Can This Cheap AI Make Old Videos Look Amazing? (Nero AI Video Upscaler Review)

In this Nero AI Video Upscaler Review, I cover the quality of the upscales, a full tutorial and ask the question - is it better than Topaz Video AI??
▶️ Check out Nero's Ai Video Upscaler: https://store.nero.com/affiliate.php?ACCOUNT=NEROAGAJ&AFFILIATE=245338&PATH=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nero.com%2Feng%2Fproducts%2Fai-video-upscaler-pro%2F%3FAFFILIATE%3D245338
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⚒ TOOLS
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The following are the tools I use and highly recommend. Some of these are affiliate links I earn a commission from, but this is what I use and swear by!

🦾 AI UPSCALERS
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Topaz FREE TRIALS available at links below!

Topaz Photo AI Full Suite: https://creatorimpact.com/topazphotoai
Gigapixel Upscaler: https://creatorimpact.com/gigapixelupscale

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//TIMESTAMPS

0:00 - How to use the Nero AI Video Upscaler
5:06 - Comparing all Upscaling models with one video
7:28 - 'Fast' AI Video Upscaler Model
8:14 - 'Realistic' AI Video Upscaler Model
9:04 - 'Animation' AI Video Upscaler Model
9:34 - 'Versatile' AI Video Upscaler Model
10:03 - 'Face Enhancement' AI Video Upscaler Model
10:58 - Nero AI Video Upscaler vs Topaz Video/Astra

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Closed Caption:

