Improving video quality via higher frame rate and bit rate?

June 27, 2018 5:11 PM

Video recorded at 30 fps and 6000 br. Video editing software can convert it to 60 fps and 30k. Will doing so improve video quality?
posted by BadgerDoctor to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (7 answers total)

No. Video editing can't improve quality above what was originally recorded, if you up the bitrate it's just going to copy/duplicate existing pixels.
posted by tiamat at 5:23 PM on June 27, 2018 [4 favorites]

Actually it's probably 29.97 fps due to early tech and standards. Converting to any other rate will likely add jitter or motion artifacts. But there could be other filters and color tools, smoothing or sharpening that could improve some elements. There is a free version of a professional tool DaVinci Resolve 15 Beta (scroll to the bottom) that will have amazing tweaking tools. As it's pro software there'll be a steep learning curve and a powerful computer will be helpful.
posted by sammyo at 5:52 PM on June 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Any improvements would only be the result of perceptual effects -- e.g. sharpened edges, simulated motion from frame inbetweening -- not any additional data. You won't make the video have more reality, but you might make it more enjoyable.
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:58 PM on June 27, 2018 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks for the answers, guys.

Sammyo:

you're right about 29.97, 23.97 etc. Also, the (total) bit rate is never a round number; it's always 5068 or 22917 or s/th like that

Sammyo and seanmpuckett:

Because we're a week away from the 4th of July and the reaffirmation of liberty as a guiding principle, I'm going to take the liberty of asking what specific features of Schwarzenegger-class editing software I should focus on to improve the viewing experience. Thanks
posted by BadgerDoctor at 7:06 PM on June 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

That depends entirely on what is wrong with the present viewing experience. Making a few samples available online for critical examination would get you more useful answers.
posted by flabdablet at 8:28 PM on June 27, 2018 [2 favorites]

You can't get lost video information back, and every lossy encode step will lose some more quality. So even at five times the bitrate, the output quality will be worse than what you started with.

There are certainly reasons you might want to do a re-encode anyway. For example if you want to reduce noise in the input, or it has unwanted interlacing, or the colour levels are wrong, or the original compressor wasn't very good and you can recompress to a much smaller bitrate offline with little quality loss. But unless you have specific things you want to fix, it's probably best to leave it alone.
posted by BobInce at 5:18 AM on June 28, 2018 [3 favorites]

Can you post a clip or a screen shot somewhere? Do you have the original tapes? What format? There is equipment that will make better transfers (TBC, time based correction is a hardware box that cleans the video signal), if that's a possibility finding a pro house would be the best bet.
posted by sammyo at 6:03 AM on June 28, 2018