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by Alan J. Pierce, EdD

vReveal

Video Enhancement Software

If you watch CSI you often see crime scene investigators improve video quality. MotionDSP designs this type of video enhancement software for police and government agencies. They have created vReveal a software package that performs the same type of video enhancement for the consumer market.

The first thing you must do is separate in your mind the process of video editing and video enhancement. This program is basically designed to enhance your videos. To be accurate it can trim the ends of your video, rotate your video 90 degrees, or create digital photos from your movie.

When you run a video through the software, vReveal's algorithms, automatically compares each frame and then makes the necessary adjustments to improve the quality of the video. You just select the enhancements you want to run from Sharpen, Brighten, Clean, Stabilize, and 2x Resolution. The software will run your video and make the changes. You don't have to select the improvements one at a time so you can load up on all the changes you want to make in a single pass. The 2x resolution feature seems to only work if your original video starts out as a low resolution movie.

During the enhancement process your video will run on your computer screen at a very slow speed. If you are enhancing a long video, depending on the processing speed of your computer, this process can take a very long time.

When processing is completed you can save your video so it specifically matches the method you will use to share it (computer, YouTube, Facebook). You can also save your video so it simultaneously runs the original and enhanced versions in the same window.

This software does have limitations. When I tried to use it to enhance HD video shot with a ContourHD camera the software quickly analyzed the video and informed me that "enhancements are limited to videos with a vertical resolution of 576p and smaller". It did enhance the video that was shot with the ContourHD when it was set to SD Fast Action.

Since seeing is believing I suggest you try the free download of the program at http://www.vreveal.com and try enhancing some of your videos. You can watch my test videos at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vuISLtvC_E and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0Jn9wH1Prs

Alan J. Pierce is co-author of Introduction to Technology, Glencoe McGraw-Hill 2010

and a TechDirections Magazine Columnist .Visit www.techtoday.us for past columns and resources.