If you're looking for a budget friendly
AI video upscaler, then today I'm going
to explore the video upscaler by Nero.
In the past, Nero have been known for
their awesome burning software that
comes with burning CDs and DVDs, but
I've also always had some additional
tools for when you're burning video or
audio to dis. So, today I'm going to
show you how it works, compare some of
the results, and even compare it against
its main competitor, Topaz Video AI.
Now, once you have the program open, I
can drag in a video and start working
within the interface. Now, one of the
cool things I want to point out quickly
is that it actually optimized itself for
my graphics [snorts] card, which I
thought was a nice touch. But otherwise,
we have our original video over here,
and we can render a preview. But first,
we want to explore some of the settings.
So, I have upscale options here at a
glance. You can see we have a model, the
size, frame rate, but also some
adjustments. So, I can adjust things
like the brightness or the contrast if I
want to change that in the video as
well. Sometimes you don't quite get the
color you want within a video. So, this
can be a great way to crank up the
color, improve the sharpness, and
actually have a little bit more control
over the output result. So, cooling that
down doesn't look too bad. Warming it up
is a bit too much. So, I can play with
that tint. So, I'm going to leave all
that the way it is. But otherwise, we're
going to come back to upscale options
because we want to choose a different
model. You'll see here it has animation
selected, but this is more like a real
life footage, even though it's AI
generated. But when I go to the
animation dropdown where it says select
a model, we have a fast model which is
built for fast processing. We have
animation realistic which we're going to
go with versatile which is a little bit
more flexible and face enhancement. So
we're going to start we're going to try
realistic and then face enhancement.
We're going to come back and try some of
this other uh models here later but
otherwise we'll start with realistic and
I want to upscale this to 4K. So I'm
going to go 3840 by 2160.
The frame rate here is 25.
I'm going to use frame interpolation to
bring that up to 30 frames a second so
things look a little bit smoother. Now
on top of that, if I do frame
interpolation, we have an option here
for scene detection. If I tick that,
basically what it does, it looks for
cuts. So if you have different angles
cut into the video, scene detection will
actually try to uh recognize that and
not generate a frame in between. So you
get a nice clean cut between scenes. So
we can add slow motion. So we're
actually going to go with 2x on this
one. We're going to sync audio and
preserve the pitch even though there's
no audio in this video. But that means
you can either preserve the pitch or you
can sync the audio. So if it slows down,
you get that deeper sound. So there's a
few options in here already that I
haven't seen in Topaz Video AI. So I've
got the location I want to output the
video to. So with all these settings
before I hit upscale I can come over
here and hit preview 3 seconds or I can
change the preview to 1 minute 1 second.
Let's just go 1 second for a very quick
demonstration. I'm going to click play.
Now after 10 or 15 seconds I was able to
get this preview. Now I can use the
slide bar here to compare or I can click
this button down here to have them both
side by side. However, it's hard to see
this is really sort of shrunk down. So,
instead of fit, I'm going to switch to
100%. So, I can see what the video looks
like at 100%. Now, you can see it's not
absolutely perfect, but it's definitely
a lot sharper and easier to watch at
that upscaled size than the original.
So, now I play to preview.
And I think that's going to be good for
our test. I can already see that it
smoothed it out quite well. It doesn't
look realistic at 100%. But when we
watch the full video, once it's done,
we'll make our decision. Then I'll come
down and hit upscale now. Then I wait
for the video to go through, which it's
actually going through quite quickly. As
you can see,
it's basically almost half done. And I
haven't even edited out this wait time.
And now that's not too bad. It's
definitely cleaned things up and slowed
it down really effectively, but it
almost looks a little too cleaned up and
also a little bit too polished in some
of the corners. and it just looks not
quite right compared to the original,
especially when you zoom in. But, uh,
what also happens if I compare this to
the original. And the original does look
a little bit more authentic, even though
it's a lot fuzzier and blurriier. But
maybe we need to make some adjustments.
Now, I have the final output here. I can
double click and come back in to the
upscaler. Now, I think one of the issues
I had was maybe under adjustments, I did
play with the sharpness. I'm going to
reset that and just try and try try and
have the sharpness back where it was
because I feel like maybe it was trying
to do too much with the details.
Adjusting the colors is not going to
have a negative impact based on what
we've seen. So, I'm going to leave that
all the same. I go back to my upscale
options. And this time I'm going to try
realistic, but I'm also then going to
submit versatile,
fast, and face enhancement so we can see
which one actually performed the best
with this AI generated video that's
supposed to look real. So, let's give
that a go. and see what results we're
able to come up with.
Now, the realistic video turned out
about the same as before where it looks
a lot sharper, a lot neater, and to
watch in full, it's not too bad, but
some of the details do look a little
artificial, especially if you really
focus on the hair that's being lit by
the sun. And the hair in general has a a
little bit of a fake look to it. fast
didn't really neaten things up as much,
but that little bit of graininess
actually kind of helps a little bit
because it just doesn't try too hard to
fix up the image and therefore we don't
get a lot of that artificial sort of uh
look coming through. It's not perfect,
but so far, even though it's not as
clean, I do prefer the fast model for
this video.
The animation model cleans things up
even more, but it tends to sort of get a
bit of a globby effect on certain
objects, especially if you zoom in on
sort of some of the hair and especially
the background where it's supposed to be
blurred out. You get these weird kind of
globs and shapes. So, again, this is not
meant for a video that looks like photo
realism, but I thought I'd try it
anyway.
But versatile so far is my favorite with
this particular clip. It's somewhere
between fast and realistic in the sense
that it doesn't clean things up too
much, but it does it a little bit more
than fast. And I found that it doesn't
have that weird artificial look as much
as the realistic model. So, this is a
pretty solid model for photo realism.
Face enhancement does seem to enhance
the face a little bit, but we also still
get some of that artificial uh nature
coming through. I f I find that it still
looks pretty decent, but if you zoom in
on the teeth, you get some weird
artifacts popping up in there. So once
again, I would say that versatile so far
is my absolute favorite just based off
this one single clip. And as a direct
comparison, this is the original clip.
When we zoom in, you can see how fuzzy
that is. I bring the versatile clip in
next to it and it's a massive
difference. But before I dive in and try
out a bunch of other clips, I also
wanted to mention that you have a
timeline down here you can use to
essentially edit. So you can drag these
corners in and crop. Well, not so much
crop, but shorten the video. So you can
remove some of the start, some of the
end, and just simply upscale a short
portion of the video if that's all you
need. So just remember, you have that
option if you're looking to shorten a
video. But let's start looking at some
of these models and seeing how well they
work. Starting off with fast, it is
obviously a much faster, more
lightweight model. So, it does tend to
render the videos far quicker than the
other models, but then you get a much
lighter sense of enhancement on your
