Upscale#

This is a very fast and light-weight method for upscaling an input video.

It also provides a sharpening parameter to sharpen the resulting output. This feature can be optionally pipelined with the encoder Artifact reduction feature to enhance the scale while reducing the video artifacts. Upscale supports any input resolution and can be upscaled 4/3x, 1.5x, 2x, 3x, or 4x. The output resolution values must be integers, and the ratio of widths must exactly equal the ratio of heights.

Upscale filter provides a floating-point strength value that ranges between 0.0 and 1.0. This signifies an enhancement parameter:

  • Strength 0 implies no enhancement, only upscaling.

  • Strength 1 implies the maximum enhancement.

  • The default value is 0.4.

The filter’s input/output is as follows:

  • The input should be provided in a GPU buffer in RGBA chunky/interleaved format, where each pixel is 32-bit, and therefore, eight-bit per pixel component.

  • The output of the filter is a GPU buffer in RGBA chunky/interleaved format, where each pixel is 32-bit and therefore, 8-bit per pixel component.

Here are some general recommendations:

  • If a video without encoding artifacts needs a fast resolution increase, use Upscale.

  • If a video has no encoding artifacts, to increase the resolution, use SuperRes with mode 1 for greater enhancement.

  • If a video has fewer encoding artifacts, to remove artifacts, use ArtifactReduction only with mode 0.

  • If a video has more encoding artifacts, to remove artifacts, use ArtifactReduction only with mode 1.

  • To increase the resolution of a video with encoding artifacts

    • For light artifacts, use SuperRes with mode 0.

    • Otherwise, use ArtifactReduction followed by SuperRes with mode 1.

    The following sample apps are provided for these filters:

    • VideoEffectsApp: This app runs each of the ArtifactReduction, SuperRes, Upscale effects individually and should be used when you want to apply a filter to the input video.

    • UpscalePipelineApp: This app runs a pipeline of ArtifactReduction followed by Upscale.

    You can use this app when you want a fast application that performs Artifact reduction and scale enhancement.

    Both apps support input videos with a resolution range as specified in Table 1‑1.