Fumina Suzuki - AI Upscaling and Fan Collection

[NuckChorris]

I don't know if there's anyone else out there that's a Fumi fan like myself, but I've been cataloging and collecting the highest quality versions of all her DVDs/Blu-rays that I can. If I can't find the original ISO/raw rip, I've been purchasing the discs from various online stores, to rip myself. I plan on doing 2 things; 1. upload and share the raw ISO 2. AI Upscale/remaster and share those versions. Here are some screenshots taken directly from MPC comparing the previous best MP4 I could find on the internet against AI upscale from the ISO. Keep an eye on this thread as I'll be posting updates as I go along. I imagine it'll take me a few months to get through all the shipping,ripping and upscaling.

 

[Casshern2]

Pretty darn impressive.

 

[NuckChorris]

Pretty darn impressive.

If you want to check it out, full version posted at Akiba Forum - ENFD-5665

I'm working on a couple more, but I'm having weird issues with the built-in de-interlacer flickering on the top of the screen. Debating whether to black out the top frame to stop the flickering, or go with the, IMO, less impressive looking but more stable QTMGC de-interlace pre-process, then throw it into the upscaler.

 

[NuckChorris]

Nearly finished with LCBD-00589 1080p30 -> 3840p60 (4k60). Really happy with the results, might be the first 4k idol video on here? I'm working on compression to get the file as small as possible without losing too much detail. The full file size is 31GB, which I doubt anyone wants to download/store.

 

[Porni]

I'm perplexed by all this "AI Upscaling"
It looks like a daub of paint and brush + sharpening filter and some other filters
It's only good for conditional anime

 

[NuckChorris]

I'm perplexed by all this "AI Upscaling"
It looks like a daub of paint and brush + sharpening filter and some other filters
It's only good for conditional anime

I work really hard to remove that paint/brush look, but with the quality of the original DVDs, it's a little bit inevitable with the current state of the software I'm finding. Most/if not all the extra sharpening is my choosing, I can opt to not add any additional sharpening, but to my eyes it makes a nicer looking image. It's all a fine line, and I'm always improving my methods, and the software is continually improving. The first set of upscales I did look pretty bad lol, there's a reason I never shared them. There's also a reason I've been collecting all the original ISO/DVD/BR discs; garbage in -> garbage out. That's why my favorite upscales so far have been from BR discs (although I've found the latest BR disc I'm working on is giving me some issues). Certain scenes are certainly a struggle, especially on some of the older DVDs where the quality at parts is quite bad. Getting the AI to cooperate has not always been easy. It might end up turning into breaking each scene out, running through different pre-processing, AI upscale, and post-processing on each scene, and then recombining everything.

Something you might not realize is the software can also do 100% scaling, so it's just denoising/deblocking, deblur/antialias, remove halo artifcasts, sharpen, and more without actually upscaling it. It does a pretty good job without too much hassle. It'll keep the look, and just give you a cleaner video. It also runs at 30FPS, so real-time or 1/2-framerate on 60fps titles on my RTX3080/Ryzen 5800x computer (or less, it's not fully utilizing the PC on low-res videos).

At the end of the day it's all personal preference. That's the reason I'll be uploading the original, because I know some people won't like my version. I very much prefer my versions over the original quality I found on the web, and even the original DVDs.

 

[NuckChorris]

Another note, I'm working really hard to keep the upscales as close to the original vision of the team. My goal would be to make it look as much like a film re-master where they take the original negatives, and scan them at a higher res, similar to the Terminator series. This obviously is impossible with the source material I'm working with, and the software itself. It's going to add in artificial details, but I try to keep those to things like foliage, rocks, etc and not the model themselves. Easier said than done though, and if I wasn't working on 17! of these, I may consider going into more detail. Hell it takes a solid 70-100hrs of raw processing time for a single BR, not including ripping, and my personal time. That's just the CPU/GPU doing the encoding and upscaling.

 

[NuckChorris]

I have 12 DVD and BR discs ripped, with 1 more BR disc being shipped. I am nearly finished with the ENFD-5294. I attached some screenshots showing the previous version that was encoded 10years ago, with my latest version.

