How To Fix A Pixelated Video?

A grainy or pixelated video can be frustrating because it messes up all your effort while shooting it and affects the viewers' overall experience.

What Causes Pixelation Video?

Before you learn how to fix a pixelation video, you must know what causes the pixelation in videos so you can avoid it in the future to prevent your videos from being pixelated or grainy. Moreover, having the right knowledge about pixelation can also prove to be useful when it comes to fixing glitchy or noisy video issues.

The video file quality and media player incompatibility are two leading causes of video pixelation. The following are some common reasons behind a pixelated video:

• The main reason for grainy videos is a defective camera, low aperture, and high IOS settings.
• The video becomes pixelated or grainy when recorded in low-lighting conditions or at resolution below 480p.
• Video file compression can cause some data to be squished and pixelated.
• Severely corrupted video files can also be a reason why your video looks pixelated or glitchy.
• The encoding may be problematic while exporting a video if it looks pixelated after exporting.
• At the time of playing an app or video, the video seems pixelated due to the poor internet connection.

These are the possible causes of pixelation and are hard nuts to crack. But no worries; you can find all possible solutions below regarding how to fix a pixelated video.

Types of Pixelated Video

A pixelated video has low resolution, tiny squares, or blocky images that are visible to the naked eye. This grainy appearance is often caused by insufficient pixel density to display content details.

Minor Artifacts VS. Severe Distortion

Minor artifacts are mild banding or blockiness, often noticeable in fast-moving scenes as blurriness around edges. This slight pixelation only significantly impacts the overall viewing experience. These minor color mismatches occur when a video is encoded with a low-quality trade-off to reduce file size.

On the other hand, severe distortion refers to major quality issues that significantly impact the viewing experience, making a video difficult to enjoy. Severe distortion is a complete blockiness that loses details in fast-moving scenes, creating glitches like color smearing, noise, or distorted visual issues.

Temporary (streaming-related) VS. Permanent (encoding-related) 

Temporary artifacts are quality issues during live streaming due to poor network connection or transmission problems. This temporary pixelation causes blurriness in a video during a live stream that typically resolves when the connection stabilizes. For example, blurriness in live videos.

However, permanent artifacts are quality issues related to the encoding that occur when a video is encoded or compressed. The artifacts permanently exist in the file and are visible in any playback context regardless of the internet speed—for example, blackness in downloaded videos due to over-compression.

Ways to Fix Pixelated Video

Recover the Original Video File

This method is simple to use and usually works. First, check to see if the original video file is accessible. If yes, it means the file still needs to be completely compressed. In this case, you can easily remove the pixelated video and make a fresh, lower-compression copy of the original video file. If this idea needs more help, go to the next solution.

Check Incompatible Video Player

Some videos are encoded in a way that some players can't handle. In this case, the only way to fix pixelated video is to use a different player and see if the video plays smoothly.

Tools Recommend to Fix Pixelated Video

Today, removing pixelation from video is not a challenging task if you do some right tricks. Here are some different ways that will be helpful to fix grain or pixelation.

Method 1: Use UniFab AI Video Enhancer to Fix Pixelated Videos

You can easily fix pixelated videos using the AI tool UniFab AI Video Enhancer. It is designed to improve video quality and details to a top-notch level. It can fix a pixelation video within no time enhancing clarity by adding more pixels.

Method 2: Tenorshare 4DDiG Video Repair Tool

Tenorshare 4DDiG can repair broken, damaged, choppy, pixelated, or grainy videos without experience. It supports batch processing and formats such as MOV, MP4, MKV, 3G2, 3GP, or M4V within no time.

You can fix pixelated video with a few steps, including:

Step 1: Download the tool on your PC, select 'Fix Video Errors,' and then click 'Start' to start it up.

Step 2: Add a pixelated video and click the 'Start Repair' option to begin the process.

Step 3: Preview the repaired video and select 'Export' to save it once the procedure is completed.

Method 3: Fix Pixelated Videos with Adobe After Effects

Adobe After Effects is one of the best and most widely used video repair tools. Its fantastic feature, 'Remove Grain,' can automatically remove pixelation and grain from your videos. It produces high-quality results, but it is paid.

Here's how to use Adobe After Effects to remove pixelation from videos.

Step 1: Open this tool and create a new project

Step 3: Add the video file to the timeline by dragging it to the composition tab.

Step 4: Click the Effects & Presets tab and drag the effect after typing Remove grain.

Step 5: Go to Noise Reduction Settings and change the noise reduction levels.

Step 6: Switch the viewing mode from Preview to Final Output to apply the effect to the full image.

Step 7: After everything is done, export the video.

Method 4: Use VLC Media Player to Fix Pixelated Videos

If you don't want to buy Adobe After Effects, you can use this free VLC Media Player. It is one of the fastest video players and can automatically restore pixelated videos.

Here's how to fix pixelation videos with this VLC Player.

Step 1: Click the Tools option.

Step 2: Open VLC Media Player.

Step 3: Switch to Preferences > Input/Codecs under the Tools tab.

Step 4: Expand the drop-down menu under the 'Damaged or incomplete AVI file' option, then choose 'Always fix.'

Step 5: Click the 'Save' button and next go to Media and Open File to load your video.

How to Fix a Pixelated Video with the AI Tool?

Here is how to remove pixelation from a distorted video with UniFab.

Step 1: Download and install the UniFab software to your PC and open it.

Step 2: Click on the 'Upscaler' module and upload your pixelated video by clicking the 'Add Video' button.

Step 3: Set the quality, resolution, codec, and frame rate from the video enlargement setting and click the 'Start' button to allow UniFab to repair your video automatically. Once the video is processed, download it to your PC.

Preventing Pixelation in Future Videos, Best Tips

There are several ways to avoid pixelated or grainy videos if you still need to record video.

• Shoot video in proper lighting conditions: To avoid grainy and muddy footage, avoid shooting videos in low light, such as on a cloudy day, at midnight, in the basement, etc. If necessary, add extra lights using lamps, lighting reflectors, and other devices.
• Choose a higher aperture: To create bright and crisp footage, use a wide aperture (usually f/2.8 - f/5.6). This aperture lets in more light and focuses sharply on objects at a closer distance.
• Use lower ISO: The video looks bright at high ISO but is more grainy and noisy. Use lower ISO (typically ISO 100 - 800) to avoid grains.
• Choose a camera with a larger sensor: Use a camera with a full-frame sensor, as this allows larger pixels on the sensor, which helps record more details.
• Use the proper camera setting: If your camera supports filming in 4 K HDR, switch the resolution to 4K mode before recording a video. If not, upscale 1080p to 4K with an AI tool, as discussed above.