8mm Jumping Frames

[DavidA]

I have an old 8mm video which I've converted to DVD professionally.

Like a lot of 8mm films I get occasional frame jumps where the picture is misaligned. I know in a way this is part of 8mm's charm, but is there a modern and automated way of repositioning the bad frames?

Thanks in advance.

[AlanHK]

Maybe a deshaker filter would work.
See http://www.guthspot.se/video/deshaker.htm

[DavidA]

A very cool plugin, but it's not giving me quite the results I'm after. I think it's trying to be a little more intelligent than I need it to be. I will keep playing with it though; thanks!

Any other suggestions welcome.

[Soopafresh]

Yeah, but not exactly automated. You can use the "BadFrames" Plugin for Avisynth.

Replaces given bad frames by neighbors or blend (interpolation). Useful for frames with very large defects.

http://avisynth.org.ru/badframes/badframes.html

Steps

1) Go through the file with VirtualDub, making a note of the frame numbers which jump

2) Add the bad frame numbers to the script Badframes(8,29,49,7984) etc

[SLK001]

I've just used AviSynth and its crop function to realign badly aligned frames. I've even had to use Photoshop to edit out the aged tape splices (using a combination of the previous and the next frame). I've even used Photoshop to completely reconstruct frames that had broken in the middle of the frame and were horribly respliced.

The "crop" command can also be use to move the image around the frame area.

Once you have "repaired" all the damage, you just rejoin your video (using film clips and still frame images). The final result is a video exactly the same length as the original.

If you don't know how to script using AviSynth, then I would suggest that you learn it (it's really quite simple). Once you get started with it, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it.

[vhelp]

SLK001, I was going to ask how to do this through scripting, but then decided not to

This should be really easy to do in AVIsynth through scripting, but I'll be darned if I know how to conjure it up. There are so many commands/functions do many wonderous things.

But, I'll take a stab at it for ya.. and if someone finds errors or better aproach.. please, by all means, do so.

(This is untested, and I'll test it (for bugs) after I post this)

Assuming that every other frame is bobbing up by 2 rows of pixels, and that the bobbing (frame that goes up by two scanlines) starts at the very first frame. Mind you, I've never done this in avisynth before, so my logic might be off a bit, (I didn't cheat and read the manual to show off my skills) feel free to make the necessary corrections.

* This assumes that frames 0,2,4,6 are the ones bobbing.

# Open (AVI) video source
#
AVIsource("filename.avi")

# assuming frames 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7
# then assign eve=0,2,4,6, and odd=1,3,5,7
#
eve = selectEvery(4, 0,1, 4,5).crop(0,0,0,2).letterbox(2,0,0,0)
odd = selectEvery(4, 2,3, 6,7)

# join the two separate sequences of Even and Odd frames into one sequence
#
interleave(eve,odd)


-vhelp 4852

[vhelp]

Hmm.. I just realized that I can't test this script because I don't have any frames (videos) that bob like this or yours. To the OP, Geesh.. I'm sorry I waisted your time. Good luck!

-vhelp 4853

[Des]

I must be old, because I am thinking you should repair the film's sprockets and then recapture

Then again these materials are getting harder to get, so that may not be as practical.

--dES

[lordsmurf]

I must be old, because I am thinking you should repair the film's sprockets and then recapture
Then again these materials are getting harder to get, so that may not be as practical.
--dES

I agree, and www.wood-land.com is who I'd contact for film conversion work. Check first, however, to see if they can perform this sort of repair. If not, maybe they have a suggestion of somebody that can?

[DavidA]

I think I might need to back to the original film as I've got instances where two frames are shown at once, and no amount of de-shaking will fix that.

For anyone who got here from a search and has the same problem then take a look at this thread on FilmShooting [1]

DeShaker is probably the best at the job if you want to do it automatically. If you want to do it manually then Sony Vegas will let you do it, as will the tools mentioned above.

[1] http://www.filmshooting.com/scripts/forum/viewtopic.php?p=21909&sid=25b43dfea0a251bf0e206325851dd381

[Des]

Do you have access to a different projector? Some were better at working with worn sprockets than others, and some made worn sprockets seem worse than others.

I have a Bauer dual 8mm projector that does marvels with worn films. Kodak movie decks are very good as well, if you can find a working one.

I would think some of the Bell and Howells from the early 70s would be effective too.

--dES

[DavidA]

I'm not sure the original film exists. There would have to be a fair amount of digging through attics. The version I was working with was actually an old 8MM to VHS transfer which was done years ago.

[2Bdecided]

That's a shame, because film transfers have improved dramatically in that time...

http://www.moviestuff.tv/samples.html
http://www.mbnet.fi/nettijatkot/2007/11/kaitafilmit/
(see samples)

Cheers,
David.