GitHub - pratik227/upscale_video_4k

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🎥 AI Video Enhancer & Upscaler

A local-first, privacy-friendly AI video upscaling tool built in Python.
Upscale videos to 1080p and 4K using Real-ESRGAN (AI) with automatic fallback to FSRCNN (CPU).

No cloud. No uploads. Fully offline.

✨ Features

AI Upscaling

  • Real-ESRGAN for high-quality AI enhancement
  • NVIDIA CUDA support
  • Apple Silicon (MPS) support

Smart Fallback

  • Automatically switches to OpenCV FSRCNN
  • Works on CPU-only systems without configuration

1080p → 4K Pipeline

  • AI upscale to 1080p
  • High-quality Lanczos interpolation for 4K delivery

Aspect Ratio Handling

  • Automatic 4:3 → 16:9 correction
  • Smart padding (no stretching or cropping)

Audio Preservation

  • Extracts original audio
  • Lossless remux into upscaled video

Local & Offline

  • No uploads
  • No server-side processing
  • No data leaves your machine

🖥 Platform & Hardware Support

Operating Systems

  • macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon)
  • Linux
  • Windows

Acceleration Backends

Hardware Backend Status
NVIDIA GPU CUDA Real-ESRGAN
Apple Silicon (M1–M3) MPS Real-ESRGAN
CPU-only OpenCV FSRCNN Fallback

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

  • Python 3.8+
  • FFmpeg (must be available in PATH)

Install FFmpeg

macOS

Linux

Windows

Download from: https://ffmpeg.org/download.html
Ensure ffmpeg is added to PATH.

📦 Installation

  1. Clone the repository

    git clone https://github.com/pratik227/video-enhance.git
cd video-enhance

  2. Install dependencies

    pip install -r requirements.txt

  3. Download model weights

    AI Upscaling (Recommended)
    Place one of the following files in the project root:

    • RealESRGAN_x4plus.pth
    • RealESRGAN_x4.pth

    CPU Fallback
    Place this file in the models/ directory:

    • FSRCNN_x3.pb

🛠 Usage

Rename your input video to match the default name OR update the INPUT_VIDEO variable in the script.

Output

  • AI-enhanced 1080p video
  • High-quality 4K video
  • Original audio preserved

📚 Python Dependencies

  • torch
  • opencv-python
  • ffmpeg-python
  • numpy
  • tqdm
  • realesrgan
  • ai-forever Real-ESRGAN

⚙️ Processing Notes

  • GPU acceleration is auto-detected at runtime
  • FSRCNN fallback is used automatically if GPU is unavailable
  • Optimized for long-form and archival video processing

Suitable for

  • Old SD footage
  • Personal media restoration
  • Content remastering
  • Offline processing pipelines

💖 Support & Sponsorship

If this project helps you, consider supporting its development.

💝 GitHub Sponsors
https://github.com/sponsors/pratik227

☕ Buy Me a Coffee
https://buymeacoffee.com/pratik227

⭐ Free Support

  • Star the repository
  • Share on X / Reddit / Hacker News
  • Recommend it to others

🧑‍💻 Maintainer

Pratik Patel
Independent builder focused on local-first, privacy-respecting tools

GitHub: https://github.com/pratik227

📄 License

MIT License
See the LICENSE file for details.