AI Upscale Premiere Pro

[agustinc99918424]

I would love a feature inside Premiere that utilizes AI for upscaling and restoring videos. I have a substantial amount of standard-definition (SD) material that I'd like to improve in quality.

[JonesVid]

Take a look at Topaz Video Ai 

This is a standalone app but has very good capabilities to upscale, reduce grain on low light footage etc. you can download a free demo with watermark.

You do need quite a powerful PC or Mac to speed up processing. 

[MyerPj]

Yes, Topaz can produce amazing results, and it's continuing to be a work in progress, so it keeps getting better.

[agustinc99918424]

I did before posting this proposal.  I think Adobe has to have its own engine to do this.

[Kes Akalaonu]

Adobe doesn't have their own engine to do this. They have a concept project called Project ResUp. Whether that becomes something or not is a wait or see type of thing.

[JonesVid]

I did suggest as an idea to Topaz Video to integrate it as a Plug In or Extension to Premiere Pro to make workflow much easier.

NEAT Video have a plug in drag and drop over Timeline footage to improve low light noise grain when High ISO is used.

This seems to work much better than the Premiere De-Noise built in feature.

[MyerPj]

I definitely prefer a standalone version, and I wish Neat had one.

[JonesVid]

Depends on what workflow you prefer. To have the two options - standalone or Plug-in would be the best of course !

Anyway, a bit of a non issue at present as the Plug In does not exist.

I have only just purchased Topaz Video Ai (V4 version) so still getting to grips with it.

Seems I have to upgrade my GPU (funds permitting one day) as processing time is slow on some algorithms .

[A3user]

Hi! I also just bought Topaz Video AI (this cybermonday). What is your current workflow? I am exporting from Premiere Pro as Prores 422 HQ files short clips that have noise and opening them in Topaz Video, doing the denoise there and exporting as another Prores 422 HQ file, importing that to premiere and using that in the timeline to thenm export the complete video. It's very time consuming. Is there a better workflow?

[MyerPj]

A3, what's you're original footage?

I've been using Topaz for a couple years now, and I usually bring in my raw footage. Or, cut my clips without re-encoding using Shutter Encoder. Especially if I have h.264 footage, I tend to put that thru Topaz and create the ProRes in that program.

https://www.shutterencoder.com/en/

[A3user]

Hi Myer, thanks for the reply. My footage is normally in H264 8bit mp4 from my canon R6 and R7. I just recently started testing the Clog3 profile with H265 422 10bit. I edit my clips on Premiere Pro and just export individual clips that I find have too much noise. I assumed exporting in ProRess 422 HQ to then import in Topaz Video, would be better than exporting in the same h264 mp4 and import that in Topaz to then export it again (wither in the same h264, though topaz has less settings than premiere, or in proress 422 HQ). 
I will check Shutterencoder, thanks for the suggestion. So you are using Topaz for almost all your clips before editing them? 

[MyerPj]

Once you are in ProRes, the problems become less. So, get your clips into that as soon as possible. Like any video processor, Topaz works better and quicker with ProRes files. I have some family 8mm footage I'm have scanned as we speak (for the third time, 1-sd, 2-hd (film chain) 3- LaserGraphics. Also a bunch of DV tapes from 8mm, 16mm and 3/4" video. I've just seen an h.264 of the Laser Graphics and they look very nice, good improvement. These guys are very cool: https://periscopefilm.com/telecine/

[A3user]

Thanks, so I guess I need to continue doing the my current process: exporting the noisy or "low"res clips from Premiere Pro as Prores 422 HQ and opening them in Topaz Video, doing the denoise / enhance there, exporting as another Prores 422 HQ file, and importing that to premier back to the timeline. I hope Topaz finishes soon devoliping the Premiere Pro plugin (they have a beta version for AE)

[MyerPj]

Try them both.

• 1) h.264 into Topaz to export to ProRes, then good to go.
• 2) Cnvt to ProRes as you are saying, then into Topaz to export again in ProRes.

For me 1 works best, saves a generation.

[A3user]

Thanks, I'll give it a try. I have been exporting to Proress 422 10bit to insert into Topaz, asuming if I exported as H264 mp4 8bit, it would loose more details that could make Topaz not work as good. 

