Restoration project: Need advice buying a decent VCR.

[nicknick]

Here is a short videoclip (24 secs). I compressed it with divx (hq) to keep a lower filesize, hope you don't mind.
It has been captured with a usb-capture card.

[2Bdecided]

Apart from the saturation (and that may be OK in other places), I'd be happy putting this onto DVD as-is without any tweaking at all.

If you want to tweak, try something like...

avisource("example VHS.avi")
assumetff()

# increase colour saturation:
tweak(sat=1.3,coring=false)

# make it a little sharper horizontally:
sharpen(0.5,0)

# crop out the junk:
crop(16,0,0,-20)

# put clean borders in to bring back to DVD resolution:
addborders(0,8,0,12)

#histogram(mode="levels")

#bob()

...or the VirtualDub equivalent.

Uncomment the histogram line to check the levels (they're fine).

Uncomment the bob line to see it deinterlaced (badly) (don't do this for DVD).


Check the saturation on other parts of the video. 1.3 is probably too much. If so, try 1.2 or 1.1.

Drop the above .avs file into an MPEG encoder to generate something ready for DVD.

(Obviously work from your master copy, not your DivX encode)


A TBC in the VCR would probably make the image look a little more stable, especially at the top. Alternatively, forget the capture card: a good DVD recorder would probably include a TBC, and increase the saturation by default, making any external processing almost redundant.


If you want more tweaking, try VirtualDub deshaker to fix the slightly shaky camerawork.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
David.

[jagabo]

The black level needs to come down. ColorYUV(off_y=-12) or thereabouts. You might be able to restore some detail in the blown out areas if you adjust the levels before any RGB conversion.

Also, look into Neat Video for noise reduction in VirtualDub.

[nicknick]

Thank you for your suggestions.
I was experimenting with Neatvideo in virtualdub, however it's quite slow on my pc.
With filters for contrast (the build in level filter) and saturation (color mill) and sharpening (msu smart-sharpen) it processes arroun 9-10 fps.
When i add neat-video it goes down to 0.80 fps.
My pc might be getting old, and i don't mind it taking a few hours, but 0.80 fps is just to slow.

[lordsmurf]

With a big filter chain that includes NeatVideo, I get about 2-3fps on a quadcore.
My last encode was about 56 hours.

[2Bdecided]

I don't think I'd bother with Neat Video on the clip you posted - it's hardly noisy.

I assume things shot in low light are far noisier though?

Cheers,
David.