VLC Upscale | Guide on How to Upscale Video Quality in VLC

If blurry videos or washed-out colors ruin your viewing experience, understanding how to perform a VLC upscale is essential. Upscaling lets you transform low-resolution footage, such as 480p, into sharper, high-quality videos—even up to 4K. While VLC is widely known as a free, open-source media player, it also includes features to upscale video quality—making VLC a handy tool for VLC upscale video and better playback. This guide will walk you through various VLC settings, techniques, and features to enhance your videos with VLC upscaling.
 VLC Upscale

What is VLC?

what is vlc

VLC media player is a free and open-source software that can play most multimedia audio and video files, webcams, DVDs, audio CDs, VCDs, and other streaming protocols. The Video LAN project developed VLC. VLC media player is available for all devices, iOS, iPad, Android, and digital platforms like Microsoft and Apple's App Store. VLC also has a feature to play video back again. It supports video compression and can apply effects and filters to videos. It can enhance video quality by hardware yuv rgb conversions and adjusting color components. VLC multimedia player has no spyware, ads, or user tracking.

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Can VLC Upscale Video Quality?

Although VLC does not have the advanced AI-powered upscaling capabilities found in dedicated video enhancers, it still offers a variety of adjustable settings that can help improve video quality to some extent. With VLC, you can perform basic VLC upscale video adjustments—such as enabling VLC super resolution, applying video filters, correcting colors, and modifying output settings. In the following sections, we’ll detail these settings and show you how to use them to enhance your video playback.

[Guide] 4 Ways for VLC Upscaling

In this section, we will explore four practical and effective methods for VLC upscale video—techniques that can help you enhance your video playback quality using VLC Media Player’s built-in features. 

1. Adjust Output Modules in VLC to Upscale Video

VLC has advanced video setting features that work excellently for upscaling video quality. You can adjust the output module or change VLC settings for the best video quality. To adjust module settings, you don't need to go through a complex process. Just follow these simple steps in this tutorial and see the magic of VLC upscale features.

DirectX output module setting in VLC

  • Open the video in the VLC media player and click Tools at the top menu. Next, choose the 'Preferences' option or press Ctrl + P to open the following interface.
  • Click 'Show Settings' and change settings from 'Simple' to 'All'. Next, tap the 'Video' panel and click 'Output Modules.'
  • Select DirectX (DirectDraw) video output and uncheck "Use hardware YUV ->RGB Conversions'.
  • Click the 'Save' button and restart the VLC media player to load your desired video or DVD.
DirectX output module setting in VLC

If this module doesn't work, you can try the following VLC upscale output module to enhance video quality in VLC.

OpenGL output module in VLC

  • Select the 2nd OpenGL from the Output Modules.
  • In the color space conversion section, change the Relative colorimetric under the Rendering intent for color conversion to Absolute colorimetric or saturation.
  • Click 'Save' and re-open VLC to play your desired video or DVD.
OpenGL output module in VLC

 YUV output module setting in VLC

If your video lacks the best chromatic components, you can enable the hardware yuv rgb conversions to fine-tune the color components and enhance VLC upscale video quality.

  • Open the Output module under the 'Video' panel and choose the 'YUV output' option.
  • To save settings correctly, tick the 'Add a YUV4MPEG2 header' and click the 'Save' button.
  • Restart the VLC media player to check if your video image is tuned fine for better visuals.
 YUV output module setting in VLC

Note: These VLC settings for best video quality are undoubtedly helpful for improving overall visual clarity, but improvement will be limited by the quality of the original video.

2. Use VLC Super Resolution to Upscale Video

NVIDIA introduced RTX Video Super Resolution, a cutting-edge technology for video playback. Initially, this feature was limited to the latest Chrome and Edge versions, but it is now supported by popular media players like VLC. Users can now enhance their video playback experience in VLC by upscaling resolutions. For example, VLC can upscale from 720p to 1080p, 1440p, or even 4k.

Remember to activate the VLC super resolution feature, install the newest VLC (3.0.19 or later), and have a PC running NVIDIA or GeForce RTX 30 and 40-series graphics cards.

  • Open the NVIDIA control panel and activate RTX Video Super Resolution for VLC super resolution.
  • Next, navigate to 'Video' under 'Advanced Settings' and select Adjust video image settings.
  • Locate this menu's "RTX video enhancement" settings and check the Super resolution option.
  • Choose the desired upscaling level from the Quality drop-down options (level 4 delivers the best performance but uses more GPU resources.
  • Next click the 'Save' to apply the changes.

3. Use VLC Filters to Enhance Video Quality

Effects and filters are a must-mention feature of VLC when it comes to VLC settings for the best video quality. VLC has dozens of filters and video effects you can apply for free. The classic 'Color threshold' effect is the best quality upscaling example.

