Free Video Upscaling Software Mac

We will explain what is 4K UHD upscaling, how it works, what's the difference between native 4K and 1080P upscaled 4K, and how to upscale videos to 4K.

Aiseesoft Video Enhancer is the professional video enhancer software on Windows and Mac. It is the combination of video enhancers app and video converter tool.

Let's Find Out Best Way to Convert a Low-Resolution Image to High-Resolution! In this video, we will compare the top 7 platforms for upscaling and enhancing. Verdict: This video upscaling software lets you quickly convert and enhance your videos using a variety of features. It supports such major video file formats as FLV, MKV, AVI, WMV, MOV, OGM, MPEG, MP4 via a CUDA-enabled video card, which prevents quality loss. After you download and install Video Converter to your computer, launch it and click Add File - Add File (s) to import the video files you want to upscale. The software is available to Windows 10/8/7 and Mac OS X. Step 2: Increase video resolution There are two ways to upscale your videos.

With the fast growth of 4K Ultra HD TVs like Samsung, LG, Sony etc, the word '4K upscaling' comes into sight. Though 4K displays are everywhere, real 4k contents are not. Almost all the streaming videos, DVDs, TV broadcast, Blu-ray and other available contents today are 1080p, 720p or even 480p. To watch 1080P or lower resolutions on 4K UHD TVs or screens, there is a step called 4K upscaling. This post will explain what is 4K UHD upscaling, how it works, the differences between native 4K and 1080P upscaled 4K and how to upscale 4K videos. Check below.

Table of Contents

What is 4K Upscaling?

Upscaling (also upconverting) refers to a process of matching the incoming small image with the higher-resolution display. And 4K UHD upscaling means enlarging the 1080P, 720P or lower-resolution images to near 4K quality to fit the large 4K display. Simply put, 4K displays have 3,840x2,160 pixels, while 1080P videos have 1,920x1,080 pixels. The 4K displays will have four times as much the screen space to fill than 1080P. Therefore, if the 4K TV displays a 1080P video without upscaling, the screen will look like below. For lower resolutions, the image will be smaller.

What's the Magic behind 4K UHD Upscaling?

Software

To enhance videos to 4K quality, there is a video processing technology called interpolation, a process of creating new pixel points within the range of a discrete set of known pixel points. Simply put, as shown in the above picture, it needs to create more pixel pionts to fill the blank area of a 4K dispay. There are several upscaling algorithms to help achieve this. Here we will introduce you the major consumer-level UHD upscaling algorithms used by 4K TVs, Blu-ray players and other devices: nearest neighbor interpolation, bilinear interpolation and bicubic interpolation. Let's see how each method works.

1. Nearest neighbor interpolation

Nearest neighbor interpolation, also known as point sampling, is the simplest, fastest and also widely-used method to upscale videos to 4K from 1080P or lower. Unlike the two other methods, it determines the new interpolated pixel by the nearest neighbor point in the input vector or matrix without calculating the value via any weighting criteria or complicated rules. It thus has a lot of blurriness and artifacts.

2. Bilinear interpolation

Linear interpolation is implemented in both X and Y directions (and Z for 3D). And bilinear interpolation is a method that uses the distance-weighted average of 4 nearest known neighboring pixel points to determine the new pixel value. The output pixels are heavily influenced by the neighboring four points. This method is better than the nearest neighbor interpolation but also has visible artifacts and blurring.

3. Bicubic interpolation

In Bicubic interpolation, the interpolated pixel is calculated as the weighted average of 16 (4x4) nearest neighboring points. Generally, bicubic interpolation is more complicated than the other two 4K upscaling methods, but generates more fine details than its bilinear counterpart. Currently, many commonly-used 4k video upscaler programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Photo-paint use Bicubic interpolation as the standard.

Native 4K vs 1080P Upscaled 4K, any Differences?

After learning the 4K video processing for lower-quality video upscaling, it's not hard to tell the differences between real 4K and 4k upscaling. Let's look back at the two kinds of videos.

Native 4k: the source video is already encoded in resolution 4096x2160 pixels.
UHD upscaling: it's not real 4K. The 4k upscaler takes the source that is encoded in resolution 1920x1080 or 1280x720 or lower and mimics 4K quality via interpolation. Check the difference between 1080P upscaled 4K and the real 4K video. (you first want to check the review on 4K ultra HD vs full HD)

Limitations of 1080P to 4K upscaling
Interpolation is a calculation; it won't add extra details that aren't in the source 1080P videos. By using those interpolation methods in most 4K UHD TVs, Blu-ray players, PSP, editors, software etc, upscaling 4K always comes at the cost of perceived quality loss like motion blur, marcor-blocking, interlacing, color loss, and other artifacts. And the higher the source resolution the better the results will be in 4k. When the source videos are rather poor in quality like VHS videos, upscaling 4K won't improve many details, and may lead to mixed results.

