Average out brightness.

[sanlyn]

Sanlyn, you expect perfection! Really, it's not that bad.

It's bad. The point is, it looks like a good shot originally (auto exposure notwithstanding -- a pain, but it could be fixed). But another party made garbage of it. This was to use for a menu logo or animation of some sort. Would probably work as a reduced-size quickie in that context, but on a 42"-plus TV at full size the visual noise would make the walls rattle. And movement isn't smooth, which I'm certain is going to become more noticeable as the rest of the digitized video is viewed.

[Wolfen]

Sorry I didn't realize you posted a link to it.I thought he just wanted the brightness stabilized.

[sanlyn]

Thanks. I've had that plugin since 2004. Autogain won't fix the levels problem or the distortion. The MSU filter tends to "pump" and flicker when source objects move around, and it blows out highlights and middle values. But if you think it will work, give it a try. Watch what happens to the "Jasper Tramway" logo on front of the tram car when the video starts. No autolevel filter will stop that, they just make it worse. The original source is posted here:
http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/351530-Average-out-brightness?p=2205223&viewfull=1#post2205223

[sanlyn]

....But as usual I'm keeping on my desktop a shortcut to this clip and to several scripts. . . .

[2Bdecided]

on a 42"-plus TV at full size the visual noise would make the walls rattle

Have you ever watched normal people watch old home movies? This (noisy, deinterlaced to 25p, bad levels) is already above the required quality threshold to give enjoyment if the content is interesting.

For my own content, I try to get the best possibility that I can - because to do less will annoy me. But I'm under no delusions that anyone else in the family will even notice.

Cheers,
David.

[sanlyn]

@2Bdecidd, yep, I agree. I visit lots of homes repairing PC's, seeing 60-inch TV's burning with garbage looking worse than ancient Admiral CRT's (and stretched, too). And pics and videos with Aunt Lilly looking like Mr. Hyde in drag. Last night I took up Clip23 again, abandoned the previous script I posted and looked up new ideas.

Another learning experience -- until Christmas visitors start showing next week, when the PC gets shut down.

[poisondeathray]

I agree with Sanlyn here - if you even out the average brightness , the compression artifacts and noise will be unbearable. It's pretty easy to do with keyframes as the clip isn't that long .

This assumes you want to make everything visible and clear. Of course you can even it all out the other way - so everything is dark and barely visible in shadows... that would at least hide the compression artifacts

The flickering logo "jasper tramway" can be dealt with by using temporal chroma denoising - I don't see that as the main problem.

[sanlyn]

Agreed, pdr. I just tried a handful of deblockers and smoothers. Many I've never used before (SmoothD2c, for one). A lot of the blocking is smoother, but there's no way to stop that bad dinterlace and low bitrate from changing the shapes of objects when the tram car moves. In some frames it's not just "flashing", it's a total color change in several areas. FFT3Dfilter helps a bit.

Shucks. Anyway it's been, uh, interesting so far.

Gotta go wrap some presents for a while and stop staring at this clip.

[poisondeathray]

on a 42"-plus TV at full size the visual noise would make the walls rattle

Have you ever watched normal people watch old home movies?

Hahaha.... I missed this.... I think he's implying that you're "abnormal"

it's a total color change in several areas.

For this part, you can keyframe the color changes as well . But the other problems with low bitrate/compression crud....not much you can do .

low bitrate from changing the shapes of objects

I suppose you can use object replacement techniques, but it's difficult to get it match up with the rest (you have to degrade it in a way that matches)

[sanlyn]

on a 42"-plus TV at full size the visual noise would make the walls rattle

Have you ever watched normal people watch old home movies?

Hahaha.... I missed this.... I think he's implying that you're "abnormal"

2B is probably right. My wife doesn't use that term. Her version is "PITA".

low bitrate from changing the shapes of objects

I suppose you can use object replacement techniques, but it's difficult to get it match up with the rest (you have to degrade it in a way that matches)

Gotta dig out my AfterEffects tutorials for that. But it would take forever. Look at the clouds starting around frame 120.

[2Bdecided]

on a 42"-plus TV at full size the visual noise would make the walls rattle

Have you ever watched normal people watch old home movies?

Hahaha.... I missed this.... I think he's implying that you're "abnormal"

2B is probably right. My wife doesn't use that term. Her version is "PITA".

"special".
and certainly a perfectionist.

[poisondeathray]

Look at the clouds starting around frame 120.

What about the clouds , specifically ? Were you referring to the changing exposure or something else ?

[sanlyn]

Clouds: yes, colors change; the balance changes several times, mostly concerning blue. Follow the clouds frame by frame. Discarded fields cause gaps in motion and shape, as if 2 or 3 images were dropped. And the low bitrate couldn't keep up. There's banding, too (no surprise). I smoothed some of it (it'll come back on re-encode, though). The worst junk is around frame 80-plus, then 120-plus. Just too much missing. No way to repair that, IMO.

I managed to fix a few things ( a few!). Will try to post later, gotta write some Christmas cards. Perhaps the results will be useable.

[MarkYoungIW]

Nearly finished the DVD menus, but its funny isn't it, once you have selected a clip, when you change it, the new one never looks as good!!

I will undoubtably be on here after Christmas, once I've tracked down the original VHS's and got some equipment to capture them.

Whilst poking through the loft I have found an 'Easy Capture USB device'. Have a feeling we tried to use this a long time ago, and it was a bit crap, but not sure! Does have and S-Video though.

[sanlyn]

The EZ Cap depends. The original-and-genuine wasn't so bad, but since that time there have been a flood of fake copies that are truly terrible. I think we have a couple of EZCap experts around here who could offer advice -- rather like mushroom experts who know the good guys from the bad, so to speak.

Note that camera pans and movement require a higher bitrate for proper encoding. And when you can, avoid auto exposure. Admittedly, sometimes there's no choice.

[2Bdecided]

And when you can, avoid auto exposure.

Auto exposure on a decent modern camera is nowhere near as bad as on this clip from 2000. They typically have more dynamic range, and so avoid being so "contrasty" (though some still create those kinds of pictures by default).

Cheers,
David.

[themaster1]

I have worked a little on this nightmare-of-footage for the fun but try to get a better copy really, see below
processed video sample:http://www.mediafire.com/?viwzuo4ob8yo344

[sanlyn]

Yes, that's about what I was getting. It's a bit bright. The start is the easy part. Wait until you get to frame 80. Try reducing the clip to half size, run some MCTD or smoothers on it, then resize. That got rid of lots of schmutz and even cleaned up the coarse banding around frame 200 and after. And that doesn't include working on the luma pumping and darkening. But it was still kinda ugly, after all that.

[themaster1]

There are two matrix for ntsc Sd sources it seems (if you have read the page) ITU-R BT.470-2 System M and smpte 170m, mainconcept use the smpte170m.With Hcenc you can use either the BT 420-2 M or smpte 170m matrix

Any pro encoder that use the 470-2 BG matrix for ntsc dvd was made by sloppy devs i say

After a double check it seems i was wrong, MC ref use 470 B,G but i think you were right poisondeathray, the decoder may bypass this flag anyway