Adobe After Effects and upsampling
 

It's my first time using the software and I've got some old footage that I'm trying to bring into the HD age. (Yes I know it won't be true HD) The problem is I'm having a devil of a time figuring out the software.

I would sure love to know if there's a good tutorial somewhere online. - I've searched and had no luck

Also if anyone's done upsampling I would greatly appreciate any advice or tips you have to offer. (That's advice that not telling me to re-shoot the footage in HD. Some of the talent is already dead)

There's a decent plugin called InstantHD which can work pretty well...but upsampling is still resizing and pixel interpolation is never going to look anywhere near as good as having an original larger source.

they have a newer version I just found out about...but I'm very skeptical of major upconverting digital video.

https://www.redgiant.com/products/instant-4k/

"Detail preserving upscale"
It's an effect that you drag onto the video, then scale to make the detail better.

After Effects CC: Detail-preserving Upscale | Adobe at IBC 2013 | Adobe TV

What he said, Detail preserving upscale effect.

Just be prepared for some horrendously long render times - even on a monster machine with multiple cores and and a decent GPU.

I reccomend Terry White - the king of anything adobe including After Effects. Check out his playlists on video & photography tuts or just search after effects on his youtube channel for a massive tutorial list.

https://www.youtube.com/user/terrywhitetechblog

I can deal with long rendering times. I've just purchased a copy of Red Giant suite 12 and I'm just hoping this is more "idiot proof" than "technical know how required." After all I'm working out of my element.

I can edit SD and I can edit HD but converting SD to HD is a new ball game. So far my attempts have proven to really suck bad.

The thing is that the SD video was shot during an era when I put more money and care into producing videos. The HD I've shot pretty much quick just stuff for guys looking for a fast jerk off.