How to Make a Low Quality Video Look Better: Top 12 Tools & Fixes [2025 Guide]
- Last updated on 2025-04-16
Table Of Content
Introduction
Have a video that looks blurry, pixelated, dark, or just… bad? Don't worry. Whether you're dealing with low-resolution footage, poor lighting, grainy images, or shaky camera work, there are powerful tools and techniques to help you make low quality videos high quality again.
In this guide, we'll show you how to fix low quality videos using AI-powered software, online video enhancers, and pro editing tips. Whether you're editing a home video, a marketing clip, or restoring old footage, you'll find everything you need right here.
What Makes a Video Low Quality?
Before we learn how to make a low quality video look better, it's important to understand why it looks bad in the first place. Common causes of poor video quality include:
- Low Resolution
Videos recorded at lower resolutions (e.g., 480p or 720p) appear blurry or pixelated on larger screens. Aim for 1080p for clearer visuals.
- Bad Lighting
Poor lighting causes grainy or dark footage. Proper lighting helps capture clearer, more appealing visuals.
- Incorrect Frame Rate
A low frame rate (FPS) can make videos look choppy. TikTok and Instagram recommend 30-60 FPS, while YouTube can range from 24-60 FPS.
- Wrong Camera Settings
Improper settings like incorrect focus or low frame rates cause blurry or shaky footage.
- Low Bitrate
A low bitrate leads to poor video clarity. For social media, aim for a bitrate between 5–8 Mbps for optimal quality.
Identifying the problem helps you choose the right tool or technique to fix it.
Techniques to Make Low Quality Video High Quality
Here are some ways to fix and enhance a poor quality video:
- Upscale Resolution
AI-powered upscaling tools like UniFab Video Enhancer can boost video resolution to 1080p, 4K, 8K, or 16K, improving clarity and visual quality.
- Enhance Sharpness & Detail
Adjust sharpness and contrast to recover fine details and make your video look clearer.
- Denoise
Eliminate grainy noise for cleaner footage with denoising tools.
- Stabilize Shaky Footage
Use stabilization software to smooth out shaky videos for a more professional appearance.
- Adjust Brightness and Contrast
Improving lighting and contrast can enhance the overall look of the video, making it more vibrant.
- Color Correction
Use color grading to fix color imbalances and give the video a more polished, professional appearance.
- Frame Rate Adjustment
Increase the frame rate to make your video smoother, especially for fast-moving scenes.
How to Make a Low Quality Video Look Better [Windows & Mac]
Whether you're dealing with low resolution, noise, or shaky footage, the right tools can make low quality videos look better. With AI-powered software for Windows and Mac, it's easy to fix bad quality videos and upscale them to high quality. Here are the best tools to improve poor video quality fast and effectively.
1. UniFab All-In-One
UniFab All-In-One uses powerful AI and GPU acceleration to upscale videos up to 4K/8K/16K and enhance video quality in multiple ways. It automatically removes noise, reduces judder with frame interpolation, and converts SDR to HDR for richer visuals. Whether you're working with a low resolution video or trying to fix bad quality videos, UniFab is a complete solution to make your video look higher quality.
Free Trial: 30-day free trial for full features, without watermark
Supported Platforms: Windows & Mac
Key Features of UniFab All-In-One
- Upscale Videos up to 16K
UniFab Video Enhancer uses AI to upscale videos to 720p, 1080p, 4K, 8K, or 16K, fixing issues like noise, compression artifacts, and blurry edges.
- Denoise Video
Removes noise from low-light, high-ISO, or compressed videos for clearer playback.
Additional Features
AI improves facial details, enhancing clarity and sharpness for more defined features.
AI adds realistic color to black-and-white or vintage videos, bringing them to life.
Additional Features
- Convert SDR to HDR: Transforms SDR videos to HDR10 or Dolby Vision for brighter, more vivid visuals.
- Stabilization: Corrects camera shake for smoother, stable video.
- Frame Interpolation: Increases frame rates up to 120 fps, improving motion smoothness.
