For the past week, we have been experimenting the Video Boost feature which came as part of the December Feature Drop.
It took days before it was enabled after the December Security Update. While we were excited about Video Boost, we were somewhat disappointed with some of the the confusion of Video Boost.
In the past, you would just shoot a video perhaps as 4K/60 fps or 4K/30fps (25 and 50 fps are never available for Asia and Europe users which I wonder why). If you wanted HDR, you just flip the switch.
For video boost, you are limited to 1080 HD 30 fps or 4K 30 fps. Whenever you launch the camera app, you must make sure you set it to record in video boost mode, if not it will just be the normal video which can’t be boosted. In fact, older videos recorded can’t be sent to Google to boost.
Something that most people misunderstood about Video boost is that it not only brightens up night videos, it actually stabilises flickers in videos. In fact, in some situations, the boost video might appear dimmer due to overexposure in the original recording. Video Boost also resolved the tearing of frames during panning. You can refer to this comparison review.
Something that confuses most users is that when you click video boost, the video will be sent for processing which took hours to return. After it returns, you will see a COVER file and a BOOST file of the video. The Cover is a HD 1920×1080 with lousier quality video. The boosted video will be the one that you would share on youtube.
Now the problem arises, the BOOSTED file is encoded in AV1 and this doesn’t seem to work very well with VSDC FREE or PAID edition. The whole video preview will stutter. In fact, I have one file encded using VSDC with minimum edit was rejected by youtube after uploading.
Once the files are backed up Google Photos, you will end up with the AV1 file, to get the somewhat uncompressed version that works with VSDC, you will need to export it in Google Photos and use USB to transfer it to the PC to do the editing.
In fact, I would rather video boost would be done on the Tensor processor on the fly then to send it over to Google servers and be processed. If DJI OSMO Pocket 3 can do on the fly stabilisation and process the video quality, I am sure Google will be able to do it better.
Anyway, the youtube video you see below is recorded and boosted using Video Boost on Pixel 8 Pro. HDR was turned on during recording. Let us know if you like the quality of the video in the youtube comments section.