Topaz Video Enhance AI

[Emulgator]

Back to OP: Topaz VEAI 2.6.2 under Win10, i9-11900K 128GB, 3080RTX 16GB.
Downloaded all 186GB of models manually:
6432 files in C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Topaz Labs LLC\Video Enhance AI\models
6 model families, each in 1..6 subversions with all their kernels, in 1..3 builds each.
If you don't preload everything VEAI will phone home for every model it sees fit and tries to get the next 30MB .tz file

Artemis: seems to be a one-stop shop for starters
Chronos: Good fps interpolation, see below
Dione: Deinterlacing, not mature yet I would say (knowing (Q)TGMC)
Gaia: one-in-all for CGI, I haven't tested yet.
Proteus: Fine tunable restoration for Pros, see below.
Theia: I haven't tested yet.

Used so far on Panasonic FT-3 encoder mud (1980x1080x25p on 25i)
Aiming to stay in 1920x1080, but with less camera artifacts.
Then maybe interpolate to 1920x1080x50p, maybe end in 1280x720x50p.

First decoding with DGDecode, then QTGMC for getting Chroma back onto Y, then into VEAI.
Proteus could repaint convincing seawater structure back, and resynthed details of hair and skin,
When overdone repeating patterns occurred, but not too bad !
Going back to source I started to hate the source more than the result.

Chronos 50p interpolation: knocks Mvtools2 out of the water, almost no morphing blotches.
In hard cases soft blends of details, but only visible while framestepping and pixelpeeping

Other source VHS on DV: Dione Deinterlacing: QTGMC still wins by far for now.
But with improving AI models almost everything seems within reach.

For me Proteus and Chronos are well worth it now and will stay in my daily toolbox.
Will not replace, but accompany Avisynth for the tasks where they shine.

Running stable here, Proteus V3 @ 4,5fps, Chronos V3 @ 6fps.
With such hard- and software a lot of projects will see a second AI edition now.

A few GUI unusual behaviours: Model Update management does list incomplete model sets only by filesize, not by files.
Hard to find out which is missing, you have to dump the complete set 3..6GB and try to download the complete set gain
Preview framecounter seems to be ready for input of framecount, but only renders the same amount 30 or 50.
One cannot save his preferences (why oh why do I have to input manually for every new clip)...

Reading up their forums it seemed to be much worse in the beginning
and from the responses it looks like only one developer responding, but still:
he answers, and there is definitely progress in GUI usability and I guess in number and usability of models too.

Output: Avoid .mov (ProRes 422HQ) for now, I got small blocks all over the sky.
If output avc in .mp4, give enough bits (I felt safe with CQ12)
and add grain (I used 1,8) otherwise you get blocks again.
Any fps model loses audio, even if duration stays.
Uncompressed .avi or VfW encoder interface: not yet implemented
.tiff frames ask for huge storage, but this is well known.

P.S. Just started redoing a paused film restoration from 720x576x25p DVD 5Mbps.
Proteus Dehalo: never expected that this can be achieved.
Clean transitions in 1280x720 and 1920x1080 while almost undisturbed by the source's blockfest.
I can happily trash my previous Dehaloing attempts now.

Just tried the unspeakable just to saturate the rendering system: Run 2 instances of VEAI in parallel. Works !