- Deinterlacing: Converts interlaced footage to progressive video, enhancing clarity.
- Audio Upmix AI: Upgrades audio to surround sound formats like DTS 7.1 or EAC3 5.1 for immersive sound.
- Video Conversion & Compression: Supports over 1000 formats and offers lossless compression for smaller, portable files.
- Output Profile Adjustment: Customize video settings like resolution, bitrate, and audio channels.
- Flexible Editing: Edit videos with cropping, trimming, adding subtitles, etc.
Free AI Tools by UniFab
- Vocal Remover AI: Isolates/removes vocals for karaoke or remixes.
- Background Remover AI: Delivers precise cut-outs with fine detail.
How to make low quality videos high quality with UniFab
30-day Free Trial with full feature access!
Select Mode & Import Your Video
Open UniFab, choose the desired module. Upload your video to start enhancing it.
Adjust Output Settings
Customize output settings such as resolution, format, quality, codec, and more according to your preferences. Finally, press the 'Start' button to begin enhancing your video.
Pros
Banks on AI to upscale video to 720P/1080P/4K/8K
Interpolation technology can deliver a natural motion effect by boosting the frame rate.
Equipped with an integrated video editing tool, it offers functionalities such as trimming, cropping, merging, rotating, and flipping videos effortlessly.
It can support videos in 1000+ formats for increased compatibility.
Cons
Currently not supported on Linux.
2. PowerDirector 365
PowerDirector is a powerful AI video enhancer that helps fix low quality videos. It offers tools like lighting adjustment, denoise, color correction, and stabilization to make bad quality videos look better. Features such as HDR Effect, Color Match, and AI Restoration enhance clarity and color. With support for multiple formats and direct social uploads, it's great for turning low resolution video into high quality content.
Best For: Video enhancement & edits irrespective of your skill level.
Price: Annual plan at $54.99/year (under the annual plan)
Supported Platforms: Windows & macOS
Pros
Can auto-detect faces to apply blur effects on multiple faces in the videos.
Allows speeding up or slowing down any clip as required.
It makes it easy to fix unwanted camera shakes.
HDR effect helps bring out the color and highlights of your footage.
Cons
You will be bombarded with constant advertisements to upgrade.
3. Topaz Video Enhance AI
Topaz AI Enhancer is a leading desktop tool to fix low quality videos using advanced AI. It analyzes footage, fills in missing details, and reduces noise for a sharper, cleaner result. Ideal for upscaling low resolution video to HD, 4K, 8K, or even 16K, it also creates smooth slow-motion effects without stutter. A good choice to make bad quality videos better.
Best For: Slow-motion old footage whose video quality you wish to enhance.
Price: $299
Supported Platforms: Windows & macOS
Pros
Users can upscale to 16x for creating naturally enhanced footage.
Nyx AI Model helps fix compression artifacts and remove noise from 4K footage.
Chronos & Apollo models can create new frames for super smooth results.
It can stabilize the frame while reducing motion blur caused by slow shutter speeds and motion.
Cons
It comes with a high price tag and system requirements.
4. Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro is a powerful tool to enhance video quality, especially for 1080P content. It offers features like the Unsharp Mask to sharpen blurry footage, plus controls for contrast, saturation, and color grading. With the Lumetri Color Tool and advanced audio editing, you can easily fix low quality videos and give them a cinematic look. Widely used by professionals, it supports nearly all formats and handles poor video quality with precision.
Best For: Professional video editors who wish to make low-quality video high quality.
Price: $22.99/month
Supported Platforms: Windows & macOS
Pros
Offers text-based editing to reorder, refine, and trim clips easily.
Users can choose from the library rich in transitions and effects to create professional-grade results.
Powerful correction and grading tools can deliver the correct result for your video.
Pro audio tools help enhance dialogue and reduce noise.
Cons
It's evident for new users to feel overwhelmed by the complex interface.
5. AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI
AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI excels at making low quality video high quality with powerful facial recognition and motion tracking. It enhances blurry faces and upscales low resolution video from SD to HD, 4K, or even 8K. The tool uses multi-frame super-resolution to improve clarity while maintaining a natural look. Ideal for beginners, it makes turning bad quality videos into high quality simple and effective.
Best For: Face recognition & refinement from highly noisy video.
Price: Yearly plan for Windows & Mac at $119.95
Supported Platforms: Windows & macOS
Pros
The interface is easy to navigate.
AI Video Denoise helps reduce grain automatically.
You can naturally colorize black-and-white videos.
Users can blur faces for privacy reasons.
Cons
It imposes high system requirements.
6. HitPaw Video Enhancer
HitPaw Video Enhancer is perfect for beginners looking to make low quality video to high quality. It offers one-click AI models like Denoise, Face, and Animation to enhance and upscale low resolution video to 1080p, 4K, or even 8K. The Face Model sharpens details like eyelashes and hair, making bad quality video look clearer. Compatible with both Windows and Mac, it also includes features like background removal and sky replacement for a polished, high-quality result.
Best For: Repairing anime videos with precision.
Price: For Windows (Monthly license at $42.99, yearly license at $99.99) & Mac (Monthly license at $69.99, annual license at $109.99)
Supported Platforms: Windows & macOS
Pros
Batch processing helps upscaling multiple videos together.
Users can restore the picture clarity in both 2D and 3D animations.
Can restore old and corrupted videos by banking on deep learning AI.
It supports video enhancement up to 8K standard.
Cons
It needs proper video editing tools.
7. Final Cut Pro X
Final Cut Pro is a powerful tool for Mac users to make low quality videos look better. It offers advanced color grading, filters, and correction tools to fix brightness, contrast, white balance, and more. You can enhance 1080p or 4K footage with sharpening effects, apply creative looks, and track color changes on moving objects. It also improves poor video quality with background noise reduction and audio level optimization.
Best For: Adjusting focus and fixing low-quality videos on Mac
Price: One-time fee of $299.99
Supported Platforms: Mac
Pros
It comes packed with pro-level color tools to deliver pixel-level adjustments.
A nonlinear timeline makes it easy to make low-quality video high-quality.
Duplicate detection helps find audio and video appearing multiple times quickly.
A dedicated color inspector helps deliver superior color grading.
Cons
It lacks a Windows variant.
How to Make Low Quality Videos High Quality [Online]
Web-based applications can be your best bet if you prefer to avoid downloading heavy-duty software on your devices. Let's look at the best online utilities that can answer your query about how to make a low-quality video look better.
1. Flixier
Flixier is an easy-to-use online editor for creating high-quality videos. With features like text, image, sound, transitions, and auto-subtitles, you can quickly trim, cut, or crop videos without any downloads. Its intuitive drag-and-drop interface is perfect for all skill levels, making video editing hassle-free. Flixier also offers built-in motion titles, transitions, and access to over 2 million stock files, perfect for crafting engaging content for platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
Best For: Creating social media videos with custom resolution.
Price: Free
Supported Platforms: Web-based
Pros
It can be used in basic computers without any high-level skills.
An easy-to-understand interface makes it well-suited for novice users.
Offers ready-made transitions for imparting a professional look and feel to your videos.
You can choose between 50+ transitions from its built-in stock libraries.
Cons
Frame rate tends to drop while reviewing videos.
2. Clideo
Clideo is an online tool to easily create, edit, and enhance low-quality videos. With its user-friendly interface and multi-track timeline, you can add text, adjust fonts, colors, and backgrounds, and create picture-in-picture or split-screen effects. Clideo also supports adjusting aspect ratios for social media and modifying volume, speed, brightness, and contrast—all without the need to download or install software.
Best For: Novice users looking for a low-quality to high-quality video converter.
Price: Free
Supported Platforms: Web-based
Pros
It can clear background noise like fan or wind sounds from the video.
It saves draft variants of the project automatically.
It offers a multi-layered timeline with simple tools.
Users can upload clips from Google Photos, Google Drive, or Dropbox.
