# Video software



## TomFord (Jul 15, 2014)

Do you guys know if there is any software that allows you to add more pixels? Have 2 different programs, Xillisoft & Sony Vegas, but don't believe either of them do. Trying to convert some media that is 720×480 to 1920x1080. Is this possible?

Appreciate any assistance gentlemen


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## |Tch0rT| (May 2, 2013)

I haven't used Sony Vegas in ages but it should be able to upconvert video. Xmedia Recode should be able to as well: http://www.xmedia-recode.de/en/download.html

More importantly is why you're doing that? Why not let the display or player automatically upconvert? It seems kind of wasteful in hard drive space and energy consumption to upconvert SD to HD at that level. Also you need to be mindful of aspect ratio's.


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## TomFord (Jul 15, 2014)

|Tch0rT| said:


> I haven't used Sony Vegas in ages but it should be able to upconvert video. Xmedia Recode should be able to as well: http://www.xmedia-recode.de/en/download.html
> 
> More importantly is why you're doing that? Why not let the display or player automatically upconvert? It seems kind of wasteful in hard drive space and energy consumption to upconvert SD to HD at that level. Also you need to be mindful of aspect ratio's.



To convert old family videos to HD. Trying to put something together for Gma & the family for Turkey day. Majority of footage I have is SD. Isn't 16:9 the standard TV's?


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## RBTO (Jan 27, 2010)

I have to agree with |TchOrT|. If you use software to uprez your video, you won't really gain any details or improve the picture since that information isn't in the original. In fact, you could introduce some artifacts in the process and the resulting files take up a lot more space requiring media like DL DVD or BD for storage.

Letting your display uprez from the originals is a better option and most these days do a good job. If your media is on DVD, a lot of DVD players will uprez when they play that video. In any case, a 1080 display will uprez it, even if it receives it in SD format.

If you had original material such as film, the choice would be different and it would be wise to scan that media in HD to begin with, but since the source material is SD, you're pretty much stuck with that resolution.

4:3 aspect ratio applies to older SD material. HD ususally is 16:9 (there are exceptions). If your material came from legacy camcorders or the like, it would most likely be 4:3 and you'll have pillar bars (left and right black bars) on an HD display. Alternately, you can stretch the video (or crop it) to fit the 16:9 screen but that may be less desirable than just showing it with the bars.


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## Andre (Feb 15, 2010)

Can't be done, you cannot add pixels to a recording that I have ever heard of. You can upconvert an SD sized picture to an HD but in my experience it just makes it worse. I tried upconverting DVD recordings of "the Bionic Man" and watch it on my 70in, it was unwatchable after a few mins


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## RBTO (Jan 27, 2010)

Andre said:


> Can't be done, you cannot add pixels to a recording that I have ever heard of. You can upconvert an SD sized picture to an HD but in my experience it just makes it worse. I tried upconverting DVD recordings of "the Bionic Man" and watch it on my 70in, it was unwatchable after a few mins


Just to be clear, you _*can *__"add"_ pixels, creating an image with a higher pixel count using software and interpolation, however you can't add or create image _details _that weren't in the original image (ala TV detective and spy shows). The results are what you describe. Watching a DVD on an HD or UHD display is an example. There will be more pixels than the original, but no better details. Worse yet is that when the image is viewed in a larger form (on a large screen HD set), any existing defects become that much more noticeable, as you mention. Images can be "sharpened" using software, which may make them more aesthetically pleasing, but sharpening often increases noise and other defects as well so it has to be used cautiously if at all.

As a side note, in the old days when video was analog, you actually could gain some details by sharpening since the resolution fell off gradually and some additional details were actually there, but with a digital recording, the resolution is quite limited and falls off "cliff-like" so *no* details exist beyond a certain point, determined by the sampling rate (and a brick-wall filter at the original recording end where the data was digitized).


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## raoxingpa (Nov 24, 2014)

which may make them more aesthetically pleasing, but sharpening often increases noise and other defects as well so it has to be used cautiously if at all.


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