HitPaw VikPea is a video enhancement and restoration application for Windows and Mac. It processes existing footage to increase resolution, reduce noise, correct color and improve motion, with separate tools for damaged files, backgrounds and generated video. Formerly called HitPaw Video Enhancer, it offers specialized AI models for different kinds of source material rather than applying one treatment to every clip.
HitPaw VikPea restoration models
The Video Enhancer workspace lets users choose a model according to the footage and the defect they want to address. General Restoration combines detail recovery with adjustable sharpening, noise reduction, compression correction and dehalo controls. These settings address different visible problems: grain in dark areas, block patterns from compression, soft edges and bright outlines around objects.
UHD Restoration targets footage at 720p and above, while the AI Generative model reconstructs detail in lower-resolution material. The generative model has General and Portrait modes and runs in the cloud, with output up to 4K. Other enhancement models support larger outputs, including 8K. An Animation model treats drawn lines and animated imagery, while HD Sharpen and Fast Sharpen provide additional approaches to soft footage.
For more targeted processing, HitPaw VikPea separates Decompression, Denoise and Sharpen into professional models. Each offers automatic processing or a strength adjustment. Decompression tackles visible encoding damage such as blocks and banding; Denoise reduces grain; Sharpen works on contours and textures. A short comparison preview shows the selected treatment alongside the original before the whole clip is processed.
AI Pilot provides another starting point when the source problem is unclear. It analyzes compression, noise, sharpness and grain, assigns severity levels and recommends an enhancement treatment. Users can then examine the proposed result in the preview rather than choosing a model solely by its name.
Face restoration
Portrait Restoration concentrates on faces within a video. Its General mode handles low- to medium-quality recordings, while Detail mode targets closer faces in higher-resolution footage.
Portrait Generation goes further by constructing facial features in regions that are damaged, obscured or missing.
Color processing
HitPaw VikPea’s AI Color workspace separates several color tasks. Color Enhancement adjusts saturation, contrast and luminance in footage that already has color. Low-light Enhancement brightens dark scenes while reducing noise and correcting unwanted color casts. The SDR to HDR model changes brightness range and contrast, with an exposure slider for adjusting the resulting image.
Black-and-white footage can receive AI-generated color through the Colorize model. The separate AI Colorist offers Colorize Only and Colorize + Enhance modes. The first concentrates on adding color and retains the original resolution by default; the second also applies noise reduction, detail enhancement and upscaling, with output up to 4K.
AI Colorist processes footage on remote servers, including its short previews. It accepts multiple clips for batch processing, and its previews and exports are subject to cloud credits. The color it adds is generated from the image content.
Motion processing
Frame Interpolation creates intermediate frames between the frames already in the source. Users choose a 2x or 4x insertion setting, then preview how the added frames affect movement. The same workspace includes Slow Motion, which offers 2x or 4x slowdown using interpolation to supply the additional frames needed for slower playback.
Stabilization addresses camera movement separately. It analyzes unwanted shake and compensates by repositioning and cropping the picture. Multiple clips can use the same stabilization treatment, with a split comparison available before export. Output controls cover resolution, cropping, bitrate and format.
Video repair
The Video Repair tool accepts corrupted files individually or in a batch. After repair processing, the Completed list provides a preview for each repaired clip. Users can export one result or save the completed selection with Export All.
This tool handles damaged video files, while the enhancement workspace’s Video Quality Repair model works on the appearance of playable footage, including noise, blur and compression artifacts.
Background removal
The background tool identifies the foreground figure and offers transparent, blurred or solid-color background modes. Blur has an intensity control, while Background Fill provides a color palette and a picker for selecting a color from the screen.
Portrait retouching
The Windows Video Beauty workspace changes facial appearance through Skin Retouch, Effects and Makeup controls. Face tracking follows moving faces so the selected treatment follows the subject through the clip. Skin presets adjust smoothing and tone, while reshaping effects alter features such as eye, face and nose proportions.
Virtual makeup adds elements including lipstick, eyeshadow and eyeliner. Individual intensity controls determine their strength, and several selected effects can be combined. A comparison preview makes the cosmetic changes visible against the original recording.
Video generation
HitPaw VikPea also creates short clips from text prompts or still images. Image to Video accepts JPG, JPEG, PNG and WebP images as a starting frame, with an optional end frame and prompt to guide the sequence. Text to Video starts from a written description of the desired scene.
Generation controls include the model, duration, resolution and available sound options. Creative Effects provides prepared effects that use a reference image as their input. Generated clips can be previewed and downloaded, then opened in Video Enhancer for further processing.
Trimming, export settings and cloud processing
Before enhancement, users can trim a source to the passage they want to keep. Export settings provide resolution presets and custom dimensions alongside format, bitrate and output-folder controls. Supported inputs include MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, WebM and MXF; output choices include MP4, MOV, MKV, M4V, AVI and GIF.
Local Export processes supported models on the computer. Cloud Export sends work to remote servers and consumes purchased credits; availability depends on the selected model. Completed cloud tasks must be downloaded to obtain the finished files locally. AI Generative and AI Colorist require cloud processing rather than offering a local alternative.
Free, subscription and perpetual licenses
The free license provides previews, while saving enhanced videos requires a paid license. Monthly and yearly subscriptions include major upgrades during the subscription. The perpetual license includes updates within its current major version. Cloud processing has its own credit requirements, so a paid desktop license does not make every cloud operation unlimited.
