Improving westerns video

[carlmart]

There are a few westerns, which I consider classics but others may not, that seemed not to have been deserving of a new masterization.

Some of them are Budd Boetticher's westerns, and there's also one of the first Steve MsQueen's: Nevada Smith.

I couldn't find any HD version of any of the Boetticher's, so I'm willing to process the SD ones I have and see what can be done. Nevada Smith does have a TV screening that was uploaded, but quality is worst than the DVD. Too contrasty and grainy.

So first of all I wonder what might be necessary as samples from each movie, to see what could be tried from Avisynth's bag of tricks.

How many seconds are necessary and what should I use to get them?

[sanlyn]

We need more info. In what format are these movies now? DVD? recorded to tape? Commercial tapes?

[carlmart]

Oh, sorry. Yes, the files are normal size DVD files.

[sanlyn]

They are commercial DVD's, not home-made?

[edDV]

Post some sample screen caps or short DVD MPeg2 clips for evaluation.

Netflix has a good collection of early westerns.

[sanlyn]

With a few seconds of mpeg samples from the DVD's you can get more specific answers. The video on the DVD is in the form of VOB files. You can copy VOB to a PC and treat them like MPEG2 (which is what they are). Warning: many commercial DVD's are copy protected. That will be a problem.