Removing Logos using DeLogo vdub filter

ChibiBoi · Member Joined: 22 Jan 2006 Location: United States

ok, i'll try that. thanks

mgy999a · Member Joined: 16 Jun 2004 Location: TN, USA

Nice guide. Wish it would work for me.

I tried it out on TVLand’s alpha-blended logo. I can get it to erase the logo on ‘frame2’ but it does not work on the rest of the video clip. On frames with a light colored background, the logo is unaffected. On darker backgrounds, the logo tends to ‘fade’ some. The darker the background, the more it fades but it never entirely disappears, even on a black background.

Am I doing something wrong or is it the nature of the video clip I am using? The clip was first recorded in XP mode on a dvd recorder, then imported into VirtualDubMod and saved as an AVI file using PICVideo MJPEG set to 19 and then re-imported back into VirtualDubMod before trying Delogo. I have experimented quite a bit using different settings, different masks, different frames, off-white colors for ‘frame1’, etc but doesn’t help.

Suggestions?

Barnabas · Member Joined: 29 Dec 2001 Location: US

Try making up several masks to use. Also, you may need to adjust the white to more of an off white. That's worked for me on tough logos.

spanky123 · Member Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Location: Australia

Can anyone please explain how to setup the avs script for delogo?
I'm using gordian knot
Havin some troubles

Barnabas · Member Joined: 29 Dec 2001 Location: US

Delogo is a VirtualDub filter.

spanky123 · Member Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Location: Australia

Gordian Knot uses virtualdub and avisynth scripts. Can't I do it through Gordian Knot ? I can edit the avs script in there

Here's a script from a few post back
http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1376541#1376541
I'm just unsure bout how to put it together

AlanHK · Member Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Location: Hong Kong

spanky123 · Member Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Location: Australia

Thanks heaps for that.
I'll give it a shot soon and see how it goes.

homersimpson123 · Member Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Location: america

good filter. thanks alot.

PUBLICENEMY · Posted: Nov 17, 2007 04:41

hi
i can't make it work
in order to enable the filter, the video tab in virtualdub's main vindow must be in "full processing mode" option.right?
well i can load delogo and proceed and see in preview of it that the logo is blurred
but when i hit ok and want to save avi and choose "direct stream copy" in video drop bar, the result is the same as input video and if i choose "full processing mode" video size gets realy huge
so what am doin wrong?

AlanHK · Member Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Location: Hong Kong

PUBLICENEMY · Posted: Nov 17, 2007 08:07

sorry for askin again
but theres only 1 option for savin which is "save as avi". on the other hand in video drop bar theres a botton "compression" which u can choose between compression formats or stay uncompressed,
my file is xvid but when i choose xvid it gives me "stats not found" error
what should i do?
also whats the average time for you to complete delogo-ing

jimmalenko · VH Veteran Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Location: Down under

"statsfile not found" means your XVID codec is not configured properly. You need to set the statsfile location to .\video.pass (you can do this by selecting XVID and pressing the configure button).
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incrediblej · Member Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Location: Australia

LOL, I am stuck on the first step, can someone tell me how to get the all white background the same size as the video (tut is not very specific).l

Do I just make a white .bmp image in photshop?

I dont get it... thanks
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AlanHK · Member Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Location: Hong Kong

vhelp · ..Semi Neutral.. Joined: 31 Mar 2001 Location: New York

I've been researching how to remove (de-logo) watermarks in my videos. I've D/L'ed other
peoples images with watermarks to use as examples -- there's so many types of logos on
stations these days. Anyway.

I'm building a tool to remove logos. I"ve been interested in it for quite some time, prob since
I first came across this discussion back in Sept/2005 but had many other things going on.

The one thing that has stopped me many of times in this endeavor was the fact that there
doesn't seem to be any tutorials on the machanics of logo removal. I mean, I searched for
all kinds of keywords and phrases and still can't come up with any to this day. So, I've
decided to just attempt at it from scratch. Ok, even though this topic does not cover the
mechanics (algos) of how to remove, this discussion is the closest I've come to it and am
just mainly trial 'n error 'ing it as I go.

So far, they way I've gathered it, removing watermarks requires the use of multiple types of
masks, and then some kind of analysis is performed with these masks and then an end result
image without the watermark logo is gone -- or, almost gone. I am hoping to uncover the
mechanical secrets and ultimately learn how to apply it to my tool, and who knows, a plugin
could be next.

