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. Interlaced tape keeps the motion the camera recorded by default: each field becomes a frame, so NTSC delivers at 59.94 fps with nothing interpolated (see presets). Remaster is the 4K temporal pass and needs CUDA. Buy a licence on the pricing page; the download link arrives with your licence email. Footage is not uploaded. See the queue and a whole box of tapes overnight.

Yes. Drop scanned prints (JPEG, PNG or TIFF) into the window and they go to the Photos page, beside Videos. Open a photo to paint over creases, tears and spots, which are filled from the print around them. FrameLathe then sharpens faces, makes the photo 2× or 4× bigger, and colours it when it looks black and white. Start runs photos and clips in one go, one at a time. Like everything else, it runs on your own graphics card and the photos never leave your computer.

A small vision model (a 69 MB download the first time) looks at each photo on your graphics card and suggests: it leaves a photo that is already in colour uncoloured, and names one that may not be a photo.

It saves PNG by default, TIFF when the scan was TIFF, or JPEG when you choose it for sharing, and keeps the photo’s date. Added colour is invented, not recovered: nothing records what colours the scene really had. Restored faces can likewise gain detail the scan did not hold.

Where a mark lands on a face, an optional face fix (Stable Diffusion 1.5 inpainting, a 1.89 GB download after you accept its licence) can redraw the marked part three ways for you to choose from, or keep the plain fill. Every version is a reconstruction: it is invented, not recovered.

See Photos for the details.

Yes. The free photo upscaler restores one photo at a time in your browser, with no sign-up and no watermark. It makes the photo 2× or 4× bigger, and can sharpen the faces in it and add colour to a black-and-white photo. It opens JPEG, PNG, WebP and TIFF, and saves PNG or JPEG.

Nothing is uploaded. The page runs the models on your own graphics card, in the tab. The photo never leaves your device and nothing about it is stored or sent. The page downloads its models the first time you use each one (5 MB for bigger, about 294 MB for faces, about 467 MB for colour) and keeps them in the browser for next time.

It needs WebGPU for faces and colour. A recent Chrome or Edge has it. In a browser without WebGPU only Bigger runs, on the processor and more slowly. Keep the tab open while it works.

Added colour is invented: the photo never recorded it, so it is the model’s guess. A sharpened face can gain detail the photo didn’t hold.

The page uses the same face model and the same DDColor “artistic” colour weights as the FrameLathe app, which add fewer stray patches of colour to old prints. The app, for Windows, does whole folders, video, the damage brush for creases and specks, a face fix, TIFF output, and keeps the photo’s date, colour profile and DPI. See Photos.

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

FrameLathe ships as a Windows desktop installer. macOS is not produced or tested, so if you are on a Mac, this is not the tool for you today.

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 Start. Checking for updates sends the stored licence document; after activation that document includes the fingerprint hash. No usage analytics, crash reports, or file information go to FrameLathe. One exception you choose: if you turn on AI apps and connect one (such as Claude Code), FrameLathe still sends nothing, but what it tells that app (file names, clip details, progress, and any preview frame you ask for) goes to the app’s provider. See AI apps.

The catalog is Denoise, Export Ready (the default), Remaster, Smooth 60 fps, and Clean 8K behind More… under Start from. The queue rail usually picks one of those from what is wrong with the footage, what it is made for, and how far to take it. Remaster is the one that needs an NVIDIA CUDA card; the rest have ncnn or CPU paths. 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 (about 40 minutes), Full (about 4 hours), and Best possible. Duration still depends on the card and the preset. See the queue and Quick / Full / Best possible.

The queue rail asks how far to take the footage. The steps are:

• Quick — about 40 minutes; adds detail one frame at a time, at a smaller size
• Full — about 4 hours; adds detail one frame at a time, at 4K
• Best possible — the best pass for this source; on SD footage it rebuilds detail from nearby frames (Remaster)

The problems you tick add clean-up steps; they never change which step is which.

Those times are rough guides. Each step also shows what it produces for your footage (1440p, 4K · rebuilt) and this machine’s own estimate, and says same as … when it would give the same recipe as the step before it. Duration still depends on the card, the preset, and the footage. Overnight is simply when the GPU is free to work, not a fourth chip.