Advantages of native 4K Ultra HD

  • Clearer and sharper images
  • Better color saturations and more natural colors
  • HEVC video codec compression
  • Higher dynamic range (HDR)

So How to Improve Video Quality?

If 1080P upscaled 4K videos never look as good as native 4K UHD, how to improve low-resolution video quality? The key is to have good 4K upscaler, which can upscale videos to 4K with the best possible video quality. To that end, MacX Video Converter Pro is the desirable 4K upscaler. This 4K video processing tool is picked for good reasons:

  1. Upscale videos to 4K from 1080P, 720P, SD 540P, 480P or other low-quality files.
  2. Flexible parameter adjustments offers options to upconvert videos to 4K 60fps or 30fps, compress upscaled 4K videos to 30%-70% smaller, etc.
  3. 370+ video/audio codecs to upconvert mp4, mov, avi, mts etc from/to 4k HEVC h.265 and mp4 for Samsung, LG, Sony UHD TV, YouTube, others.
  4. High Quality Engine, Deinterlacing and Auto Copy features provide professional post-processing that outweighs the 4K upscaling results of other 4K upconverter built in UHD TVs, PS4 Pro, Xbox One, Photoshop etc.
  5. Fastest 1080P to 4K expansion speed, 5-8x faster processing speed than other 4K video upscalers due to the unique support for Intel/Nvidia/AMD CPU & GPU hardware accelerations.

Achieve 4K ultra HD Quality in Clicks

Free download the 4K UHD upscaling software on the computer. Select the version based on your operating system.
Windows version (Windows 10 incl.)
Mac version (macOS Big Sur incl.)

Step 1: Launch the 4K upscaler and click the Video button with a Plus icon to load the lower-resolution video.

Step 2: Go to General Profiles and choose 4K MP4 Video (or 2K MP4 Video if you upscale videos to 1080P). Any 720P, 1,280x720, 1,920x1,080 will be upscaed to 3840x2160 4k video. (though it can upscale videos of any resolution to 4K, you should know that the lower quality the source video is, the worse the 4K upconverting result will be)

1. Enable the Hardware Encoder box on the lower right corner of the interface to apply the Intel QSV/Nvidia/AMD CPU & GPU hardware accelerations and allow the fastest 1080p to 4K converting speed.

2. Enable the High Quality Engine and Deinterlacing boxes in the same position and they will offer advanced post processing for the best 4K quality. The enhanced quality is thus obviously better than that of the 1080P videos upscaled by 4K TVs or other upconverting devices or programs.

3. Click the parameter adjust button with a gear icon , and you can adjust the upscaled 4K video to 60fps, 30fps, 25fps, bitrates, aspect ratio as you need.

Step 3: Click Run and start the video processing. The combination of advanced hardware acceleration, mutli-core CPU and hyper-threading ensures the fastest video speed, about 5 to 8 times faster than other upscalers depending on the computer configuration. Then you will get a video with 4K quality which you can hardly tell the differences to real UHD sources. Note that if your destination is a mobile, 4k upconverting will increase the video size. And also full HD and 4K look almost the same on small displays.

Upscaling videos to 1080P/4K is prevalent nowadays especially when we have a better display or screen featuring higher resolution but our downloaded video files do not match the resolution. In this case, video upscale is very demanded. To help our readers better understand what is upscaling videos and how to upscale common resolution videos to 1080P/4K, we will break down this article into 4 major sections and share our solutions. Read it on.

OUTLINECLOSE

Part 1: What is Upscaling Video?

Some of you may know upscaling video already but certainly some do not. Simply put, upscaling means a process to make low-resolution content fill your entire TV screen or display which features higher resolution. Without upscaling, you can imagine how weird that could be to display lower resolution content in less than half of the display. In this process, a video scaler is required, which is a system to convert video signals from one display resolution to another; typically, scalers are used to convert a signal from a lower resolution to a higher resolution, a process known as 'upconversion' or 'upscaling'.

This is normal in multimedia and many TVs have this feature already. Some 1080P TVs could upscale 720p content and display it in full-screen mode on a 1080p screen. It is not rare at all.

Part 2: How to upscale common video to 4K with VideoProc

VideoProc is a general product to use for upscaling common videos to 4K. By definition, VideoProc is a robust and universal free video editing software product that will help you edit, transcode, cut, resize, trim, split, merge, convert and adjust large 4K videos and audios fast and without much effort. With VideoProc, you are able to adjust video parameters in an attempt to ensure as less quality loss as possible. In this part, we will show you the detailed steps to upscale a common video to 4K with VideoProc.

Step 1: Download and install the product onto your PC. Launch the product after installation completes.

Step 2: Load the source video files to the program. Click the +Video button to import the source video files to the program or you can simply drag and drop the source video files to the program.

Step 3: Select the output file format to 4K. Move to the toolbox on the bottom of the window and select 4K@MP4 video as the target output file. If you want to adjust the advanced parameter, such as video codecs, frame rate, aspect ratio and more, select the wheel-shaped icon named 'Option' and move into the interface. Then, hit the Run button on the lower right corner to kick off the process. That’s it! Upscaling a common video to 4K has been done!

