I’ve been going through a bunch of old video footage lately and ended up trying a few AI video tools just out of curiosity. Nothing formal here—just some real-world impressions.
Had a bunch of old clips lying around (phone footage, some heavily compressed stuff, the usual mess). Quality was pretty rough—like you can still tell what’s going on, but all the detail is basically gone.
First thing I tried was Topaz Video AI.
Not gonna lie, the results are actually pretty impressive. Upscaling to 4K really brings back detail you didn’t think was there. Faces, textures, all that stuff gets noticeably cleaner.
But yeah… it’s heavy. Like, your GPU will definitely let you know it’s working, and exports are not quick.
Then I jumped into CapCut for quicker edits.
This one’s more like “get it done fast and move on.” Auto captions, trimming, resizing for socials—all super smooth.
Enhancement-wise though, it’s more of a convenience tool than a real restoration tool. Works fine, just not mind-blowing.
After that I tried HitPaw VikPea.
This one felt the most “no stress” out of all of them.
You basically just drop in the video, pick a model, and let it run. No complex setup, no tweaking needed.
It does a decent job on old footage, removing blur and face enhancement. Also pretty nice for batch processing if you’ve got a lot of clips.
It’s not trying to be overly technical, which I actually kind of appreciate.
Overall, my takeaway was pretty simple:
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Want the best possible quality → Topaz Video AI
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Want fast edits for social media → CapCut
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Want something simple that just improves footage without thinking too much → HitPaw VikPea
Honestly, it feels like AI video tools have reached the point where it’s less about “can it enhance this?” and more about “how much time do you want to spend getting the result you want.”
Curious what other people are using right now—anything better I should try?