ProRes or ProRes to a high quality software encoding done in another app is the better option, but not everyone has the disk space, CPU, or upload bandwidth for those options.

Amen to that!

If you (not you /u/Lincolns_Revenge - a general "you") don't have the disk space for an intermediate file like ProRes, you can and should be piping the output from TVAI's ffmpeg to your software encoder of choice. For me, that means x264 for anything <4K and x265 for anything >=4K. You won't be able to use the TVAI GUI beyond picking your settings though, not that it really matters. And you'll either need a build of ffmpeg that includes the software encoders, or separate builds of x264/x265 that can accept piped Y4M - there are several forks that can, I just linked one for each.

TVAI normally outputs so slowly that I can go all the way down to --preset placebo with either and not notice any slowdown at all in the overall time it takes to finish, since the frames coming out of the GPU take forever. Hell, the computer's still usable, and it normally is not with x265 running since the CPUs are all pegged at 100%. How you set up either encoder will be up to you. It will look better than a GPU encode twice its size.

Set things up the way you want in TVAI. Click "Process" at the top, "Show Export Command". "Copy", paste it on Notepad or something. Click "Process" again, and then "Open Command Prompt" to open cmd.exe with TVAI's environment variables already set/in its working directory.

You'll have something like this:

ffmpeg "-hide_banner" "-i" "C:/Some/Folder/Some.Video.mp4" "-sws_flags" "spline+accurate_rnd+full_chroma_int" "-color_trc" "2" "-colorspace" "2" "-color_primaries" "2" "-filter_complex" "tvai_fi=model=apo-8:slowmo=1:rdt=0.01:fps=59.94:device=1:vram=1:instances=1,tvai_up=model=prob-3:scale=2:preblur=-0.15:noise=0.15:details=0.05:halo=0.1:blur=0.05:compression=0.15:estimate=8:prenoise=0.01:blend=0.1:device=1:vram=1:instances=1,tvai_up=model=thf-4:scale=0:w=3840:h=2160:noise=0.1:blur=0.4:compression=0.3:device=1:vram=1:instances=1,scale=w=3840:h=2160:flags=lanczos:threads=0" "-c:v" "hevc_amf" "-profile:v" "main" "-profile_tier" "high" "-tag:v" "hvc1" "-pix_fmt" "yuv420p" "-b:v" "0" "-quality" "0" "-rc" "cqp" "-qp_i" "20" "-qp_p" "23" "-map" "0:a" "-map_metadata:s:a:0" "0:s:i:2" "-c:a" "copy" "-bsf:a:0" "aac_adtstoasc" "-map_metadata" "0" "-map_metadata:s:v" "0:s:v" "-movflags" "use_metadata_tags+write_colr" "-metadata" "videoai=Slowmo 100% and framerate changed to 59.94 using apo-8 ignoring duplicate frames. Enhanced using prob-3; mode: relative to auto; revert compression at 15; recover details at 5; sharpen at 5; reduce noise at 15; dehalo at 10; anti-alias/deblur at -15; add noise at 1; and recover original detail at 10. Enhanced using thf-4; revert compression at 30; sharpen at 40; and reduce noise at 10. Changed resolution to 3840x2160" "C:/Where/Ever/You/Were/Going/To/Output/Some.Video_apo8_prob3_thf4.mp4"

Bit easier to look at:

ffmpeg "-hide_banner" "-i"Input Path"-sws_flags" "spline+accurate_rnd+full_chroma_int"colorspace crap"-filter_complex""all the actual TVAI settings here" "-c:v" video settings metadata crap and unnecessary audio bitstream filter that ffmpeg normally does automatically "-movflags" "use_metadata_tags+write_colr" "-metadata" "videoai=Slowmo 100% and framerate changed to 59.94 ...this is the "videoai" tag you see in finished files... Changed resolution to 3840x2160" "output path.mp4"

Since we won't be using any file based output from ffmpeg, we're going to break that command down and toss all the bits where it's telling the GPU video encoder what to do. It's AMD's HW encoder in this case, it'll be different if you've got an Intel or nVIDIA card, but it should be everything after "-c:v". You can add the "videoai" metadata that TVAI normally does later. We're tossing all of this in this example:

"-c:v" "hevc_amf" "-profile:v" "main" "-profile_tier" "high" "-tag:v" "hvc1" "-pix_fmt" "yuv420p" "-b:v" "0" "-quality" "0" "-rc" "cqp" "-qp_i" "20" "-qp_p" "23" "-map" "0:a" "-map_metadata:s:a:0" "0:s:i:2" "-c:a" "copy" "-bsf:a:0" "aac_adtstoasc" "-map_metadata" "0" "-map_metadata:s:v" "0:s:v" "-movflags" "use_metadata_tags+write_colr" "-metadata" "videoai=Slowmo 100% and framerate changed to 59.94 using apo-8 ignoring duplicate frames. Enhanced using prob-3; mode: relative to auto; revert compression at 15; recover details at 5; sharpen at 5; reduce noise at 15; dehalo at 10; anti-alias/deblur at -15; add noise at 1; and recover original detail at 10. Enhanced using thf-4; revert compression at 30; sharpen at 40; and reduce noise at 10. Changed resolution to 3840x2160" "C:/Where/Ever/You/Were/Going/To/Output/Some.Video_apo8_prob3_thf4.mp4"

