Video Quality Enhancer

Real-time WebGPU upscaling and frame generation for HTML5 video (Lossless Scaling-style, browser-native).

Video Quality Enhancer is a real-time video upscaler and frame generation extension for Google Chrome. It enhances HTML5 web videos directly inside your browser using WebGPU shaders. Inspired by desktop utilities like Lossless Scaling, this extension runs entirely on your local graphics card (GPU). It delivers sharper edges, clearer text, reduced compression artifacts, and fluid high-refresh-rate playback on web videos. Everything operates locally inside your browser sandbox. There are no remote servers, no streaming lag, and zero video data collection. -------------------------------------------------- WHY USE VIDEO QUALITY ENHANCER? -------------------------------------------------- - Crisper Video: Upscale lower-resolution or compressed videos to 1080p, 1440p, or 4K. - Fluid Motion: Transform 24 FPS and 30 FPS video into smooth 60 FPS, 120 FPS, 144 FPS, or higher motion. - 100% Local GPU Power: All rendering runs on your device via WebGPU fragment shaders. - Independent Systems: Upscaling and frame generation are decoupled. Use upscaling alone, frame generation alone, or both together. - YouTube Quick Menu: Access dedicated controls inside the YouTube player bar without opening extra tabs. - Multi-Monitor Awareness: Assign refresh rates to different monitors so target frame rates adjust automatically when moving browser windows. - In-Depth Customization: Fine-tune sharpness, motion flow scale, confidence thresholds, color grading, audio sync, and GPU governors. - Privacy First: No telemetry, no tracking, no cookies, and no background network calls. -------------------------------------------------- KEY FEATURES -------------------------------------------------- - WebGPU Upscaling: AMD Contrast-Adaptive Sharpening (CAS), Anime4K, AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 1.0 (FSR EASU + RCAS), Machine Learning Lanczos-3, and Neural CNN. - High-Framerate Motion Generation: Dense bidirectional optical flow with flow reversal, occlusion masking, confidence fallbacks, and scene-cut detection, plus fast frame blending. - Integer Multipliers and Adaptive Refresh: Pick fixed 2x, 3x, or 4x frame rate multiplication, or use Adaptive mode to generate frames on every screen refresh cycle. - Built-In YouTube Player Quick Menu: Adjust settings directly within the YouTube player control bar. - On-Screen HUD Overlay: Live statistics showing source resolution, output resolution, source FPS, output FPS, active display refresh rate, scaling percentage, and detected GPU. - Adaptive GPU Performance Governor: Balances internal render scale to maintain stable frame rates during heavy scenes. - Quick Toggle Shortcut: Press Alt+V on your keyboard to instantly turn the enhancer on or off for the active site. - Profile Management: Export, import, and backup customized settings configurations via JSON files. -------------------------------------------------- GUIDE TO UPSCALING ALGORITHMS -------------------------------------------------- Choose from multiple upscaling algorithms based on your content and GPU power: - Sharpen-CAS (AMD Contrast-Adaptive Sharpening): Fast, clean, and reliable. CAS restores edge contrast and clarity without adding halos. It is lightweight, making it the best daily default for laptops and integrated graphics. - Anime4K: Engineered specifically for anime, cartoons, and stylized art. It applies directional edge push and anti-ringing passes to sharpen character outlines and clean up flat color regions. - FSR (AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 1.0): Combines Edge-Adaptive Spatial Upsampling (EASU) with Robust Contrast-Adaptive Sharpening (RCAS). Performs true ratio-aware reconstruction from the source video resolution. Excellent for gaming videos, 3D animations, and live streams. - ML (Machine Learning / High Quality Lanczos-3): A deterministic upscaler combining a multi-tap Lanczos-3 filter with edge gradient synthesis. Produces sharp textures without requiring external model downloads. - Neural (GPU Convolutional Neural Network): A spatial super-resolution convolutional neural network executed entirely on your GPU through WebGPU. It runs a multi-layer convolutional network on single video frames. Includes two models: - Anime Model: Aggressive line-art reconstruction tuned for animated media. - General Model: Balanced high-pass detail synthesis designed for live-action movies and realistic footage. Scaling Modes: - Fill: Scales the video to occupy the entire player element. - Fit: Maintains natural aspect ratio within the video player bounds. - Stretch: Stretches the frame