V296 1996 Jan Tana Pro [next level high-quality upscale] [High-Quality Upscale]

[BondyB]

I've got news for you but let me first post my latest movie

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Well, I finally got the new Starlight Precise model (SLP) of Topaz working and it's really good. The biggest problem for all upscalers is small/blurry faces/figures and SLP is the new king of the hill.

For the movies I posted here I used ComfyUI with Seedvr2 as primary upscaler and Topaz Proteus as second upscaler. The setup for Seedvr2 is complicated and can be very frustrating. It depends a lot on your hardware. You also need a beefy GPU, preferably an RTX 5090 with 32 Gb Vram which I have. Topaz SLP only needs 12 Gb Vram according to Topaz and the upscales have more detail than Seedvr2, especially small faces.

According to Topaz SLP is not ideal for content below 480p or very low/poor condition quality media. I use downscaled 240p media of poor quality and I think it does an excellent job. However very small figures/faces are still a problem. Another nice feature is that SLP retains texture for the most part thus preventing that plastic/artificial look a lot of upscalers suffer from. That means adding grain is not really necessary and that means the size of the clips is a lot smaller. For example, the grain version of the movie I'm posting now is 5.4 Gb instead of 2.3 Gb.

Now anyone can have high quality upscales of his favorite movies without a complicated setup. Just load it into Topaz, chose your settings and away you go. The bad news is that it takes much longer than Seedvr2, about 1/2 hour for each minute. And of course, Topaz is not free.

So here is my first post of a SLP upscale. I'm also posting the complete movie from WPWmax because I couldn't find this contest on Saradas. Just download the whole package and compare the clips. You will be surprised.

Here's my workflow for WPW movies. It's a balance between good quality and processing time. Higher resolutions deliver more detail but require (much) more time.
Warning: SLP can sometimes deliver too much detail when upscaling the normal 640x480 resolution.
Note: For every step I use ProRes HQ to save the clips for minimal quality loss

Workflow
1.   Cut movie into individual scenes. I use LossLessCut for all cutting and joining.
2.   Deinterlace scene if interlaced. Almost all WPW movies are interlaced. I use Staxrip for this.
3.   Decrease resolution from 640x480 to 320x240 and, if necessary, adjust framerate to 29.97 fps (use the free version of Resolve). I have experimented with a direct upscale from 640x480 but almost every time the results were too sharp and had extra artifacts.
4.   Cut scene into smaller segments. For Seedvr2 I use 2-minute segments. SLP can handle bigger segments, but I don't know how big. For now, I recommend max 5 minutes.
5.   Upscale segments 4 x with Topaz SLP to 1280x960. SLP has no additional settings.
6.   Combine segments to individual scene with LosslessCut
7.   Upscale scenes with Topaz Proteus to 1920x1440. This step is to improve the result of SLP and make it nicer. I use the manual mode and select a frame of the clip with a good view on the face/body of the person(s) in the clip. Next you click on "estimate" and Topaz will determine the necessary enhancement values. On the Topaz forums (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login) a lot of people advise using Topaz Iris as a second enhancer. I have tried that, but Iris tends to make the upscale look more "plastic" and cause artifacts around the eyes and mouth. Proteus does not have this problem or at least much less. Maybe Iris works better on other footage but for WPW videos I only use Proteus.
8.   Adjust color of the scenes with Resolve if necessary
9.   Add grain to scene with Resolve if necessary
10.   Increase framerate of scene to 59.94 with Topaz Chronos. Not really necessary but it makes stuttering clips smoother.
11.   Save individual scenes to AV1 with Handbrake or another converter
12.   Join individual scenes to full movie with LossLessCut with option to create chapters enabled

Saving clips
I save all my 3:4 aspect ratio movies (320x240, 640x480 and 1920x1440 have a 3:4 ratio) in the same format and I always make chapters of individual clips/scenes. This way you can always cut and join any clip with LosslessCut if you want to rearrange or remove clips. The chapters are also very convenient for viewing movies with lots of clips/scenes.

I use Nj0be's portable Handbrake SVT AV1 Psy to convert my clips, link You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login. This version has the AV1 codec and special grain-settings to keep the file size to a minimum. My settings for saving 3:4 aspect ratio clips:
•   Framerate: 59.94 fps
•   Aspect ratio: 1920x1440
•   Codec: AV1 10-bit (SVT PSY), constant quality: 23, Constant framerate: same as source, Color range: same as source, Encoder preset 5, Encoder tune: SSIM, Encoder profile: main, Encoder level: 4.2, Advanced options (if you want to keep grain): film-grain-denoise=1:film-grain=10

I'm not writing this to promote Topaz. It is quite an expensive piece of software. An annual subscription costs $ 300,- or $ 41,- monthly. I think SLP really is a step forward. On the Topaz forum you will find lots of posts about the buggy software but personally I have never experienced problems. I guess it depends on the hardware you're using.

Judge for yourself if it's worth the investment.

I will continue upscaling with SLP and post the results here. It will take a lot of more time and maybe I will not post complete movies anymore but only (the best) parts like I have done with the present movie.

Request: does anyone have full movies of the NPC USA Women's Bodybuilding Prejudging contests between 2001-2002 and 2004-2009, particularly the 2002 contest? Or does anyone know if You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login offers any discounts at any time? I think they are quite expensive. I found the 2003 contest on this site.

Regards,
Bondy

[BondyB]

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