So, let's discuss a few simple steps to apply these filters to your videos for VLC super resolution:

  • Open a video in the VLC media player and click on Tools at the top menu. Next, choose the 'Effects and Filters' option.
  • Open the 'Video Effects' tab. Within the Adjustment and Effects popup, open the 'Video Effects' and apply the 'Color threshold' video effect.
  • From the 'Essential' tab, you can adjust the hue, brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpen to make your video look clearer.
  • Once done, click 'Save,' then click 'Close.'
VLC filters to upscale video quality

4. Change Video Color Range in VLC

If you have been troubled with the VLC washed-out color issue, you can change color range to VLC upscale video up to 4k. VLC media player doesn't change the color range. To do that, you need an NVIDIA graphics card. If you have a graphics card, follow the below steps for the best VLC upscaling settings:

  • Search for the NVIDIA control panel in the window search tab and open it. Next, navigate to 'Video' under 'Advanced Settings.'
  • Click on the 'Adjust video color settings' option, then tick 'with the Nvidia settings' and go to the 'Advanced' option.
  • Change from a limited (16-235) color range to a full dynamic range (0-255) and relaunch the VLC media player on your desktop to put it into effect.
Change in color ranges to improve quality

Tip: Changing the color range doesn't enhance sharpness; it only improves tone. UniFab AI can effortlessly improve color, clarity, sharpness, and overall quality.

Limitations of VLC for Upscaling

While VLC offers useful settings to enhance video quality, it has several limitations compared to specialized video upscaling software:

  • No AI Upscaling: VLC lacks AI-driven algorithms that can intelligently enhance and restore video details, so the overall quality improvement remains limited.
  • Basic Enhancement Options: Its upscaling relies mainly on manual adjustments like sharpening and deinterlacing, which are insufficient for significantly improving low-resolution footage.
  • Resolution Constraints: VLC cannot truly upscale videos to much higher resolutions with crystal-clear clarity; the output quality is still restricted by the source video.
  • No Automatic Optimization: Unlike dedicated enhancers, VLC doesn’t automatically analyze and optimize video content for the best possible upscale results.

For those seeking more powerful, AI-based video enhancement, tools like UniFab AI Video Upscaler provide automatic, high-quality upscaling to HD, 4K, and beyond—overcoming these limitations effortlessly.

Easier VLC Upscaler Alternative - UniFab Video Enhancer AI

The VLC settings mentioned earlier can be time-consuming and complex to adjust. UniFab AI offers a simple yet powerful alternative that effortlessly enhances video quality for a superior viewing experience.

UniFab Video Enhancer AI Features & Performance

With UniFab Video Enhancer AI, you can upscale low-resolution videos to 4K, 8K, or even 16K with a single click. Its advanced algorithms effectively detect and correct motion artifacts, restore edge clarity, and preserve fine video details. 

UniFab provides four specialized AI models to suit different needs:

  • Texture Enhanced: Enhances video textures and fine details.
unifab texture enhanced performance
  • Anime Optimized: Preserves sharp lines and vibrant colors in anime.
UniFab Animation Model performance
  • Speed Optimized: Delivers fast upscaling with balanced quality.
  • Quality Optimized: Maximizes overall video sharpness and clarity.
face enhancement by unifab

UniFab’s upscaling speed is impressively fast—up to 200% quicker than traditional video enhancers. The intuitive interface ensures that no technical expertise or complicated processes are needed to enjoy high-quality videos.

How to Improve Video Quality Easily with UniFab

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Step 1

Download and launch this upscaling software, open the interface, and go to "All Features", click "Upscaler" mode, Next, click the 'Add Video' button to upload the high-quality video you want to watch.

how to upscale video with unifab - step1
Step 2

Select your preferred resolution and model based on your video type, then configure other options such as output format and codec. Finally, click the 'Start' button to initiate the upscaling process.

how to upscale video with unifab - step2

Within no time, this AI video upscaler will upscale your video automatically, which you can download directly to your PC.

Conclusion


VLC offers basic options to improve and upscale video quality, but its capabilities are limited. For better and faster results, AI-powered tools like UniFab provide an easy way to upscale videos to HD, 4K, and beyond with professional quality. Whether you use VLC or UniFab, applying the right settings can greatly enhance your viewing experience.

FAQs of VLC Upscale

What are the best VLC settings for best video quality?

To achieve the best video quality in VLC, adjust the VLC settings for best video quality by selecting the appropriate output module (such as DirectX or OpenGL), enabling hardware-accelerated decoding, applying video filters like sharpening and color correction, enabling deinterlacing, and ensuring your color range is set to full for vibrant playback. These settings collectively enhance sharpness, color accuracy, and smoothness during video playback.

Does VLC have super resolution?

Yes, if you have an NVIDIA graphics card, you can use the VLC super resolution feature to enhance the video resolution. You can also directly improve the video resolution from the Video Effects menu during playback.

Should I turn on deinterlace in VLC?

Whether you should turn on deinterlace in VLC depends on the video you’re watching. If the video was recorded in interlaced format (common in older TV broadcasts or some DVDs), enabling deinterlace will help reduce visible lines and flickering, improving video smoothness.

Can VLC upscale a video to 4K?

Yes, VLC allows you to upscale a video to 4k. You can apply video filters, change output modules and color range, and deinterlace a video to increase clarity and sharpness.

Can I use VLC as a free video-enhancing software?

Yes, VLC is a completely free media player that allows you to improve video quality through video settings.

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