to match display dimensions. - Fixed 2x, 3x, 4x: Locks the upscale factor to exact integer multiples. Target Output Resolutions: - Native: Matches the current size of the video player on your screen. - 1080p: Scales the output to 1920x1080. - 1440p: Scales the output to 2560x1440. - 4K: Scales the output to 3840x2160. Choosing 4K on a 1080p or 1440p screen activates supersampling for superior antialiasing and clarity. Pair with Governor set to Quality to prevent auto-downscaling. -------------------------------------------------- GUIDE TO FRAME GENERATION -------------------------------------------------- Frame generation inserts newly computed intermediate frames between original video frames to increase motion fluidity: Available Multiplier Modes: - Off: Plays video at its original source frame rate. - 2x: Doubles the frame rate (for example, 30 FPS becomes 60 FPS). - 3x: Triples the frame rate (for example, 24 FPS becomes 72 FPS; 30 FPS becomes 90 FPS). - 4x: Quadruples the frame rate (for example, 30 FPS becomes 120 FPS). - Adaptive: Generates an interpolated frame on every monitor refresh cycle (vsync). This produces ultra-smooth motion on high-refresh-rate screens (120Hz, 144Hz, 165Hz, 240Hz) and removes judder on uneven frame ratios (such as 24 FPS on a 60Hz screen). Interpolation Methods: - Optical Flow: Computes dense bidirectional motion vectors between frames. Uses flow reversal and occlusion detection to handle overlapping movement. Includes scene-cut detection to avoid blending across camera cuts. - Blend: Fast cross-dissolve frame blending. Very low GPU consumption, ideal for older systems or battery saving. Fine-Tuning Parameters: - Flow Scale (25% to 100%): Sets motion estimation resolution. 50% provides an optimal balance of quality and GPU load. - Artifact Reduction (Confidence): Adjusts how strictly motion vectors are verified before warping frames. - Scene-Cut Detection: Prevents morphing artifacts across camera cuts. - Max Output FPS Clamp: Upper ceiling (30 to 240 FPS) to prevent wasting GPU power beyond what your monitor can display. -------------------------------------------------- STEP-BY-STEP USER GUIDE -------------------------------------------------- 1. Installation: - Add the extension to Google Chrome. - Pin Video Quality Enhancer to your toolbar from the Chrome extensions menu. - Ensure hardware acceleration is enabled: open chrome://settings/system and turn on 'Use graphics acceleration when available'. 2. Enabling Enhancement: - Open any supported video website (YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, etc.). - Start playing a video. - Turn on enhancement via toolbar popup, the YouTube player button, or the Alt+V shortcut. 3. Customizing Settings: - Select an upscaling algorithm (Sharpen-CAS for light daily use, or FSR / Neural for high detail). - Adjust Sharpness (default 45). - If your screen supports high refresh rates, turn on Frame Generation (2x or Adaptive). 4. Monitoring Playback: - Check the on-screen HUD box in the top-left corner to verify real-time resolution, FPS, and GPU status. -------------------------------------------------- YOUTUBE IN-PLAYER QUICK MENU -------------------------------------------------- On YouTube, Video Quality Enhancer embeds a quick-settings button right into the player controls bar: - Click the star icon next to the YouTube settings gear. - Adjust upscaler type, neural model, sharpness, target resolution, and frame generation mode directly inside the player. - Changes apply immediately and are saved as a custom profile for YouTube. -------------------------------------------------- MULTI-MONITOR DISPLAY SETUP GUIDE -------------------------------------------------- Browsers cannot always detect the exact hardware refresh rate of each connected monitor on Windows: 1. Open full settings from the extension popup. 2. Scroll to 'Displays' and click 'Detect displays'. 3. Set the refresh rate for each monitor (e.g. 60Hz, 144Hz, 165Hz). 4. In 'Sync & Presentation', set 'Refresh source' to 'Auto'. 