VS X4 upscaling???

[LarryF]

The advertising on Corel's web site says that, among many cool new features, the new VideoStudio Pro X4 will upscale standard def video to high definition for better viewing on widescreen TV's. I have checked the manual, downloaded the trial version, checked the online help, but nowhere can I find how to do the upscaling. I would strongly consider purchasing the upgrade from VS X3 for that feature alone. Can anyone point me to where I can find this feature, so I can try it out?
Thanks,

Larry

[Ron P.]

Hi Larry,

Believe this or not, this is not something that's really new. I think what they mean is that they improved the rendering. You can upscale in just about any version. I went back to VS 10+, and the Press release PDF file I have for that, states this about VS 10+:

Pure HD Upscaler
High quality upscaling of standard definition video for use in high-definition projects.

I don't have a wide-screen or HD television to be able to really compare this. Try doing an upscale in VS X3, then if you have the trial version of VS X4 do one with the same footage used in VS X3.

To upscale is simple, Share>Create VIdeo File>AVCHD, or one of the many other HD video formats. The key here is make sure that the field order is the same as your SD source clips. If your source is DV, then I would not recommend creating or to upscale to AVCHD, as the field orders are different.

I did upscale a SD video from my camcorder that records MPEG-2 UFF to AVCHD 1440 x 1080, and viewed it on my PC. The result was viewable, however since I shoot in SD, I do a lot of panning. This is not a good thing in HD. There was a lot of jaggies, during the pans.

[LarryF]

Hi Ron,
Thanks for the information. I was unaware that SD quality video could be enhanced that way. I think I read somewhere that the maximum amount of content jfor AVCHD usingj single layer DVD's is about 20 minutes. I will try that in VS X3 and see what the results are. If I can use the software I already have, maybe I'll buy a blue ray drive for my PC instead.
I'll let you know how the experiment goes.

Larry

Update - I tried rendering the file in AVCHD and burned it to a standard DVD. All went well, until I tried to play it in my Sharp Aquos Blue Ray player. I forgot that the model I have does not play AVCHD disks. I'll have to get a Blue Ray burner for my PC to really test this.
Oh well, it was worth a try.
Thanks again Ron.

[LarryF]

Further update. I spoke to Corel support today and what Ron stated about upscaling standard def video to high def in VS X4 is correct. You simply choose to render the project in a high def format (AVCHD, Blu-Ray, MPEG4, etc). The Corel Tech, Brian I think, told me this is a new feature in VS X4 and it does not work the same in VS X3. I suppose the only way to confirm this would be to burn a Blu-Ray disk of the same source video from both X3 and X4 and compare the picture quality. I am going to see if I can squeeze a Blu-Ray drive out of the budget this weekend and test it. I'll let you know.

Larry

[Ron P.]

New in VS X4, interesting.. I wonder then what the upscaling was back in VS 10? I'm real interested in your findings.

[skyml]

Further update. I spoke to Corel support today and what Ron stated about upscaling standard def video to high def in VS X4 is correct. You simply choose to render the project in a high def format (AVCHD, Blu-Ray, MPEG4, etc). The Corel Tech, Brian I think, told me this is a new feature in VS X4 and it does not work the same in VS X3. I suppose the only way to confirm this would be to burn a Blu-Ray disk of the same source video from both X3 and X4 and compare the picture quality. I am going to see if I can squeeze a Blu-Ray drive out of the budget this weekend and test it. I'll let you know.

Larry

Actually, you shouldn't need a Blue ray recorder to check the difference.... render your SD video to an AVCHD disc in 1920x1080 (this takes a regular DVD). Then play back the AVCHD DVD in a compatible Blue ray player to an HD monitor and compare that to a standard Mpeg 2 DVD on the same system..... should be pretty clear.

[LarryF]

You are correct, Mike. But as I mentioned before, my Blu-Ray player is not AVCHD compatible. I'm going to get a Blu-Ray drive for my PC tomorrow and try rendering an SD video clip from my JVC camcorder in Blu-Ray from both VS X3 and X4 and see if I can detect any differance in picture quality. I have an HD TV, so the differance, if any, should be apparent. I'll let you all know what I find out.

Larry

[LarryF]

Hi Ron,
I picked up a Blu-Ray drive today and installed it in my PC. I then burned a BD-R disc of the same source material, standard def (720 x 480 frame, 16:9 aspect ration) from my Everio GZ-MS110 camcorder. I burned one disc from VX X3 and the second from VS X4. Both are good, better than I get on a regular DVD, but the VS X4 disc looks just a little bit cleaner and crisper. The other thing I noticed was the rendering/burn times. VS X3 completed the disc in just under 27 minutes, while VX X4 completed the same project in 4:16. A huge differance. I have noticed in the past that X3 only uses one of the four cores in my CPU. What Corel advertised about X4 being optimized for multi-core CPU's really seems to be working. Now I have to decide on whether to upgrade to X4. Decisions, decisions...

Larry