The most extensive comparison of video super-resolution (VSR) algorithms by subjective quality

Our benchmark determines the best upscaling methods for increasing video resolution and improving visual quality using our compact yet comprehensive dataset.

Everyone is welcome to participate! Run your favorite super-resolution method on our compact test video and send us the result to see how well it performs. Check the “Submitting” section to learn the details.

What’s new

• November 13th, 2022: Added HGSRCNN and ESRGCNN
• August 28th, 2022: Release of the Benchmark
• November 9th, 2021: Beta-version Release

Introduction

Our benchmark presents the ranking of video upscalers using crowd-sourced subjective comparison. Over 3700 valid participants have selected the most visually appealing upscaling result in many pairwise comparisons.

For evaluating upscaling methods, we also use various metrics (objective quality measures). In addition, we calculate the average FPS (frames per second).

Scroll below for comparison charts, tables, and interactive visual comparisons of upscaling results.

4× Camera-Shot Leaderboards

4× Camera-Shot Visualizations

4× Camera-Shot Charts

4× 2D-Animated Leaderboards

4× 2D-Animated Visualizations

4× 2D-Animated Charts

2× Camera-Shot Leaderboards

2× Camera-Shot Visualizations

2× Camera-Shot Charts

2× 2D-Animated Leaderboards

2× 2D-Animated Visualizations

2× 2D-Animated Charts

Submitting

To add your upscaling method to the benchmark, follow these steps:

1. Download the input	Download the test video If your upscaler requires extracting frames, we recommend using this command: ffmpeg -i test.mp4 wrong_gamma/frame%04d.png && ffmpeg -i wrong_gamma/frame%04d.png test/frame%04d.png
2. Apply your upscaler	Apply your 2× or 4× upscaling method to the video Configure it for lossless (CRF0/PNG) output, if possible. If your upscaler outputs images, we recommend using this command after upscaling: ffmpeg -i result/frame%04d.png -crf 0 -pix_fmt yuv444p -vf scale=out_range=tv:out_color_matrix=bt709: flags=full_chroma_int+accurate_rnd+full_chroma_inp -color_primaries bt709 -color_trc bt709 -colorspace bt709 -color_range tv result.mp4
3. Send us the result	Send video-upscalers-benchmark@videoprocessing.ai the following information: The full and short names of the upscaling method that we will specify in our benchmark. An MP4 file with upscaled frames. The link must be valid within a month after receiving it. Please ensure that you permit us to download the file. By submitting this video, you agree that third parties may use it. The exact upscaling commands, options, versions of used programs, etc. Each submission must contain results of exactly one model with fixed settings. Please do not fine-tune model parameters by hand for each video segment. If you want us to verify your method, send us the upscaler’s executable, and we will run it ourselves. Then we will mark the FPS of your algorithm as “Verified” in charts and tables. Executable's arguments must include paths to the folder with input PNG images and the folder for output PNG images. By submitting this executable, you agree that third parties may use it. You can verify the results of current participants or estimate the performance of your method on public samples of our dataset (clips “Fire” and “Pier”). Send us an email with a request to share them with you.

If you have any suggestions or questions, please contact us: video-upscalers-benchmark@videoprocessing.ai

Get Notifications About the Updates of This Benchmark

Do you want to be the first to discover the best new upscalers? We can notify you about this benchmark’s updates: simply submit your preferred email address using the form below. We promise not to send you unrelated information.

Further Reading

Check the “Methodology” section to learn how we prepare our dataset.

Check the “Participants” section to learn which upscalers’ implementations we use.