5. When moving your browser between screens, the extension automatically applies the assigned refresh rate. -------------------------------------------------- GPU PERFORMANCE AND GOVERNOR SETTINGS -------------------------------------------------- - Preferred GPU: - High-Performance: Requests your dedicated graphics card (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel Arc). - Low-Power: Requests integrated graphics to save battery. - Windows Tip: In Windows Settings -> System -> Display -> Graphics, set Google Chrome to 'High Performance'. - Adaptive Governor Modes: - Adaptive (Default): Tracks render time. If the GPU drops frames, it gently lowers internal render scale to keep playback smooth, then recovers when load normalizes. - Quality: Locks render scale at 100%. Recommended for powerful desktop GPUs. - Performance: Reduces workload early to keep temperatures low and fans quiet. - Precision (fp16 vs fp32): - fp16: Uses 16-bit math for faster shader execution and lower memory usage. - fp32: Uses 32-bit math for full precision. - Background Tab Handling: - Set to 'Pause' to stop shader execution when the tab is hidden, saving battery life. -------------------------------------------------- COLOR AND POST-PROCESSING CONTROLS -------------------------------------------------- - Brightness: Adjust brightness from 50% to 150%. - Contrast: Adjust tonal contrast from 50% to 150%. - Saturation: Tune color intensity from 0% (monochrome) to 200% (vibrant). - Gamma: Adjust midtone balance from 0.50 to 2.50. - Denoise: Filter out compression noise with Off, Low, Medium, or High presets. -------------------------------------------------- SYNC AND AUDIO SETTINGS -------------------------------------------------- - Sync Mode: Choose VSync, Adaptive Sync, or Off. - Frame Buffer Depth: Configure the buffer queue (1 to 6 frames) for smooth playback. - Audio-Sync Tolerance: Set audio synchronization threshold (10ms to 400ms, default 80ms) to ensure video stays aligned with audio tracks. -------------------------------------------------- SUPPORTED SITES AND DRM NOTICE -------------------------------------------------- Supported: - YouTube (standard video streams up to 1080p, 1440p, non-DRM 4K) - Twitch live streams and VODs - Vimeo and Bilibili - Raw HTML5 video files (MP4, WebM) - Any website using standard unencrypted HTML5 video players DRM Notice: - Paid streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV+ use Encrypted Media Extensions (EME / DRM). - Browser security forbids extensions and WebGPU from reading encrypted video frames. - Video Quality Enhancer automatically detects DRM-protected streams and safely disables itself without disrupting playback. -------------------------------------------------- ON-SCREEN HUD OVERLAY GUIDE -------------------------------------------------- The HUD overlay appears in the top-left corner: - src: Original video dimensions. - out: Output display dimensions and scaling factor. - rndr: Internal render resolution and current scale percentage. - fps: Source video FPS -> Output presented FPS, plus target refresh rate. - up: Active upscaler algorithm. - gen: Active frame generation method. - gpu: Name of the graphics card running WebGPU shaders (shows CPU warning if hardware acceleration is disabled). - Adjust HUD opacity (20% to 100%) or toggle it off in settings. -------------------------------------------------- TROUBLESHOOTING AND FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS -------------------------------------------------- - Question: The HUD says 'running on a SOFTWARE renderer (CPU)' and video lags. Answer: Hardware acceleration is disabled in your browser. Go to chrome://settings/system, enable 'Use graphics acceleration when available', and restart Chrome. - Question: Does this use extra internet bandwidth? Answer: No. All processing runs locally on your graphics card. No video data is uploaded or downloaded. - Question: Can I use frame generation without upscaling? Answer: Yes. Upscaling and frame generation are completely independent. - Question: Player buttons are hard to click with overlay active. Answer: In settings, enable 'Hide overlay over player controls'. The overlay automatically adjusts when your mouse hovers over controls. - Question: How do I back up my settings or reset to factory defaults? Answer: In the extension settings page, click 'Export profile' to download a backup JSON file, or click 'Reset to defaults'. -------------------------------------------------- SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS -------------------------------------------------- - Browser: Google Chrome version 113 or newer (or any Chromium browser with WebGPU support). - Operating System: Windows 10/11, macOS, Linux, or ChromeOS. - Graphics Card: A GPU supporting WebGPU (DirectX 12, Vulkan, or Metal). - Setting: Hardware acceleration enabled in Chrome browser settings. -------------------------------------------------- PRIVACY AND LEGAL INFORMATION -------------------------------------------------- - Privacy: 100% private. No tracking, no analytics, no external servers, and no user data collection. Settings are saved locally on your computer via Chrome storage. - License: Proprietary software by Pnazo Private Limited. Third-party components include AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR 1.0), used under the MIT License.