VLC Upscaling | How to Increase Video Quality in VLC?

4K Video Choppy in VLC? Downscale 4K 60FPS to 30FPS with WinX Video Tools!

Load your 4K video (irrespective of true 4K or upscaled 4K video) into VLC but find that VLC becomes choppy or lagging in 4K HEVC video playback. That might be related with the high frame rate. Download HD Video Converter to Free and Safe change 60FPS to 30FPS while keeping 4K video resolution and HEVC codec intact. Afterwards, open this 4K video footage to VLC and it will playback it smoothly without any trouble. This free 4K converter also supports you to upscale and improve video quality via Deinterlacing tech and High Quality Engine, which together substantially realize video quality upscaling, not just literally upscaling. More features are awaiting you to try!

VLC vs WinX Video Tool Full Comparison >>

Solutions to Upscale and Improve Video Quality in VLC

• Part 1: Change Color Range
• Part 2: Adjust VLC Settings: Output Modules
• Part 3: Adjust VLC Settings: Filters

Part 1: Change Video Color Range to Upscale Video Quality in VLC

VLC washed out color issue has to do with the color range (based on your setup for the graphics card). Follow the below steps to change your color range building on the graphics card you have.

For a dedicated NVIDIA graphics card:

• Head to Nvidia control panel.
• Locate to "Video" under "Advanced Settings".
• Tap "Adjust video color settings" > tick "with the Nvidia settings" > "Advanced".
• Change color range from limited (16-235) to full dynamic range (0-255)
• Re-launch VLC on your desktop.

If your Nvidia control panel doesn't show up this setting or the above solution doesn't work for you, check here to get alternate solutions to fix VLC washed out color error.

For an integrated Intel HD graphics card:

• Right-click your computer and opt for "Graphics Properties..."
• Tap VIDEO icon > Driver Settings is your target under Input Range category.
• Choose "Full Range". That's all.
• Remember to restart your VLC on your desktop.

Part 2: Adjust Output Modules to Enhance Video/DVD Playback Quality

Providing the solutions in part 1 didn't unshackle you free from the VLC video quality issue, it's no harm to try the below workarounds:

• Open VLC media player > tap Tools at the top menu > choose Preferences.
• Change Simple to All under "Show settings" zone.
• Scroll down to "Video" panel > open "Output modules".
• Choose DirectDraw > cancel "Use hardware YUV ->RGB Conversions".
• Tap Save button > exit VLC and re-open it to load your desired video or DVD.

This is the primary option for you to upscale video in VLC. There are also other options available for you to fine-tune your input quality.

• Still under Output modules, move your mouse to the 2nd OpenGL.
• Change the default "Relative colorimetric" to "Absolute colorimetric" or "Saturation" (based on your video source) under "Rendering intent for color conversion".

Have any background knowledge about YUV? If so, you're supposed to know that Y stands for luminance (aka. brightness) and that U and V are chrominance components. In case your video picture is substandard in color components, you're suggested to enable the "Add a YUV4MPEG2 header" to optimize chrominance components and maximize video quality.

• Click "YUV output" under "Output modules".
• Tick "Add a YUV4MPEG2 header".
• Tap Save and restart VLC to test if your video image becomes better visually.

Part 3: Use VLC Filters to Enhance VLC Video Quality

When it comes to VLC settings for best video quality, filters is a must mention. VLC filters feature cover dozens of filter effects. As for video quality upscaling, here takes the classic "Color threshold" and "Deinterlace" for instance.

As you can see from the following picture, it enables you to adjust saturation threshold and similarity threshold values to increase your video quality. Meanwhile, activate "Deinterlacing" feature to fix interlaced image back to normal deinterlaced one. Of course, there are other filter effects available. You can test it if time is ample.

If you want to upscale 1080p full HD video to 4K in VLC, forget it please. Even though the resulting file shows the resolution as 4K 2160p, the real resolution doesn't get any substantial improvement. That's called fake 4K video.