Upconvert VHS to HD?

[waloshin]

Can final cut pro x upscale VHS to HD? Or does the old saying you put crap in your get crap out.

 

[Alphabetize]

Can final cut pro x upscale VHS to HD? Or does the old saying you put crap in your get crap out.

I haven't used Final Cut Pro for this, but I've attempted making old VHS home movies in 1080p HD via Premiere Pro and in my experience it's not really worth it. The video is so scaled up that it gets pretty grainy, or you have lots of detail cropped out because you're essentially zoomed in so much.

I've found that the best results for VHS is to try to digitally convert them with the least amount of compression possible, and just try to keep them in the original format as close as possible.

 

[kohlson]

Red Giant makes upconverting software (Instant HD and Instant 4K). I have used it to upconvert a 480p Skype session into HD, and it definitely made it much better, thought not crystal clear HD. But dunno if it works with FCPX.

 

[ColdCase]

You can use FCPX, as well as several others, to convert VHS source to HD format. You are not going to make the video sharper or look better unless you know what you are doing. And then only marginally better with FCPX. Typically the colors are off and there is a bit of noise that those pro shops that make their living converting VHS to DVD know the magic (and have the video processing equipment) to correct and make them look quite a bit better (not HD but looking more like modern video). What I've been reading over the past few years it that the equipment and software needed to make significant improvements in VHS video quality is not cheap and there is a steep learning curve. Its been less money and you will get better results by sending the video to a pro shop.