Part 3: How to upscale common video to 4K with Adobe Premiere Pro

In most cases, we can upscale a common video or we resize the video resolution to match our display with the help of Adobe Premiere Pro. This software will be surely able to work together with Adobe other software like After Effects to make sure as little quality loss as possible. Note that this software is hardware demanding so make sure your desktop is of high spec. Let’s check it out.

Step 1. Install the program and launch it. Now import video into project bin, drag it to the timeline, right click on the clip and select 'Replace with After Effects Composition'.

Step 2. In the newly opened AE window, search for 'Detail-preserving Upscale' effect and drag it to your composition (footage).

Step 3. In the After Effects’ control panel, set scale to a larger percentage (200% for 1080p to 4K and 300% for 720p to 4K). To ensure better output, you can choose to adjust properties such as 'reduce noise' under this effect until it delivers the best result you prefer.

Step 4. Head back to Premiere Pro and render the result video. Then, export the result video.

Part 4: How to upscale common video to 4K with Handbrake

Handbrake is a common video encoder allowing users to adjust the video resolution easily. To upscale a common video to 4K, you can follow the guide below. Before we start, make sure you have the program installed correctly.

Step 1: Run the Handbrake program and go to the Open Source button to import the video file you want to upscale.

Step 2: Go to the Video tab to display all custom options. Then move the slider of the Quality to the right side to increase the video resolution. The value of RF for 720p is 19-23, 1080p is 20-24, and 4K is 22-28.

Step 3: After video upscaling, you can use the Preview feature in Handbrake to view the effect. If you are satisfied with the result, click the Start button to export the upscaled video.

Related Content 1: How to convert 4K Blu-ray to digital format?

Upscaling a common video to 4K/1080P is not the final goal but making a satisfactory video is! In this section, we would like to shed some light on how to convert 4K Blu-ray to digital video formats with the leading program - Leawo Video Converter Ultimate. It is not merely a video converter but also it carries out tasks like convert and download videos/audios; burn videos to DVD/Blu-ray, rip and convert Blu-ray/DVD to videos; create 3D movies; edit and play media files, etc. It is actually a program suite merging all necessary or common functions into one interface, facilitating users to do their media processing work.

With Leawo Video Converter Ultimate, we can easily convert any media file from one format to another at an unbelievably fast speed. Here we go.

Step 1: Install the program suite and launch the video converter

Hit the button below to download and install the program suite. Launch the video converter.

  • Leawo Video Converter Ultimate

    Convert Any Videos and Audios
    Output for Any Apple and Android Devices
    Download Videos and Audios from 1000+ Sites
    Professional Photo Slideshow Maker and Burner
    Greatly Enhance Blu-ray/DVD/Video Output Effects

    WindowsMac

Step 2: Import the source 4K Blu-ray video files to the program

Free Video Upscaling Software Machine

Click Add Video to import the source files

Step 3: Change the output format

Video Upscaling Software Free

Click Change under the format dropdown menu to navigate to the Profile panel, where you can select the target output format.

Step 4: Select the output directory and convert files

Click the Convert button and a sidebar will appear. In this window, you can select the target output directory to save the converted file and then hit the Convert button below to kick off the process.

Related Content 2: How to play 4K or other files on PC

Sometimes you may encounter another scenario other than to find ways to upscale a common video to 4K/1080P, where you may require a qualified media player to stream your 4K video files. If you have such request, you have come to the right place. Leawo Free Blu-ray Player will be a good choice for your to stream any video files, including 4K HD videos files as well as other media files. It is a 6-in-1 media player, allowing users to stream Blu-rays, DVDs, ISO, DVD folder, 4K HD video files, and other media files. It is totally free and it is region free as well thanks to the strong decoding technology built in the program. For common users, this freeware will be sufficient for them to stream their media files with home theater experience.

What’s more, a bunch of custom features have been provided to enrich user experience and enhance the program image among users. Last but not least, it is intuitive for both beginners and advanced users.

  • Leawo Blu-ray Player

    Region-free Blu-ray player software to play Blu-ray disc and DVD disc for free, regardless of disc protection and region restriction.
    Play 4K FLV videos, 4K MKV videos, 4K MP4 videos, etc. without quality loss.
    Support the conversion from Blu-ray/DVD discs to MKV in the premium version.

If you are now going to stream your 4K video files, drop them here.

Step 1: Load the 4K video files to the media player

Click Open File to load the source 4K video files, which will be shown on the playlist.

Step 2: Start to play the 4K video files

Hit the playback button to kick off the streaming. You are able to enjoy a fantastic 4K playback now. In addition, together with the 4K display, this streaming will surely be the best ever!

Video Upscaling Freeware

Plus, for users who wish to edit the playback options such as subtitle, video and audio parameters, zoom rate, etc, they can access the window by clicking the gear-like icon on the home interface to fulfill the settings within clicks.