Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google’s Video Boost feature is slowly rolling out to users.
- Several users who have received the feature have posted Boosted Videos, giving us a fair look at what to expect when the feature rolls out widely.
Google has recently rolled out the December 2023 Pixel Feature Drop, but users have complained that the update rollout has been a bit slow this time around. This update is especially exciting for Pixel 8 Pro users as it will bring the Video Boost feature to the Pixel Camera app. If you’ve been holding your breath for the update to arrive on your Pixel 8 Pro, here are some Video Boost samples to amp up your excitement for the update!
As the Video Boost feature starts rolling out to people, here are some good shots from users.
The video above shows a rather dimly lit room, with the light source on the side not being very adequate. With Video Boost, the scene practically changes, and the room appears significantly brighter.
When you do have halfway-decent lighting to play with, Video Boost appears to be boosting the saturation of the video, making this sunrise/sunset video appear even more dramatic.
With where the sun is placed as the primary light source in the video above, there are practically no visible shadow zones near the buildings!
Here’s a clip of Video Boost working in daylight:
Maybe it has something to do with the scene, but there is a distinct lack of shadows for a daylight scene. You can spot the scooters and benches with shadows, but it is pretty soft. The sky is also saturated, and one can argue it is overwhelmingly saturated, with shades of blue in the sky and piercing white clouds that wouldn’t usually align with the winter season.
In the above video, you can’t estimate the time of the day based on the lighting (or maybe that’s just London being London). What is impressive, though, is that the user was walking while recording the video. Video Boost in this scenario has added a layer of stabilization in the video recording that we wouldn’t have seen with the hardware OIS implementation. Unfortunately, there is some stuttering at the clip’s end.
If you have received the latest update on your Pixel 8 Pro, you can use Video Boost to improve the stabilization, color, and details of your video and give it HDR+ quality. You must toggle it in the Video mode in the Pixel Camera app. When recording, your Pixel 8 Pro will output two files: a regular video file (SDR) that we are all familiar with and an extra data file that is uploaded to Google’s servers for enhancement.
Video processing under Video Boost takes quite some time, often stretching to hours. Once the video is processed, the extra data file will be deleted, and the processed video will be downloaded to your phone.
Google’s support page mentions that the maximum recording limit for Video Boost is 10 minutes. It also notes that the extra data file does not use your Google Photos cloud storage while it is being processed, though it takes up space on your phone. The file is automatically deleted from your phone when processing is complete, but if you move the file, then this may not happen.
We will extensively test the Pixel 8 Pro’s Video Boost feature and will present our detailed findings and samples to you very soon. Stay tuned!
