Super8 > VHS > Restore

[magillagorilla]

I seem to be starting a lot of threads here. Hope I'm not annoying anyone. You all are a big help. I'm just clever when it comes to video restoration, which means I can sort of assemble filters someone else made. Some of you guys are innovative and experienced, which trumps clever by a long shot.

So I'm 90% done hammering out my VHS restore process (still working out color/chroma problems) and I saved the best for last.

I have some Super 8 > VHS transfers. They are hideous in every way. I don't know the original film speed or the transfer method. It could have been a guy in a garage with a camcorder and a projector for all I know. It's, of course, irreplaceable family footage from lost reels.

I'd like to return it to its original progressive state, if possible. So, how do I determine its original frame rate. Let's assume it's 18fps. Is there a VDUB/AVISynth filter for that (like IVTC?)

[sanlyn]

VHS is interlaced. What format are you transferring from? NTSC, PAL? What media do you want to transfer to? DVD? Divx?> Not enough information.

[jagabo]

Open the video files and run a simple bob in AviSynth.

AviSource("filename.avi")
AssumeTFF() # or AssumeBFF()
Bob()

Find a section with moderate motion. Step through the video frame by frame and count how many unique frames you see over 60 frames. The number of unique frames will tell you the film frame rate.

[magillagorilla]

Good thinking jagabo, I'll try it.

Its Super8 > NTSC VHS > Computer playback only, as the target, probly x264

I count 20fps. So I need to discard 1 of every 3 sets right? Er wait there are 3 of each frame, it looks like. So I delete every 2 I guess?

How do I delete every x frames in AVISynth?

[2Bdecided]

Before you do anything, take a look at this...
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=161493
...in case it already solves your problems.

Cheers,
David.

[jagabo]

There was some talk about reducing the "hot spot" later in that thread. I took the guys "after" video and the sample all white hot spot frame and used AviSynth's Overlay(mode="multiply") to reduce the hot spotting:





It probably could have worked better earlier on in the processing. And a little more levels adjustment afterward would have fixed the overly dark areas.

[magillagorilla]

2bdecided, I've seen that thread before. Soem food for thought.

Jagabo, topics like "hot spots" are well out of scope for my footage. These films are poorly focused, some look like thay have mold damage, and the color is very wacked. There is enough there to tease a good picture out of some of it. I may chop it down to what I consider whorth messing with.

I want to get the original progressive frames back, then I can run scripts designed to restore film. But before that I think I'll need to run a series of filters to fix the VHS problems.

[jagabo]

Jagabo, topics like "hot spots" are well out of scope for my footage.

It's not very hard. But I haven't seen that type of non-linear lighting (caused by the projector) in the samples you've posted.

[magillagorilla]

Jagabo, I haven't posted any samples for this one (the Super 8 source). My other thread about color is a different restoration effort and is pure VHS lineage. It's the only recent sample I have posted.

This thread is regarding my Super8 > NTSC VHS mess I need to sort out. I'll thrown some samples up when I get a moment.

[magillagorilla]

I'm still poking this 8mm>VHS footage with a very long stick. My primary restoration focus right now is my pure VHS lineage footage. Some good tips from fpp on http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=161493 as directed by 2Bdecided. Sans the MPEG/VOB part, because I don't have that problem.

I did adapt the srestore(frate=x) which seems to work well.

Anyone mess with this:
# stabilize by VideoFred (but without deflicker)
requestlinear()
o=last
maxstabH=20 maxstabV=20 # maximum values for the stabiliser (in pixels) - 20 is a good start value
est_left=40 est_top=40 est_right=40 est_bottom=40 est_cont=1.4 #crop and contast values for special Estimate clip
stab_reference= o.crop(est_left,est_top,-est_right,-est_bottom).tweak(cont=est_cont).MT_binarize(thres hold=80).greyscale().invert()
mdata=DePanEstimate(stab_reference,trust=1.0,dxmax =maxstabH,dymax=maxstabV)
DePanStabilize(o,data=mdata,cutoff=0.5,dxmax=maxst abH,dymax=maxstabV,method=0,mirror=15)#.deflicker( ) <-- twice the encoding time on my machine !

This thing crashes my AVSPmod immediately. Also deshaker crashes my VDUB. I am looking for some stabilization options.