 

[playdoctor]

Nearly finished with LCBD-00589 1080p30 -> 3840p60 (4k60). Really happy with the results, might be the first 4k idol video on here? I'm working on compression to get the file as small as possible without losing too much detail. The full file size is 31GB, which I doubt anyone wants to download/store.

HI, That's a lot of efforts going into upscaling your idol's video. I've been working on Upscaling a few of my favorites for the last few month, and end up buying the DVDs then upscaling them as well. Like you said a lot of trail and error, If you don't mind sharing some of your settings, if would help me save a lot of time. And 31GB, no problem! If you uploaded it, I will download it.

 

[yamadakun5577]

HI, That's a lot of efforts going into upscaling your idol's video. I've been working on Upscaling a few of my favorites for the last few month, and end up buying the DVDs then upscaling them as well. Like you said a lot of trail and error, If you don't mind sharing some of your settings, if would help me save a lot of time. And 31GB, no problem! If you uploaded it, I will download it.

What software do you use for that? I have a somewhat powerful machine and might want to give this a try, too.

 

[playdoctor]

Topaz Video Enhance AI, it's the easiest software on the market, and best software to start with. The original poster has way more experience than I do. As he explained the runs different process/software for different scenes. Then recombing the video. That's hard, and it would be very very time consuming. A machine with RTX3080/Ryzen 5800x takes 70-100hours is A LOT of work.

 

[yamadakun5577]

@playdoctor
Thank you for the explanation! Might take a look at it.

 

[NuckChorris]

@playdoctor
Thank you for the explanation! Might take a look at it.

Unfortunately they raised the price of the Topaz software! I got it on sale for $170, normally $200, but now it's running $300, and its $100/yr to keep it upgraded. Add in the need for a pretty fast GPU, and the barrier to entry is pretty high. If I had more resources, I'd offer to upscale some other people's work, but until this set is done, I'll be focusing on this. So the 70-100hrs of work includes the de-interlacing and encoding at lower bit-rates. Just for comparison's sake, this is the avg for different resolutions with an RTX3080 (which I don't think it fully utilizes actually)

480p 100% scaling (i.e. same res) is nearly 30FPS - either realtime or half depending on if its 30/60fps
480p -> 1080p = 0.08sec/frame - Takes about 4-6hrs for 60fps video @ 300w total system power
1080p -> 1080p = 0.2s/frame - roughly 24hrs for 60fps video
1080p -> 4k = 0.42s/frame - takes about 48hrs for 60fps video @ 330w power

 

[NuckChorris]

HI, That's a lot of efforts going into upscaling your idol's video. I've been working on Upscaling a few of my favorites for the last few month, and end up buying the DVDs then upscaling them as well. Like you said a lot of trail and error, If you don't mind sharing some of your settings, if would help me save a lot of time. And 31GB, no problem! If you uploaded it, I will download it.

My basic process right now is rip the disc using MakeMKV, take the interlaced MKV and de-interlace with QTGMC w/ bob to double the framerate and encode to MP4 using Hybrid (GUI FFMPEG/AVIsynth/more) using super high bit-rate (obnoxious bitrate TBH), put it in Topaz VEIA and use Proteus 6-Parameter. I scroll through to find the most difficult/problematic sections. I use the auto button to get a baseline, and then adjust from there focusing on what I like. I then go thorugh these settings on multiple scenes at multiple parts, tweaking parameters (including grain), going back to the first scene etc. I spend usually upwards of 2hrs tweaking these settings, running tests, sometimes even doing a scene at a time and comparing multiple results in real-time across my monitors, until I'm happy with the settings. Finally run through the AI upscale, with CRF18 (again obnoxious sizes). Then finally, re-encode at lower bitrates.

I'm working with another member here learning his custom avisynth scripts, he uses convolution filtering which is very promising. The only downside is his method doesn't use bob to double the framerate, so it'll be at 30fps when I run it through the upscaler. Then I'd have to spend a lot more time going through FlowFrames or the built-in frame doubler in Topaz, which can easily take 20+hrs on a 1080p video (granted upscaling will be done in 1/2 the time since there's 1/2 the frames). Flowframes also doesn't allow you (to my knowledge) anyway to control the encoding properties, so it tends to be encode at a lower quality than I'd prefer.

