Up to 4K, cheaper and faster than Astra 2
Germany's Black Forest Labs, a maker of image generation AI, on Oct. 22 (Oct. 23 Japan time) overhauled "FLUX Video Upscale," an AI that increases video resolution. Output goes up to 4K, and the company claims it is cheaper and about twice as fast as rival Topaz Labs' "Astra 2." The company's X account, @bfl_ai, announced it.
The company released the video generation model "FLUX 3 Max" just on Oct. 19. It said this upscaler was tuned to perform best as the finishing step for FLUX 3 videos. Rather than stretching pixels, it rebuilds frames to avoid blurring and blocky artifacts, the company said.
Choosing "accurate" or "creative"
Users can choose between two modes in a single API: "accurate," which sharpens footage while preserving the original, and "creative," which adds detail. The company recommends "accurate" for human faces, products and live-action footage. "Creative" produces the sharpest results on generated footage and landscapes, but the shapes of faces and products can change.
Source videos must be 480p or higher, and the upscaling factor is 1.5x to 3x. Pricing is based on the pixel count and length of the finished video, and videos that are not accepted are not charged. The audio of the source video is preserved as is.
Up to 20 seconds at a time
It can handle videos of up to 20 seconds and 50 MB at a time. According to the comparison site Morphic, Astra 2 can handle up to 5 minutes at a time and also has a feature that increases the frame count to smooth motion. The pricing and speed comparisons are the company's claims, and it has not given specific figures for pricing or processing time.
| Item | FLUX Video Upscale | Topaz Astra 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum resolution | 4K | 4K |
| Length handled at once | 20 seconds | 5 minutes |
| Upscaling factor | 1.5x to 3x | 2x, 4x |
| Speed | About 2x (company's claim) | Baseline |