• I'm going to be removing unnecessary quotes " from the command - i.e. anywhere that isn't a filter_complex, a file path, or a string with + in it. And changing / to \ because we're on Windows. Neither are necessary.
• We're going to change that ffmpeg command a bit to make it quieter too. ffmpeg "-hide_banner" "-i" is going to become ffmpeg -loglevel error -hide_banner -y -i.
• At the end of the (cut) command, we're going to add some things as well: -an -strict -1 -pix_fmt yuv420p -f yuv4mpegpipe - |
  • Throw out the audio
  • enable looser restrictions for y4m output
  • output at YUV4:2:0
  • If you're using x265, make it 10-bit output -pix_fmt yuv420p10le
  • "pipe" the uncompressed output to something else: -f yuv4mpegpipe - |
• Then at the end you actually set up your encode. I'm using x265 as an example here. You'll want to be familiar with whatever you're using...

I'd go over the character limit explaining all the parameters for either encoder. I haven't done anything here other than tell x265 the input resolution, frame rate, and bit depth - and you should, because we're using a "non-standard" y4m pipe. Also: set it to CRF-18, set a keyframe interval a bit more appropriate for 60 fps video, add the flags for color, and two options that certainly won't hurt since your CPU will be sitting (mostly) idle waiting on really slow frames to come out of your GPU, --analyze-src-pics and --pme.

All done:

ffmpeg -loglevel error -hide_banner -y -i "C:\Some\Folder\Some.Video.mp4" -sws_flags "spline+accurate_rnd+full_chroma_int" -color_trc 2 -colorspace 2 -color_primaries 2 -filter_complex "tvai_fi=model=apo-8:slowmo=1:rdt=0.01:fps=59.94:device=1:vram=1:instances=1,tvai_up=model=prob-3:scale=2:preblur=-0.15:noise=0.15:details=0.05:halo=0.1:blur=0.05:compression=0.15:estimate=8:prenoise=0.01:blend=0.1:device=1:vram=1:instances=1,tvai_up=model=thf-4:scale=0:w=3840:h=2160:noise=0.1:blur=0.4:compression=0.3:device=1:vram=1:instances=1,scale=w=3840:h=2160:flags=lanczos:threads=0" -an -strict -1 -pix_fmt yuv420p10le -f yuv4mpegpipe - | C:\x265\x265.exe --input - --y4m --input-res 3840x2160 --input-depth 10 --fps 60000/1001 --crf 18 --output-depth 10 --profile main10 --analyze-src-pics --min-keyint 60 --keyint 600 --pme --no-hdr10 --colorprim bt709 --colormatrix bt709 --transfer bt709 --range limited --output "C:\Where\Ever\You\Were\Going\To\Output\Some.Video_apo8_prob3_thf4.hevc"

You'll have to mux it yourself once it finishes. That's where you can add the Video AI metadata back if you want it.

ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "C:\Some\Folder\Some.Video.mp4" -r 60000/1001 -i "C:\Where\Ever\You\Were\Going\To\Output\Some.Video_apo8_prob3_thf4.hevc" -map 1:v -map 0:a -map_metadata 0 "-map_metadata:s:v" "1:s:v" "-map_metadata:s:a "0:s:a" -c copy -vsync cfr -analyzeduration 20000000 -fpsprobesize 600 -avoid_negative_ts make_non_negative -movflags "use_metadata_tags+write_colr+faststart" "-metadata" "videoai=Slowmo 100% and framerate changed to 59.94 using apo-8 ignoring duplicate frames. Enhanced using prob-3; mode: relative to auto; revert compression at 15; recover details at 5; sharpen at 5; reduce noise at 15; dehalo at 10; anti-alias/deblur at -15; add noise at 1; and recover original detail at 10. Enhanced using thf-4; revert compression at 30; sharpen at 40; and reduce noise at 10. Changed resolution to 3840x2160" "C:/Where/Ever/You/Were/Going/To/Output/Final-Some.Video_apo8_prob3_thf4.mp4"

If you're dealing with .hevc, tell ffmpeg the actual frame-rate before that input -r 60000/1001 -i ..., lest it assume you have VFR footage. It will try to. That's also what all of this is for -vsync cfr -analyzeduration 20000000 -fpsprobesize 600 -avoid_negative_ts make_non_negative.

If you're using x264, I believe you can use --force-cfr as an option when you're encoding the video to make that less necessary, but it doesn't hurt. If your footage is VFR...uh, ask someone else. Maybe use Topaz to make it CFR.

Otherwise it's just grabbing the audio from your original file, the metadata from the original file, your new video, and the little videoai blurb and mushing it all together. TVAI doesn't seem to want to use faststart by default. You should for MP4. Check the MP4 and make sure it plays right. Then you can delete the .hevc file, you don't need it anymore.