2. SFTGAN

  • An open source image enhancer that seeks to restore lost texture details from known types, made by the same team who developed ESRGAN.
  • Can be run in CPU mode, but requires a CUDA enabled Nvidia graphics card to get the most out of it.

3. Topaz Gigapixel AI / Video Enhance AI

  • Commercial super sampler that uses artificial intelligence and is made by Topaz Labs. It costs $100, but comes with a 30 day free trial.
  • Produces good results with little fuss. Easy to install, but also requires a CUDA enabled Nvidia graphics card.

4. Nvidia Gameworks

  • Apparently, it works quite well, but it requires a beta access pass which very few people were awarded.

Then I've also come across:

5. AVC Labs Video Enhancer AI

  • Commercial product, similar to Topaz Video Enhancer AI
  • US$40/month or $200/year
  • Free trial version

6. DVDFab Video Enhancer AI

  • Another commercial product, again similar to Topaz Video Enhancer AI
  • US$79.95

7. Dandere2x

  • Open source
  • I've read some good reports about this, and it may be worth checking out

8. Video2x and Waifu2x-Extension-GUI

  • These two frontends assist with processing video using the open source waifu2x engine

9. Nero AI Video Upscaler

  • Another commercial product for upscaling DVDs, old tapes, and old animated films.
  • US$65 per year or US$140 for permanent licence
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    Video2x and Waifu2x-Extension-GUI are also two possible frontends for waifu2x (which isn't halfway bad even for normal video, at least with the photo models). For ESRGAN I would instead recommend checking Upscale Wiki.
    – mirh
    Commented Mar 15, 2021 at 23:01
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    I do want to add though that AVC is $600, not $30-$40 as while it advertises as 'buy now' its actually a monthly subscription. to buy it with a one time payment, it is quite high. I also believe the 'sale' is a permanent feature, every online reference to it references the same prices.
    – DIGI Byte
    Commented Apr 29, 2022 at 13:08
  • @DIGIByte Oh thank you. Yes! The webpage is misleading when it lists a price but not the licence duration (until you checkout). I’ve updated the post above.
    – Simon East
    Commented Apr 29, 2022 at 23:41
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    What type of machine learning algorithm does Topaz Video AI use to upscale videos, compared to the first 2 software listed which clearly are using generative adversarial networks (GAN)?
    – user610620
    Commented Nov 26, 2022 at 10:46
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When I browse the video upscaler from the Internet, I found two kinds of video upscaling tools.

  • One is the video upscaling software, such as AVCLabs, Topaz, DVDFab.
  • Another one is an online video upscaler.

Both of them are able to upscale video in 1080p to 4K.

If you have more patience and time to observe the video upscaler, you can try AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI, because I found that it is free currently.

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  • You found AVC Video Enhancer AI for free? The website indicates that it's $29.95.
    – Simon East
    Commented Jan 2, 2022 at 4:03
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If you have a really good ai enhancer for images, you could extract each of the frames, do a batch enhance andupscale of each frame, then use an image stitcher to put them back as video. its a pain in the ass and can take awhile if you have a long video to enhance, but its an option

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  • This can be worth trying in some situations, however it's good to be aware that the better video upscalers can take things like motion, framerate and interlacing into account by scanning across frames which may improve the result in some cases.
    – Simon East
    Commented Dec 15, 2023 at 7:37

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