Is this VHS conversion enhancement possible?

[ThumperStrauss]

Can anyone comment on how the before and after is achieved in the demo reel for a VHS conversion service. I've used Hybrid and experimented with ESRGAN enlargement. But what this company shows in their demo reel is astonishing. A store sign that is not legible in raw footage becomes clear in enhanced version. If this is possible, I would like to know how it is done. See attachments for raw footage and enhanced footage.

[lordsmurf]

Lots of VHS conversion services BS unsuspecting newbise. You found a BS'er.

That clip is deceptive. There is no way that "RESTAURANT SANDWICHES" was recovered from the "before" to the "after". Literally 0% chance. That has to be some sort of 2nd source (different capture).

The still seems decent (not great), but stills really tell nothing. This is video, not photo, motion matters.

The "after" image there has been
- overexposed, highlights lost, some whites now illegal 235-255
- sharpened excessively to the point of adding nasty halo and luma artifacts
- detail lost, turned to mush

Honestly, that looks like an amateur attempt with the infamous Topaz VEIA crapware. It's a video butcher software. Any idiot can load a clip, twist a few dials, and "improve" video. The output is just sharpened mush with artifacts.

EDIT: I found the video. Most of the "improvement" shown adds massive artifacts. Awful stuff. The fact that he refers to interlacing as noise tells me all I need to know.

https://www.digitaltreasures.ca/video-digital-service-toronto-gta

latreche34, I look forward to your analysis here.

[latreche34]

Yes. I've seen a lot of before and after videos claiming restoring VHS to HD, All what they are doing is taking a normal VHS capture and making two versions of it, One is degrading the original version to look horrible, second is doing some enhancement and sharpening filters and they edit them together in a nice before and after package.

The link above uses some AI scheme but there is manipulation in the original version no doubt, Overall the claimed restored version is a hot mess, details lost, fake plasiticy look, very awful. I wouldn't pay $140 a tape for that.

[traal]

I like how they advertise 3 different grades of MiniDV transfers, from $21 to $125.

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by latreche34

One is degrading the original version to look horrible,

I didn't even think of that, but you are correct here. The deinterlace is awful, and it looks to be DV. Source footage should not that crappy.

There is actually a chance that the "before" and "after" are from the same source, because of the deinterlace butcherng. The "after" uses less-bad deinterlacing processing, as seen on the signs. It's still butchered, a hot mess, a dumpster fire. But either the captures are separate, or what you're seeing here was purposely badly processed (even if due to incompetence).