Cons
It imposes a limit of 500MB on file size.
3. Kapwing
Kapwing is an online video editor that makes editing low-quality videos fast and easy. With its drag-and-drop timeline, users of all skill levels can quickly trim, resize, convert, and compress videos. Kapwing’s AI-powered tools, like Smart Cut for automatic silence removal and Magic Subtitles for accurate, editable subtitles, streamline the editing process. It’s a great choice for enhancing videos for different platforms, making it ideal for creating high-quality content quickly.
Best For: Content creators looking for an affordable solution on the go.
Price: Start for free and upgrade to the Pro plan at $16 per member per month (on annual billing)
Supported Platforms: Web-based
Pros
Kapwing can generate videos from simple text prompts, creating clips, subtitles, music, and transitions based on your description.
You can add music and effects while removing background noise from the audio.
Users can highlight important information in a video by adding movement and energy.
AI-enhanced tools help clip, trim, and merge music tracks to your video file.
Cons
It lacks advanced features like color correction, motion tracking, and noise reduction.
How to Make a Low Quality Video Look Better [Apps]
Are you a smartphone user wanting to upgrade low-quality videos to high-definition? Look no further! We've got two top-notch enhancer apps that you should try out.
1. Pinnacle Studio 26
Pinnacle offers tools to make bad quality videos better, smooth shaky footage, and adjust white balance. It includes LUTs, filters, and Selective Colors for instant color grading, making poor video quality look professional. The app also helps elevate low-resolution footage, turning it into high-quality videos with themed templates and overlays for a polished final product.
Best For: Professional video enthusiasts who wish to edit and enhance videos.
Price: $69.99
Supported Platforms: iOS & Windows
Pros
You can stylize your productions with color adjustments, creative filters, smooth transitions, and more.
The drag-and-drop timeline allows edits across six tracks simultaneously.
Easily navigable interface packed with features.
Support for 3D masking & editing.
Cons
It comes with a high price tag.
2. Videoshop
Videoshop provides extensive video editing features, making it a versatile tool for enhancing your low-quality videos. You can quickly refine your footage with capabilities like trimming, merging, rescaling, and adding music or sound effects. The app enhances video quality primarily through filters and effects, including Instagram-inspired filters and ten transitions. Advanced features like split-screen, picture-in-picture, green screen, motion tracking, keyframing, advanced color tuning, audio detaching, scene detection, and video stabilization allow professional-level editing.
Best For: Creating high-resolution videos and sharing them instantly over social media channels.
Price: Free
Supported Platforms: iOS & Android
Pros
An easy UI makes it well-suited for users of all skill levels.
It offers a rich library of filters, with new ones added daily.
Allows adjusting video speed from slow to fast.
You can select among four transitions to animate your videos.
Cons
It is not suited for processing large videos.
Conclusion
With content creation booming, video quality matters more than ever. Poor visuals often hold videos back, but video enhancers can fix that. UniFab Video Enhancer is a top choice for your query on how to make a low-quality video look better—it offers powerful AI features and a user-friendly interface to make your footage look sharp, polished, and professional.
FAQs
Is it possible to enhance a poor-quality video?
Yes, there are various methods to improve your video's quality. Adjusting settings on your equipment and optimizing lighting can help you capture better footage initially. Moreover, a video editor can enhance the quality of already recorded videos. For how to enhance video quality, head to this guide.
What are some ways to improve video quality?
Video editing software like UniFab Video Enhancer provides multiple techniques to enhance your footage. If your video is too dark or too bright or has color issues, color correction tools can help. A denoiser can be effective for grainy or pixelated videos. If you have shaky footage from an action camera, you can use a stabilizer and lens correction to fix the common fisheye effect.
Is it possible to unblur a video?
Yes, it's possible to unblur a video using AI. Tools like UniFab Video Enhancer use advanced algorithms to improve clarity and restore details. It not only sharpens the overall video but also uses AI unblur face technology to recover facial features in blurry or low-quality footage.