Can it fix VHS or camcorder tape?

There are engines made for it, in the Interlaced footage group: one for broadcast, VHS, DVD and SD, and one for camcorder tape. We tested this guide on a damaged digital clip, not on real tape.

Can I tell it what to fix?

No. Restore takes no prompt. The engine you pick and the resolution tier are the whole input.

Will the people look the same?

We have not measured it. Engines that add detail can change small features, faces included, so check the result against your source.

Which plan do I need?

The restore engines run on Starter and above.

Guides / Video editing

Restore soft, noisy or old footage

A restore cleans up what is wrong with a clip. It cannot bring back what the camera never recorded, and the engine that looks sharpest is not always the one closest to the truth.

6 min read
September 24, 2026

Damaged

Restored

Generative

What you make, in order. Tap one to jump to its step.

Restore Video takes a clip that is already in your Library, an upload or a render, and renders it again at the resolution you choose, with the noise, compression blocks and softness cleaned up. There is no prompt: the clip and the engine you pick are the whole input.

To show what each engine does, we took the night motorcycle take from the Film scene preset, shrank it to 360p and buried it in grain and heavy compression, then restored the damaged copy four ways. Because we still had the clean original, we could score every result against it.

Put the clip in your Library

Restore works on a video in your Library. Upload the clip, or use one you made on NOLGIA, then either open Restore Video and pick it under Source, or press Restore and upscale on the clip's own page. The console reads the clip's size, length and frame rate for you.

A clip can be 1 to 120 seconds long. The restored clip keeps the source's aspect ratio, so a vertical clip comes back vertical.

A night motorcycle take on a wet expressway at 360p: soft, grainy and blocky, the rider and the cars smeared, tail lights bleeding into the road — **Our damaged copy.** The Film scene example shrunk to 360p, with added grain and heavy compression. This is the clip every engine below was given.

Name what is wrong with it

The console groups its engines by the problem they fix, and each card carries a one-line description. Start from the problem, not the engine:

What is wrong	Group in the console	Start with the card that says
Small, soft or low resolution	Up-res and detail	General live action. Start here
Grain or sensor noise	Denoise	Severe noise or grain, or Denoise plus detail
Blocky, smeared or over-compressed	Compression damage	The roughest sources, or Moderately compressed
Faces are the soft part	Faces	Faces, from a rough source
Combing lines from tape or broadcast	Interlaced footage	Broadcast, VHS, DVD and SD, or Camcorder tape
Blur from fast movement	Fixes that are not up-res	Blur from fast movement
Clean but not sharp enough	Generative restoration	The fast pass

The groups and descriptions as the Restore Video console shows them.

SeedVR2 Restore sits in Up-res and detail as "Soft, noisy or small footage". It is the one engine with a Detail strength slider: higher recovers more texture and invents more, so keep it low when the clip has to stay faithful.

Pick the resolution you will deliver

Choose a tier from 720p up to 2160p, or 4320p (8K) on the engines that offer it. The tier names a resolution class, and the clip keeps its own shape inside it.

Before you start, the console shows the most the run can cost for your clip's length and the tier you picked. You are charged the lower of the metered cost and that published rate.

Tip:Some engines cost the same at every size. A denoise, a motion deblur or an HDR pass does not enlarge anything, so the price is the same at 720p and at 4K. The console says so on those engines. Ask for the size you want to deliver.

Compare the result with your source

Here is the same frame from the damaged copy and from SeedVR2 Restore at 1080p, cropped at full size. Drag the line to compare.

Full-size crop of the damaged copy: the rider, a white sedan and a truck smeared by grain and compression blocks on a wet road at night — **Frame 31 of 121, cropped at full size from the 1080p output.** The noise and the compression blocks are gone; the edges of the cars, the bike and the barriers are clean again.

The same crop after SeedVR2 Restore at 1080p: the grain and blocks gone, the rider's jacket and helmet, the tail lights and the barrier edges clean — **Frame 31 of 121, cropped at full size from the 1080p output.** The noise and the compression blocks are gone; the edges of the cars, the bike and the barriers are clean again.

SeedVR2 Restore result at 1080p: the night motorcycle take clean, with sharp tail lights and wet road reflections — **SeedVR2 Restore.** The closest to the original of the four, and the cleanest edges.

Result from the engine described as General live action: clean and smooth, the rider softer — **"General live action. Start here".** Noise and blocks gone, with a smooth, slightly soft finish.

Result from the engine described as Severe noise or grain: very clean, the finest detail smoothed away — **"Severe noise or grain".** The cleanest picture, and the softest.

Result from the engine described as The fast pass: the sharpest looking of the four, with crisp new detail on the cars and the bike — **"The fast pass", generative.** The sharpest looking, because it draws new detail.

What we measured

We scored every result against the clean original, frame by frame, with two standard measures of how close one picture is to another. On both, higher is closer.

Clip	SSIM	PSNR
The damaged copy, just enlarged	0.944	34.4 dB
SeedVR2 Restore	0.963	36.6 dB
General live action. Start here	0.960	35.5 dB
Severe noise or grain	0.957	35.0 dB
The fast pass, generative	0.950	33.6 dB

One 5 second clip, 121 frames at 1080p, each engine run once.

Every engine removed the grain and the compression blocks, and every result scored closer to the original than the damaged copy on SSIM.
The sharpest looking result was the furthest from the truth. The generative pass scored lowest of the four on both measures, and below the damaged copy on PSNR: the crisp detail it adds is invented, not recovered. Look at the rear of the white car in the crop below.
Nothing brought back the rain. The original has fine streaks of rain across the frame. The damaged copy lost them, and no engine drew them back.

Full-size crop of the generative result: crisp, with sharp new edges on the sedan and the bike — **Frame 31 again.** The generative pass on the left looks crisp. The clean original on the right shows what was really there.

The same crop from the clean original before any damage: fine rain streaks across the frame and softer natural detail — **Frame 31 again.** The generative pass on the left looks crisp. The clean original on the right shows what was really there.

Watch for this:A restore can redraw a face. Engines that add detail, especially the generative ones and SeedVR2 at a high Detail strength, can change small features, including faces. Check people and any lettering in the result against your source before you use it.

When to use something else

The shot itself is wrong, not its quality: change the object or the place with Miroge, or make it again.
The colour is faded: grade it in Studio or with the Color grade footage preset after the restore.
It is too short: open the clip in your Library and use Extend clip to continue it past its last frame.

What it costs

Restore engines are priced per five seconds of source at each resolution tier, and a faster frame rate than 30 frames per second costs proportionally more. Before you start, the console shows the most the run can cost for your clip, and you are charged the lower of the metered cost and that figure. A restore that fails is refunded.

Questions and answers

Can it fix VHS or camcorder tape?: There are engines made for it, in the Interlaced footage group: one for broadcast, VHS, DVD and SD, and one for camcorder tape. We tested this guide on a damaged digital clip, not on real tape.
Can I tell it what to fix?: No. Restore takes no prompt. The engine you pick and the resolution tier are the whole input.
Will the people look the same?: We have not measured it. Engines that add detail can change small features, faces included, so check the result against your source.
Which plan do I need?: The restore engines run on Starter and above.

Clean up a clip from your Library

Open Restore Video

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