I tried removing burned-in text from videos with VideoDetext
A friend of mine works in e-commerce and often needs to reuse or edit videos that already have text or subtitles burned into them. That got me looking into ways to remove text from video without having to edit it frame by frame. I tried a few existing tools and APIs, and eventually found Alibaba's VideoDetext. The results were good enough for the kind of videos I was testing, and running the API…
My friend's profession involves working in e-commerce, where he frequently encounters situations requiring the reuse or editing of videos that already contain text or subtitles embedded within them. This prompted me to research methods to remove text from videos without the need for frame-by-frame editing. I experimented with several existing tools and APIs, eventually discovering Alibaba's VideoDetext.
The outcomes of using this particular API proved satisfactory for the types of videos I tested, and processing the videos directly via the API was relatively cost-effective. However, the API's underlying structure is geared towards developers, which presented a challenge for me. To address this, I constructed a simple web interface around it, naming it Video Text Remover.
The current process is quite simple: users upload a video, choose whether the tool should automatically detect the text or if a specific area should be targeted for removal, and then initiate the video processing. It's important to note that the tool is not flawless. My trials suggest that it performs better when the text is situated over a relatively uncomplicated background.
When the text interferes with moving objects or complex backgrounds, the algorithm struggles to produce a natural-looking reconstruction in the affected areas. I am still exploring the optimal approach for handling more challenging scenarios. Should you have experience in video inpainting or other text-removal models that provide superior temporal consistency, I would be keen to learn about your experiences. Any feedback regarding the workflow or the quality of the output would be highly appreciated.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