I'm actually in process of looking at combining both method above, since I'm not super happy with QTGMC always, but I also really don't want to sacrifice 60fps, or quality. I stopped uploading until I figure a couple of things out.

 

[Porni]

It's easier and safer to use rpow2 + other filters
In any case, it's impossible to get a good result at this point, in 10-20 years maybe

 

[NuckChorris]

I believe this might be an akiba-online exclusive, but I just uploaded LCBD-01013 to here. It's 60fps, 5mbps, but higher quality versions are available if there is interest. I tried to keep the size similar to other 1080p uploads here. https://www.akiba-online.com/threads/lcbd-01013-fumina-suzuki-fumi-cure.2046944/

 

[beach ball on sand]

I believe this might be an akiba-online exclusive, but I just uploaded LCBD-01013 to here. It's 60fps, 5mbps, but higher quality versions are available if there is interest. I tried to keep the size similar to other 1080p uploads here. https://www.akiba-online.com/threads/lcbd-01013-fumina-suzuki-fumi-cure.2046944/

Hey thanks so much for uploading this one I really appreciate it!
I've been looking for awhile to see if this was uploaded anywhere

 

[NuckChorris]

Hey thanks so much for uploading this one I really appreciate it!
I've been looking for awhile to see if this was uploaded anywhere

My pleasure, glad there are some more fans! I've got some more exclusives coming as well. Here's the full list of physical discs I've bought that I'll be uploading in various forms in the coming weeks/months (all will be 60fps - some upscaled - some just better encodes than what's out there - some brand new never seen on akiba before). I will also be uploading some better encodes/AI upscales of a few others that already had the ISO uploaded (not listed below)

• ENFD-5294
• ENFD-5383
• ENFD-5501
• LCDV-40486
• LCDV-40540
• LCBD-00589
• LCBD-00621
• LCBD-00675
• LCBD-00691
• LCBD-00721
• LCBD-00751
• LCBD-00903
• LCBD-0103
• SYD-422

 

[NuckChorris]

Hey thanks so much for uploading this one I really appreciate it!
I've been looking for awhile to see if this was uploaded anywhere

Also, after you watch it, let me know if you think she is aging like fine wine? Really, I think this latest video she's more gorgeous than ever, but maybe it's just me.

Here's a screenshot of all the various encodes I have using different settings, let me know if you'd like a higher quality version and I can work on getting it uploaded, or I can make a recommendation later tonight on what is the best size/quality version.

 

[beach ball on sand]

My pleasure, glad there are some more fans! I've got some more exclusives coming as well. Here's the full list of physical discs I've bought that I'll be uploading in various forms in the coming weeks/months (all will be 60fps - some upscaled - some just better encodes than what's out there - some brand new never seen on akiba before). I will also be uploading some better encodes/AI upscales of a few others that already had the ISO uploaded (not listed below)

• ENFD-5294
• ENFD-5383
• ENFD-5501
• LCDV-40486
• LCDV-40540
• LCBD-00589
• LCBD-00621
• LCBD-00675
• LCBD-00691
• LCBD-00721
• LCBD-00751
• LCBD-00903
• LCBD-0103
• SYD-422

Also, after you watch it, let me know if you think she is aging like fine wine? Really, I think this latest video she's more gorgeous than ever, but maybe it's just me.

Here's a screenshot of all the various encodes I have using different settings, let me know if you'd like a higher quality version and I can work on getting it uploaded, or I can make a recommendation later tonight on what is the best size/quality version.

View attachment 2722700

Nice! I'll be looking forward to seeing them!

And I'm currently watching it now and I think I have to agree!I think she's looking incredible
I hope she'll keep making videos and continue her career for a long time

I'm quite happy with how this version looks, I don't have any complaints. But of course if you upload a higher quality version later on I'd happy to upgrade to that one!