Best Solution for sharpen/enhance VHS export

Rickvv wrote on 2/8/2024, 7:12 AM

Hi-, New here... We are trying to clean up and enhance some MP4's that have been exported from VHS by someone else (I don't have access to the original tapes). Which of Magix's products might be best to use, to clean up the MP4? We are a group of retirees doing a reunion website, and are working with a small budget, and trying to be mindful of expenses. Thanks!

Comments

emmrecs wrote on 2/8/2024, 10:56 AM

@Rickvv

Welcome to the Magix user to user forums.

Both Magix Movie Studio and Video Pro X include the facility to sharpen any video image. Though one needs to be careful and not overuse the feature or the footage can appear over sharpened and slightly artificial. Only by testing it on each mp4 file you have can the appropriate level of sharpening be determined

What do you mean by the term enhance?

Mention of cleaning up the footage could simply mean the removal of video noise; I think it is agreed by many users here that the best solution for this is to use NeatVideo as a plugin inside either Movie Studio or Video Pro X. But this a paid-for add-on. I believe the Home version would be entirely adequate for your needs.

If by using the term enhance you mean you want to increase the resolution of your footage, that is a totally different matter! There is one software that I am aware of (I'm sure there are others) that will do this, i.e., increase the resolution of your footage. Fundamentally, the original VHS footage has rather a low resolution; the transfer to .mp4 may have somewhat increased this (depending on the software used to create the digital version) but it will still be only Standard Definition (SD). If you want your mp4s "converted" to High Definition the software I use is Video AI from Topaz Labs. But the price of this is now quite astronomical and it must be bought as an annual subscription if you wish to keep it updated after the first year(though each year's renewal is a lot less than the initial price). And it works very slowly! If you use it you need a great deal of patience and to be prepared to let your computer and the software "get on" with the processing, sometimes for many hours!

One other thought for you to consider: when you carry out any process on your existing .mp4 files, in order to create your new, enhanced, versions you must Export the file. The process of exporting, if you do not very carefully select your export settings, can result in a lower-quality output than you were expecting.

If you can come back with more details of exactly what you want to do (perhaps even post somewhere - not to this forum - a short example of what you have at the moment so that others can download it and "experiment") we may well be able to offer more directly targeted advice to you. If you do want to post an example, please post it to a file-sharing site and write the download link into any reply you make here.

It might also be useful if you were to tell us about the computer(s) you intend to use for this work. Because video editing can be very demanding on computer hardware you do need to make sure that whatever computer you have it is not going to "choke" on your footage. This post will show you the sort of information that is invaluable to users who wish to help and advise you.

HTH

Jeff
Forum Moderator

Last changed by emmrecs on 2/8/2024, 10:58 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

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Rickvv wrote on 2/8/2024, 2:55 PM

I do think that "Sharpen" is the word. Last question for now: Would you send me to a tutorial to learn the bare-minimum basics of doing a sharpen job in Movie Studio? (Update....I found some guides on the Magix site) Thanks, rick