videos. It does a good job of not taking
things too far on certain clips, but if
you start to work on far more damaged
clips that you need things to sort of be
repaired or cleaned up with, then you're
not going to get the results you're
after. But this is a great lightweight
upscaler if you got somewhat decent
quality footage that you want to bring
up to say 4K or even up to 1080p if
you're working with something even
smaller. So that would be my
recommendation for fast when using this
program. But coming back to this
comparison here, the fast model looks
much the same as the original, just a
little smoother. We add in the realistic
model and you can see how much things
have been improved here. It hasn't
overcooked this particular image and the
footage looks pretty decent. So how well
does realistic perform on other videos?
It does seem obvious that this is
intended for more realistic footage. So
you obviously want to try things like
photo realistic footage. you I think you
want a little bit of resolution to
already be in there because when the
resolution's a little too low, I think
it tries too hard to clean it up and you
do get some of the more fake looking
artifacts in your footage. However, I
would still recommend trying previewing
to make sure you're getting what you
need, but this is really a great uh
model if you've got something like a
1080p video or a 2K video that you want
to make 4K. So, that's kind of my
recommendation when it comes to the
realistic model is one, make it
realistic, uh, so photo realistic
footage, and two, make sure you've
already got a fair bit of detail in
there so it doesn't over smooth it. Now,
that brings us to the animation model.
Now, obviously, this is intended for
things like 3D animation or even 2D
animation, but it is the most aggressive
when it comes to really cleaning things
up. Like I mentioned with that other
video, we got some little globby
artifacts, but as long as you pick the
right type of video, so you definitely
want to test this out. Quite often, you
get some pretty nice results. This old
Pope video turned out pretty good and
this other more realistic video didn't
turn out quite so good. So, you need to
make sure you're actually sticking to
animation and trying these things out to
see which model is going to be the best.
But that leads me on to versatile. This
is definitely my favorite model so far.
But it does take a lot longer to render
your videos, but it finds the balance
between cleaning up your video and
keeping some of the texture. As you can
see here with the woman's face, it's
cleaned up things just as much as the
realistic, but the texture is still
there on the cheek. I think that's a
really nice balance. I would say that in
most instances, you're going to be using
versatile to get the best results. But
if you're looking to work on faces,
there is also a face enhancement model.
Now, I have this old footage of me, and
if you zoom in, you can see the footage
is pretty grainy, but I add in the face
replacement model footage, and it does
clean up a fair bit. It still has a bit
of a jagged edge and looks a little bit
sort of untidy, but it's not bad. But
looking at some of these other examples,
you'll notice that everything is pretty
razor sharp. This one here, every single
detail is a little bit oversharp.
Actually, the pores look quite fake due
to the fact they're kind of all jaggedy.
Look almost more like frozen ice. This
video here, I think, actually turned out
the best. And even if I compare it to
some of the previous upscales we did
with Nero, I think this is actually one
of the better ones. And of course,
moving on to this video. This one hasn't
really had much to work with, and it's
done an okay job, but doesn't look 100%.
I This goes to show that every
individual video will have a model
that's best for it, and there's no
universally best model for you to choose
from. But how does it compare to Topaz
Video AI or even Topaz Astra? Well, the
first thing I want to mention is that
this program works entirely locally. So,
everything is actually done on your
local computer, not in the cloud. So, a
lot of people will find that that is a
great thing cuz they a lot of people are
kind of sick of the subscription model.
So, that's one benefit, but that's also
a weakness in that if your computer
isn't very powerful and it takes a long
time, you can't just send it to the
cloud. So, you actually need to make
sure this is going to work for you on
your system and that you have a computer
powerful enough to actually go through
and make these upscales. Now, comparing
to Topaz Video AI, it is cheaper unless
you sign up for Astro, which is a
monthly subscription. But the Topaz
programs are a fair bit more expensive
than this Nero upscaler. So, if you're
looking to only use the options it has
as opposed to the generative upscalers,
then you can actually pay a little bit
less and use Nero instead. This is
perfect for home videos or taking 1080p
footage up to say 4K. Now, Topaz Astro
is entirely on the cloud and is a
generative upscaler. So that's a
completely separate sort of comparison
to make because we don't have a
generative upscaler with this Nurero
upscaler. Something that adds more
detail. So it doesn't really compare to
Astra. They're basically two completely
different ends of the spectrum when it
comes to video upscaling. Tapz video AI
does have Starite which is a generative
upscaler. It also has the option to to
process either locally or on the cloud.
But uh because we don't have a
generative upscaler here with the Nero
upscaler, that is one area where it
simply cannot compete with Topaz Video
or especially Topaz Astra, it can't get
that regenerated level of detail to
smooth out things, especially if you're
converting an AI video into an upscale
video. However, a lot of the more
standard upscale models are very
similar. I'm going to compare a few of
them so we can take a look. Now, this is
old footage of me that I upscaled using
the Versatile upscaler in Nero. I
compare it to Proteus, which is the kind
of like allpurpose from Topaz Video AI.
And Proteus does look a little bit
smoother. But you can see how versatile
competes, especially for the price. I
would say the hair is probably the most
notable thing that's better on Proteius,
but otherwise, I think these are both
pretty solid considering that the
original footage was a little grainy.
And as we move on to Iris, which is a
face model, you'll see that again it's
just a bit smoother and a little bit of
an improvement. But as we go through and
check out some of the other models, we
have Ria. Again, this is an advanced 4x
upscaler. Looks a little bit sharper.
Again, Artemis is sort of dinoises and
sharpens. And Gia, we have more of a
high quality animation style sort of
model. And Thea, which is a more
advanced highfidelity model. They all do
look a little bit better from Topaz, but
just remember, you're paying more than
triple the price for these models. So,
is it really that much better for the
price? This depends on your budget and
what you need these videos to do for
you. So, when it comes to Nero versus
Topaz, you're looking at price versus
quality. Nero is far more accessible.
The names of the models are also much
easier to understand, but Topaz has
higher quality and it also has the
generative uh upscalers as well. So, if
you need far more advanced upscaling for
commercial projects or something that
really needs to look its best, paying
the extra for Topaz is where you want to
go. But for the average person wanting
to upscale some home footage or maybe
even just slightly upscale an AI video,
Nero's upscaler is going to be a pretty
good solution for the budget conscious.
But if you want to try out this video
upscaler for yourself, there is a link
in the description below and you can
check that out. Otherwise, let me know
based off what you've seen, what your
thoughts are. Does this upscaler do the
job or should we simply move on? Let me
know in the comments. Otherwise, that is
the video for today, guys. I hope you
found it useful and if you did, please
consider giving the video a like and I
hope to see you again soon. Have a great
day and thanks for watching.
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