rescue severe OUT OF FOCUS SD videos !!

As far as I can tell, there is no tool (yet) to truly fix out-of-focus images.

There are several plug-ins available claiming to fix the problem, but they mostly provide a combination of several sharpening techniques. What they do, they do very well and with some out-of-focus images, they can work wonders. Nik and Topaz come to mind, but I haven't used the trials in while, so it may be other vendors. Pretty sure they are Photoshop plugs (only), so you'd have to pass your video through PS.

I took your image and tweaked the shadow-highlights, then some unsharp mask with a low amount (20%) and a high radius (7 pix) to get a little improvement.

One problem you will have with many video sources (particularly SD) is the large amount of edge-enhancement added by most video cameras. Any significant amount of sharpening exaggerates the edge-enhancement, making the image look "cartoon-y."

If you find something to make big changes in out-of-focus materials, I'd love to hear about it.

Jim
ColorBurst Video

Hi Jim, did you copy to your post the embed code or link that it shows next to the upload images panel ? I guess its the only way to add images here
Thanks for your valuable effort by the way

Hi Rig.

Some days ago I've run across a program called Perfect resize pro, that uses the method of enlargement different from others.
I was impressed by results.

You can export to sequence,
enlarge every frame x2-3 times,
than import back to SD.

That will work.

Thank you Chris, I really need your guide, I'm so excited to try your method, but I'm not exactly an expert, when you mean "interpret fields on" do I do that on "interprate footage" then "Fields and Pulldown" (separate fields ?) or where exactly ?

unfortunately the template you made was done in AE CS5.5 and I only have the CS4 but I guess I will try to get the CS6 trial, and finally do you mean that I should resize the video on photoshop extended but why exactly ? I mean, increase the size and then reduce it again to SD while editing ? SD is perfect for the customer but as long as the out of focus is improved, this out of focus is severe, if you can take a look to my first post there is a frame sample in SD
Thanks for your valuable help Chris, I hope you can guide me a little bit, I'm really desperated !!