[JonesVid]

As some of you may have seen - Beta Plug In for Topaz into Premiere Pro coming very soon (Q1 2024 I would think )

[Marcindk1226]

I saw someone use Topaz to upscale Viva La Bam and the result it quite nice. But $300 is quite pricey for ocassional users as me. Then I digged through google and find some free/open source alternatives, basically they are GUI for AI uspcaling algorithms such as Real-ESRGAN.

[MyerPj]

Looks good, I'll give it a try.

[Warren Heaton]

I don't think this has been mentioned yet:  After Effects has Detail-preserving Upscale.  It's meant for a scale increase for video or stills up to 200%.  It was originally introduced for SD to HD but works well for HD to UHD.

After sending a clip to After Effects, it can be found under Effect > Distort > Detail-preserving Upscale.

I use it for anything from 110% to 200%.

If needing to go above 200%, I'll use Topaz Labs Video AI.

Now that we have the Topaz Video AI plugin for After Effects, I should probably install it and get in the habit of using it.  I'm also excited to see that they're working on their plugin for Premiere Pro.  

A native Adobe tool in Premiere Pro, perhaps a variation of Photoshop's Super Zoom Neural Filter, would be great to see so that we have an option that's included with our Creative Cloud subscription right inside our Premiere Pro Timeline.  While Super Zoom can be used with video in Photoshop, I'd say it's clunky at best to get a clip rendered from Photoshop (it uses Adobe Media Encoder, but not in the background).

[JonesVid]

Well, despite all the promises of a Premiere Pro plug in for Topaz Video Ai, as of now no word if it. We have After Effects plug in and for Da Vinci Resolve. Resolve seemd to jump the queue 🙂
Like the posts above, I am also just exporting noisy clips and processing outside then re- importing as ProRes as I am using smart rendering workflow in Premiere.

I have posted queries on Premiere Pro release date but no answer from TopazLabs product management. Maybe it has been shelved?

Upscaling HD or DV tape footage in Topaz is excellent - but can be slow 

[Ann Bens]

Topaz Ai video has a plugin for Ae now.

[JonesVid]

Thanks Ann, yes I did mention that above.

I have not tried to see how efficient the workflow will be to use Ae with Premiere to export a clip from Premiere Timeline, use Ae for the Topaz processing (Plug-In)  and return it back.

Seems not much benefit over exporting a clip direct from Premiere?. I might be wrong so need to try it.

[Ann Bens]

Even if Topaz had a plugin for Premiere, I might not use it if rendering is not done in the background.

[Warren Heaton]

@MyerPj 

I've found the stand-alone Topaz Video AI app to be great.

I've been trying to use the "Enhance" After Effects plugin from Topaz Labs, but it crashes AE as soon as an AI Model is selected in both AE 23.6.9 and 24.6.0.

I've had an open support ticket with Topaz Labs for a while now and collect new logs and send them after each update. 

[MyerPj]

Hey @Warren Heaton , yes, the stand alone version works really well. 

When it does, it's amazing. I bought a Sony M3, in 80's with a vo4800, and I had a that special reel which had my dad in it, (mom's still with me) but Topaz made that footage much better than we could have done back in the day - even the first generation. Here's a one-minute bit I put together for an old client, the sailing stuff is all stock footage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfVjLcl0gXE

[JonesVid]

Great results for something so old @MyerPj .

Nearest equivalent footage I have is 41 years old taken on a VHS JVC 'portable' combination of recorder and camera. The Recorder was so heavy you could only withstand it on your shoulder for 5 minutes !!.

I guess I need to run that footage (UK PAL format of my eldest daughter 1 day old) through Topaz.

Its low light and very noisy VHS so a good test!. Currently in digital format MPEG on a DVD.

In the meantime I'll just have to continue exporting clips on Premiere timeline for processing to Topaz and export back as ProRes 422 ready for smart rendering. I intend to check out the Topaz  Ae Plug in which I have not done yet.

By the way - I assume it is best  to send original clips from Premiere to TopazVideo Ai  in Pro Res format, I guess the answer is yes to make processing faster?