How to Upscale a Video to 4K

Don't have native 4K content? You can upscale your existing HD videos to 4K quality within minutes with just software. Here's how.

Do you want to transform videos to 4K and watch them on a 4K TV or upload to YouTube or Vimeo?

There are many 4K display options like 4K TVs, 4K monitors, 4K video hosting websites, etc. But, 4K content production is yet to match the pace. For 4K TV, you'll need costly subscriptions to watch a few 4K TV shows or movies.

Instead of waiting and paying a hefty price for 4K, you can convert your own video content to 4K effortlessly. This article will introduce multiple software applications that can upscale videos to 4K within minutes.

1. Upscale Video in VideoProc Converter

VideoProc Converter is a trending software that lets you upscale an HD or 1080p video to 4K. The app utilizes the onboard GPU for faster processing. Its motion-adaptive pixel scaling algorithm is an AI program that can assess sample 4K images to create and place new interpolated pixels.

The AI also automatically adjusts the sharpening and diffusion of new pixels. You can follow these steps for the conversion:

1. Download and install the VideoProc Converter app on your computer.
2. Run the app and go to the video processing window.
3. You can drag and drop source HD video to the blank video editor workspace or click on the +Video on the top to import.
4. Click the Video button on the bottom of the video editor window.
5. Choose the 4K MP4 Video option as the output video format.
6. If you want to tweak video attributes like frame rate, aspect ratio, video codecs, and so on, click on Option that appears to the far left of your selected video on the editor screen.
7. Now, click on the Run button at the lower right corner of the software.

The app will save the output file in the Output Folder location. Click Open to access the upscaled 4K video.

Download: VideoProc Converter for Windows | macOS (Free trial, paid starts from $29.95)

2. Upscale Video to 4K With Pikavue

Pikavue video upscaling service is a cloud-based video upscaling software. One plus point of this platform is it doesn't put the processing strain on your computer.

Therefore, it's an ideal solution for 4K upscaling if you don't own a high-end computer. The platform upconverts your source video through an AI engine.

Pikavue regularly trains its video processing AI with numerous images and videos to deliver the best possible output. You'll need to pay for the upscaling through Pikavue coins. You'll get 300 coins for free. To upscale videos to 4K, follow these steps:

1. Sign up for a Pikavue account and go to the Dashboard.
2. Select Video Upscaler from the left-side menu and then click on Upload to import the source video to the software.
3. You need to select a video of H.264 / H.265 codec, at least 864 x 480p resolution and 300 seconds in length.
4. Choose either 4X or 2X enlargement, depending on the input video.
5. Slide the upscaling quality slider to one notch above the Realistic scale.
6. Select Upload.
7. Once the video is on the Video Upscaler screen, click on the blue arrow beside it.

Now, simply click on Upscale to start the process. Once the upscaling is complete, you can download the video by clicking the Download button.

3. DVDFab Enlarger AI for Video Upscaling

DVDFab Enlarger AI video upscaling software includes deep learning and artificial intelligence algorithm for video processing. It can enhance and enlarge the input video by up to 300%.

It can usually transform 480p video to 1080p and 1080p to 4K. This means that you can use it to run two consecutive upscaling to convert your SD video libraries to 4K. While upscaling your videos, the app automatically improves the output video quality to a standard level.

You can follow these steps to learn how to upscale videos to 4K with DVDFab 12:

1. Open the DVDFab 12 app from the desktop.
2. Drag and drop the source video file onto the video editor screen of the tool.
3. In the Output section, select the options MP4.Enlarger.AI, Standard, Premium Quality, and 4K.
4. Click on the Start button at the lower right corner of the app.
5. It'll show you whether your CPU and GPU are supported or not. Click OK.
6. The trial usage conditions will show. Click OK again.

That's it. Now, the upscaling process will start, and once the progress bar reaches 100 percent, you'll get your 4K converted video.

Download: DVDFab Enlarger AI for Windows (Free trial, paid $44.99)

4. Upscale a Video to 4K in Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere Pro is an industry standard for video post-processing and production. You can convert your HD videos to 4K effortlessly in this app.

This software utilizes GPU acceleration technology to speed up the conversion process. Thus, your video upscaling work will be faster if you do that on a high-end desktop or laptop.

Here's how to upscale videos to 4K with Premiere Pro:

1. Start the Adobe Premiere Pro app on your computer and create a new project.
2. Set a name for the project and click OK at the lower right corner of the window.
3. Drag and drop your source video file to the Drag media here to create sequence field.
4. Now, select the Sequence menu on the top panel of the app and then click on Sequence Settings.
5. Set these values on the Sequence Settings window: horizontal frame size 3840, vertical frame size 2160, check Maximum Render Quality, and Maximum Bit Depth. Click OK to save the changes.
6. Right-click on the video sequence in the timeline panel and then select Set to Frame Size on the menu that appears.
7. Select the entire sequence and then press Ctrl+M.
8. The Export window will appear. Under the Video menu, scroll down till you find Bitrate Encoding. Now, set both Target and Maximum Bitrate to 50 Mbps.
9. Finally, click on Export at the bottom to start the upscaling process.

Once complete, you'll find the output 4K video in the folder you selected when you created this project.

Download: Adobe Premiere Pro for Windows | macOS (Free trial, paid from $20.99 per month)

4K Upscaling Made Easy and Effortless

You can easily upscale videos to 4K using any of the four tools discussed above. Some apps will only allow you to convert HD videos to 4K. In that case, you need to convert your SD videos to HD first.

4K videos are in demand mainly due to the expansion of broadband internet and the 4K display market. Therefore, upscale your video libraries to 4K for inexpensive home entertainment in ultra high resolution or keep your YouTube fans with you by upgrading old videos to 4K.

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