DDR Old Video Enhancement

[DossarLX ODI]

Some newer technology has been coming out with AI models for upscaling and improving video quality, in addition to interpolation (used for increasing framerate). I went and tried out a couple of older videos that were originally 240p.

Specifically, I did JSB's Legend of MAX SDG FC and Chris's BMR A.
- Both were upscaled to 720p.
- Both were interpolated to 60 FPS (double framerate).

More specifically,

Chris BMR A
- 720p, up from 240p
- 30 FPS to 60 FPS

JSB Legend of Max
- 720p, up from 352x264
- 29.97 FPS to 59.94 FPS

Since the videos were originally 4:3 aspect ratio I made sure to letterbox them to 16:9 widescreen.

YouTube Links

Chris BMR A

JSB Legend of Max

Observations

Upscaling
The original source videos are really crunchy/pixelated so there's only so much AI models can do. The audience in the JSBs Legend of Max video basically looks like people in a watercolor painting.

Interpolation
This ended up surprisingly well from what I saw. The increase in framerate transitions pretty well.


It would be pretty cool if this turned into a project in the DDR community. This is newer tech that's been coming out and it could help us try restoring old videos closer to what it would have been like at the time it the video was shot.

[DemonDelight]

Pretty neat how we've gone from interlacing to interpolating frames over the last couple decades. It looks good! Why embed black bars though?

[DossarLX ODI]

Originally Posted by DemonDelight

Pretty neat how we've gone from interlacing to interpolating frames over the last couple decades. It looks good! Why embed black bars though?

The black bars are the letterboxing to account for the 4:3 to 16:9 widescreen conversion (prevents stretching).

[DemonDelight]

I don't think Youtube stretches videos anymore, I just tested on this one to make sure:

If you click on that it brings you to the original 4:3 video. Adding the black bars gives it a black border all the way around if the player is forced to 4:3, like in this thumbnail:

[DossarLX ODI]

Interesting. In either case, the resolution will still be 720p, just a matter of what the width is. It would become 960x720 instead of 1280x720.

[_Stepdude_]

Been playing around with some interpolation too. Been using MPV player and SVP to make anime 60fps+ in real time. Pretty cool stuff!