Neat Video v4

[Turboguard]

So, I know I'm late to the party, but I've never used noise reduction applications for my NLE's. But today, for fun, I downloaded Neat Video v4. And to be hones I WAS BLOWN AWAY. It just deleted the noise like it was some kind of filter over my image keeping details that I didn't even saw because of the noise. SO, I decided to just pay for it right away but stopped myself and goggled the product because it had a Home and Pro option. I wanted to know if it's worth paying the extra 15bucks just get to work with higher res than 1080p.

So all these threads came up saying it has tons of problems with Mac graphic drivers and yada yada. Some people also said just get Denoiser from RedGiant cause it's cheaper (I have a college ID so would get educational discount).

 

So my questions are;

What's better Neat or Denoiser?

What's the real difference between Pro and Home for Neat (it says Home is for non commercial use but how will they know I denoised a commercial or something, honor-system?)

Will I run into problems using it with Premiere Pro CC2015 on Mac?

 

Thanks,

Chris

[Turboguard]

Here's what blew me away, scars and wrinkles in the skin just became extremely visible. 

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

I heavily tested both and all the other NR software for video on the market. Neat video is worth the extra over all of them, it's simply magic. The strength lies in how much control it gives you, it lets you specify the exact type of noise in the image you want to eliminate and gives you fine control over every single little parameter in advanced mode, all the other's work without profiles for each image, they just apply it globally, faster for beginners but the results are markedly inferior. Neat video is the best 100$ I've ever spend in my video production quality. 

[Deadcode]

How fast is Neat Video on your computers? For my i5 3570k + 7970 Ghz it takes 2 minutes to compute a 10 sec 1280x720 50p footage (demo version's resolution limit). It would take ages to work with 4K. While Davinci Resolve's noise reduction really use the GPU, and it can reach "even" 6 fps with 4K > 1080 noise reduction + downsampling. Of course Neat's result are waaay better.

[Turboguard]

I'm kind of set on buying it. Definitely, but why shouldn't I get the Home edition for 75bux? I'm not gonna work in higher res than 1080p for a while anyway...

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

Oh I just found out they introduced an entirely new product, Neat Video V4 claiming even higher performance and pretty bold claims on removing ''codec'' artefacts and even removing artefacts introduced by in-camera noise reduction, and claims it can remove dust, hairs, specks of footage shot on film entirely, as well as better performance with changing scenes by changing profiles gradually, they also claim better sharpening algorithm with reduced halos and digital artefacts (and its sharpening was great anyway yet halos were a bit problematic). They also introduced a ''Professional Quality'' mode where it produces ''better NR results and preserves detail at the cost of 1.5x to 4x slower rendering''. All very exciting to be honest. Bad news is I have to buy again as an owner of the older version V3. 

To questions:

 

Deadcode: It's not fast, it is a heavy software to run, slightly heavier than all the other NR ones, but worth it of course. I don't think speed can be held against it since no other software does the same faster, and also as it depends on your machine. Noise reduction is the slowest process in my workflow, so I do all my work, produce a ProRes file of the finished product, apply NR (and make different profiles for drastically different scenes) and just let it render, as a final last step, so it doesn't bother me even if it takes hours or a day. I don't do it before editing, that would be frustrating having to wait, plus my tests showed much better results when it's applied after grading rather than before, 

 

 

OP: Don't get the Home edition, three reasons:

1- It's limited to 1080p. Since you only work in 1080p that shouldn't be a problem right? no. For one reason, it's the best NR software I use for still photographs, and having only 1080p as a maximum resolution limit would kill its use for photography purposes, where it's magical, even better than video results. It's become a standard workflow for me to apply NR to me photography in my Video editor after setting the resolution to 4-6K and applying neat video. If you do any kind of photography, don't buy the home edition for that reason alone, you'll miss a lot. Plus you don't know how soon you get a 4K camera, they are at 500$ now, believe me you'll go 4K very soon and that will be the standard and you'll regret it, and even if you don't mind these, another reason is:

2- It cannot be used for commercial uses, only for home videos. That's a big, big limitation. Even if you believe you're not going to be producing professional videography right now, who knows what will happen tomorrow? then you'll regret buying the Home edition and end up unable to use Neat Video for anything important. Even if that's not a problem, another reason: 

3- It's only 25$ more to get the full fledged >4K commercial-ready version and get peace of mind, get rid of noise forever. 

Unless your budget really can't physically stretch to the Pro version (which I am pretty not the case), get it, worth every dime. 

*Sorry for sounding like a Neat Video Sales Rep, I just freaking love that magical piece of software, whoever genius designed it doubled or tripled our video production quality with a click. 

 

[John Palmer]

I have the neat video plugin (pro version) for sony vegas. Ive been very happy with the results though I do not use it very often, I usually like to leave a little grain or add some anyway and I do not really like the look of footage that has been heavily denoised. I have never had any issues with things taking a long time to render either.

If you denoise a 4k file and then downscale it to 1080p, whatever noise may be left will be much more fine. Also, downscaling 4k to 1080p without denoising generally results in a much nicer looking grain than if you just shot in 1080p. I would definitely recommend not denoising an image so much as for it to have absolutely no grain left. a little texture is a good thing

I have also found that I prefer how neat video's sharpening function looks over using a standard one in vegas or premiere. Doesn't look as plastic like the others

[Cinegain]

You can denoise using Neat Video to have a nice solid base without that ugly digital noise. Now, denoised footage can really give off this watercolor painting vibe. So, to add some definition back in there, you use film grain derived from scanned-in film stock. So yeah, you can add some back in there. Et voilá. Looks a lot better. Nice and organic. With nicely shot footage and a proper grade that will definitly give you a nice look.

[Turboguard]

I think it's worth getting solely based on the chroma noise reduction!

[Liszon]

Yes, the chroma noise removal is awesome, clears up my BMPCC footage with a few clicks while I still retain all the luminance grain for an organic look. The Pro version sounds like a good long term investment, I wouldn't go with the cheaper one.

[chunger20]

Has anyone been able to purchase recently? I made a purchase on July 12th and didn't get a download link.

On the 13th I was refunded with this message:

Dear Sir/Madam,
 

Unfortunately, Neat Video products are currently not available
for technical reasons.

SWREG have refunded the payment for the order you have placed.
Please accept our apology for the inconvenience.
 

Best regards,
Alex

I wrote a response asking if it would be available soon and got no response for about 3 weeks. I sent multiple messages but today I got a response. The first line was part of a message I wrote:

> I just want to know if this will be temporary or should I move on and find another option.
Please kindly move on and find another option.

Regards,
Alex

This is strange as nothing on their front page states anything is wrong with the product and seems people are still able to purchase. I'm really in the dark here. Any other similar experiences?

Thanks,

Billy

[hk908]

hmm I downloaded it on july 9. but mine was an upgrade from a previous version, not sure if that had anything to do with it.

 

honestly I think it's worth waiting for. neat video is magic.

[chunger20]

hmm I downloaded it on july 9. but mine was an upgrade from a previous version, not sure if that had anything to do with it.

 

honestly I think it's worth waiting for. neat video is magic.

Yeah, I've heard great stuff about it but the last message honestly seems like they don't want me to purchase it....