An Individual licence is $149 USD, paid once. It covers two Windows workstations you use, such as a desktop and a laptop, and one year of updates from purchase. After that year the app keeps working on the version you have. For the first month after launch the price is $89 with code LAUNCH. A code from a creator we partner with matches the $89 launch price through 22 November 2026; after that it takes $40 off, making it $109. Checkout takes one code per order, so codes don’t combine.

Every purchase has a 30-day refund, no questions asked — see the refund policy. Payment goes through Paddle, our Merchant of Record, which handles sales tax and VAT. Details are on the pricing page.

Buy on the pricing page; your licence key and a download link for the installer arrive by email. Lost the link? Enter your email at framelathe.com/download. Figures on the compare pages are dated competitor prices, not FrameLathe’s.

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. It covers the three stages that take a file of your own — Upscale, Denoise, and Matting — and leaves the first-party presets alone. The first time you open the Model Hub, it explains the filter and asks you to keep it on or turn it off; nothing can be downloaded or imported from the Hub until you answer. Change it later in Settings → Advanced → Model Hub.

Turning the filter off grants you nothing. Hub models keep their own licences, and the EULA does not promise commercial-use rights for every weight. The filter reads the licence string that the index or the imported file recorded; it is a heuristic, not a FrameLathe legal opinion. You remain responsible for the models you choose.

Activation is something you do in Settings → Updates & licence when you paste a licence key. It is not a launch check and it is not part of Start. The app does not ask for the key when it first opens; if you press Start or render a preview sample before activating, it tells you a licence is needed and offers Open licence settings.

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 Start. 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.

Polish, preview samples, and Start need a licence bound to this machine. Import, plan, and thumbnails work without one. The emailed key is a purchase credential; activation remints a document bound to this computer.

The app does not phone home to run. Checking for updates is a setting, off if you turn it off, and it only runs once a licence is activated. When that check is on, it sends the stored licence document to framelathe.com. After activation that document includes the fingerprint hash. Revocation blocks new activations and updates; if update checks are on, the next successful check also removes the local licence and the queue will not start. Updates off (or a check that cannot reach framelathe.com, or an app left open) leaves a machine that already activated able to render until the next allowed check. 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 → Advanced → Model Hub is one list you can search and switch between All, Upscale, Denoise and Matting. Open an installed model’s details and choose Use for Upscale (or Denoise, Matting) to apply it 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. Used when background removal is on.

Colorize runs first-party DDColor and is not a bring-your-own slot.

The Hub licence filter is on by default and gates those same three stages. 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 a box of old home videos. Paste Copy for support text from the desktop app and it looks up the code: line. It works from published pages only, so when the answer is not on the site it says so and offers Talk to a human. It never asks for your video files.

Yes. FrameLathe includes an MCP server, so an AI app that can start a local MCP server (Claude Code and Cursor are two) can look at your clips, plan, render and compare on your PC. It is off until you turn it on in Settings → AI apps, the app can only ask, and you approve what it may do and which folders it may use. If you want, you can always allow an app some permissions, or any folder that is not protected, for an hour, until FrameLathe restarts or until you remove it; FrameLathe warns you first, and See frames always needs its own yes. FrameLathe sends nothing anywhere, but what the tools return to the app (file names, clip details, progress, and any preview frame you ask for) goes to that app’s provider under its terms. Preview frames are off unless you ask for one.

This is not the assistant on this website: that one answers from the published pages and never sees your footage. Details: AI apps.

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 under Start from (behind the Recipe header) in the recipe rail (and in the file formats). A 4K source renders 16K intermediates — roughly eight days per ten minutes of footage on an RTX 4060 Ti. The queue row shows that estimate before you start.

No. The desktop app sends no usage analytics, no crash reports, and no information about your files. Activation is not analytics either: it sends the key and a derived fingerprint when you paste a licence, not a usage stream. The website waitlist and the optional support chat are site features, documented on Privacy, and neither one ever receives 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. Every comparison is sourced and dated: compare.

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. Send the text, never the clip — the site has no way to take a video, and your footage has no reason to leave the machine.

FrameLathe is available now. Buy a licence on the pricing page — the key and a download link for the signed Windows installer arrive by email. Lost the link? Enter your email at framelathe.com/download. Updates arrive through the app.

Treat Denoise as the intent, not a promise of one particular network. When the neural path is not available on your machine the engine falls back to FFmpeg hqdn3d, and the row tells you which one ran. See troubleshooting.