FAQ

Keep the files on your PC. FrameLathe is for a box of already-digital clips — VHS or MiniDV transfers, Hi8, camcorder captures, old phone videos — not a browser tab that takes the tape.

1. If it is still analog tape, digitise it with a capture device or a transfer service. The app does not ingest VHS.
2. Copy the files onto the Windows machine that has the GPU.
3. Drop the folder, answer what is wrong, where it is going, and how long it can take — Quick, Full, or Best possible.
4. Start the batch and review in the morning.

Denoise is the usual first pass on noisy tape. Remaster is the 4K temporal pass and needs CUDA. There is no public download yet — waitlist. Footage is not uploaded. See the queue and a whole box of tapes overnight.

No. FrameLathe is a Windows desktop app. Video is processed on your computer. The site waitlist and the docs assistant do not receive footage.

The shipping installer is Windows. macOS is not produced or tested. Do not expect a Mac build from this site.

Your files are not uploaded for enhancement. EULA §7 lists the only network uses: updates, licence activation when you ask, GPU add-on pack when you request it, model weights you request, and the public Model Hub index. Activation sends the key and a fingerprint derived at that moment; it is not stored as hardware inventory and is not sent at launch or at render. No usage analytics, crash reports, or file information go to FrameLathe.

The catalog is Denoise, Export Ready (the default), Remaster, Smooth 60 fps, and Clean 8K behind More… on the preset grid. The intent door on the queue usually picks one of those from three answers about the footage. There is no Remaster+CUDA tile. CUDA is a Remaster hardware requirement. See presets.

Remaster is temporal 4K upscale. Without an NVIDIA GPU it is unavailable; other presets may still run via ncnn or CPU. Below ~12 GB VRAM the app warns that Remaster often OOM. Export Ready can still run on that card. See Remaster.

Use the queue, not a one-file web tab. Drop the folder, answer what is wrong / where it is going / how long it can take, start the batch, review in the morning. The time chips are Quick (~40 minutes), Full (~4 hours), and Best possible. Duration still depends on the card and the preset. See the queue and Quick / Full / Best possible.

The queue door asks how long the batch can take. The chips are:

• Quick — about 40 minutes
• Full — about 4 hours
• Best possible — the best pass for this source

They are planning hints. Duration still depends on the card, the preset, and the footage. There are no chips labelled Lunch, Overnight, or Weekend. Overnight is when the GPU may work, not the name of Full.

There is no public download and no published price on framelathe.com. The waitlist is notify-at-launch only. If a comparison page mentions competitor fees, those are dated vendor figures, not a FrameLathe SKU.

A filter is on by default so the Hub will not download, import, plan, or start a model whose recorded licence string looks non-commercial, restricted, or missing. Change it in Settings → Model Hub. The filter only applies to Upscale, Denoise, and Matting. Turning it off does not add a Colorize import, and does not revive Face restore or object removal. Hub models keep their own licences. The EULA does not promise commercial-use rights for every weight. The filter is a heuristic on the licence string the index or import recorded, not a FrameLathe legal opinion. You remain responsible for the models you choose.

Activation is something you do in Settings when you paste a licence key. It is not a launch check and it is not part of rendering.

What is sent, once, is the key and a fingerprint derived at activation. The fingerprint is not stored as hardware inventory. It is not sent at launch or at render. Individual licences cover two workstations (a desktop and a laptop); team and site licences cover the number sold. Re-activating the same computer does not consume another seat. Before you retire a machine, deactivate it in Settings. If the computer is gone, use the lost-machine reset there — it is self-service, with a yearly cap, then contact support.

The app does not phone home to run. Checking for updates is a setting, off if you turn it off. When that check is on, it may ask whether this key is still offered updates; that lookup does not send the fingerprint. A key that is no longer offered updates still renders everything it ever could. You keep the version you have. For help, write to hello@framelathe.com. Details: What leaves the machine and the EULA.

Yes, on three stages. Settings → Model Hub has a tab per stage. Use on queue applies an installed weight to the current recipe. Download is not the same as Use.

• Upscale — OpenModelDB or a local .safetensors / .pth that loads as image super-resolution. Not used on Remaster or Denoise-only.
• Denoise — one ONNX, RGB in and RGB out at the same size. Used on Denoise and Export Ready. Not used on Remaster.
• Matting — one ONNX, RGB in and a 1-channel alpha out. Only when background removal is on. Not object removal.

Colorize stays DDColor. Face restore is not offered. Object removal is not offered.

The Hub licence filter (on by default) only gates Upscale, Denoise, and Matting. Turning it off does not add the closed slots. See Models.

The waitlist form collects an email address, consent, and a Turnstile token. We store the address, submit time, User-Agent, and mail/unsub flags. We do not store IP. We do not create an app account. See Privacy.

The assistant answers product questions from this site’s docs, FAQ, and compare pages, including intent questions like what to do with old home videos. Paste Copy for support text from the desktop app — it looks up the code: line. It must not invent features, dates, or a FrameLathe price. It never wants your video files. Use Talk to a human when the site does not publish the fact.

Open Ask FrameLathe, then Talk to a human. The Worker emails the team from hello@framelathe.com. We do not publish a personal inbox and we do not file the note in Zendesk or similar. Reply-To is the address you typed.

Upscale and denoise can use ncnn or CPU fallbacks when NVIDIA is missing. Remaster cannot. If the neural denoise path is not ready, denoise may fall back to FFmpeg hqdn3d. See hardware.

Clean 8K is hidden unless More… is on at the foot of the preset grid (and the delivery picker). A 4K source renders 16K intermediates — roughly eight days per ten minutes of footage on an RTX 4060 Ti, as documented in the app. Read the row estimate before you start one.

Correct for the desktop app. Activation is not analytics: it sends the key and a derived fingerprint when you paste a licence, not a usage stream. Website waitlist and optional support chat are site features, documented on Privacy, and they still never receive your video.

FrameLathe is the overnight machine on Windows: drop a folder, pick Quick / Full / Best possible, let the GPU work, Review a wipe in the morning. Footage is not uploaded. There is no cloud processing path. Honest, sourced comparisons: compare. We do not invent quality-score wins or a FrameLathe price.

Vendor packaging dated 18 September 2026 (verify with them):

• Topaz Video — subscription desktop enhancer ($59/mo or $299/year Personal on their site), local rendering plus cloud credits. FrameLathe is the folder queue with no cloud processing path.
• DaVinci Resolve Studio — a full NLE. Studio is US$295 one-time on Blackmagic’s site. FrameLathe will not replace a timeline; it is the batch you start before bed.
• Cloud tabs — wink.ai-class tools. You upload the file. FrameLathe never does.
• UniFab All-In-One — lifetime suite listed around $319.99 on their buy page, with optional FabCloud. FrameLathe is one queue, named presets, pixels on disk.
• Video2X — free Vulkan GUI. FrameLathe is named presets plus Review.

Index cards for Aiarty, Nero, AVCLabs, HitPaw, and SeedVR2 live on compare.

Use the desktop Copy for support action, then paste into the assistant or the human form. The bundle starts with a code: line; the assistant looks that up against error codes. Video attachments are out of scope for this site and would break the local-only story.

There is no public ship date on this site. Join the waitlist for one email when the Windows installer is ready. Anyone quoting a day, including the docs assistant, is guessing.

Treat “Denoise” as the intent, not a guarantee of a particular network. The app should disclose what actually ran on the row. See troubleshooting.