If I get closer to the goal I'll post a screen shot of the tool's progress. So until then..

-vhelp 4698
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gadgetguy · Contestant Joined: 14 Feb 2002 Location: Michigan, USA

@vhelp - You might start by looking at the source code for the DeLogo filter this thread is about. It's available from the same site as the filter itself, (posted above).

For anyone interested...
I use the following AviSynth script to build my filters files.

vhelp · ..Semi Neutral.. Joined: 31 Mar 2001 Location: New York

EDIT: 05.26.08 Mon AM
@ gadgetguy
Unfortunately, the source is c/c++ and I have no strength to contend with that language

Thanks for trying to help. I'll stick with pascal and wing it on my own from scratch. I know I'm
missing something in my project and that is part of my problem in finding how its done.

EDIT: 05.26.08 Mon 12:56pm
Rather than continue in this one, I might start a new topic on the subject on the development of a
potential watermark removal tool because its more specific about designing the tool and the functions
that make up the process. This way, I can post my progress as I go. Plus, I think I mgiht be on to
something, finally.

-vhelp 4699
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TCmullet · Member Joined: 28 Feb 2009 Location: United States

WOW! This method of Matt's ROCKS!!! I used delogo back in '03 for awhile and spent (wasted) gobs of time picking majority sections of the show to scan to do the analysis. Now with this "2 frame" method, all that trouble goes away! Thank you, Matt!

But I have one problem. Playing with the "deblend shift" and "deblend falloff" sliders is impossible as my monitor cannot be made bright enough to see the quasi-removed logo at ALL. I really need to adjust the sliders WHILE I have brighter and more normal video behind it. But if I load my video file to do that, the sliders freeze up at their last locations. Of course you did say "Make sure you do this now" before closing the filter for the 1st time. Is there anyway to get around this, short of either creating a new file with the 2 frames at the beginning, or asking the author to fix this?

Another unrelated thought: In '03 I did a great deal of experiementing, making adjustments to all the different features of that big window. I concluded that in all cases, it was best to leave just about everything at default values. This included (I believe) "alpha to repair". While it's true we don't want to blend much of anything, wouldn't it be appropriate to slightly blend away those few cases of some stray sharp pixels (or groups of pixels) that stand out after the filter has been applied? I'm not suggesting we move it toward "repair" but merely leave it on the default of 160. Would be glad to hear any thoughts on this. Of course, I'd need my first problem solved in order to experiment with this 2nd problem.

gadgetguy · Contestant Joined: 14 Feb 2002 Location: Michigan, USA

Use the AviSynth script I posted above and feed it into Vdub, then open the DeLogo filter and search for a "logo on black" frame and sample, then to the end for an all white frame or one of the different gray frames (sometimes gray works better than white) and sample, then you should be able to move to any frame in the video and still make adjustments on the sliders. However, keep in mind that adjusting for one frame might make it worse on a different frame.
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TCmullet · Member Joined: 28 Feb 2009 Location: United States

Thx for the script. I've tried it but can't figure out how to restart the test for each grey-color without deleting and reloading the filter. I thought that "Reset stats" would do it, but it doesn't. I understand that for each restart of the test (to find which grey level works best), I must sample the grey frame, then sample the frame in my program that has all black surrounding the logo.

And could you tell us which greys have ever worked better for you than the pure white?

BTW, I'm not loading from an AVI; I'm using an MPEG2 file with the plugin MPEG2.vdplugin. I see that by loading it thru Avisynth with Directshow, I lose the ability to jump around via the I-frames, but for this testing, that's okay. Also, Directshow doesn't seem to keep the same frame numbers as Vdub, so going to the same framenumber I had picked in Vdub didn't work.

gadgetguy · Contestant Joined: 14 Feb 2002 Location: Michigan, USA

The output from Avisynth is uncompressed so all frames are key frames. Scrubbing (especially backwards) is often a problem when using directshow to open mpeg2. I use DGIndex for mpeg2 files, works much better (accurate), although it's slower than opening the mpeg2 in Vdub.

I had a clip a while back that Grey1 worked better than White, but I don't remember what station logo it was. White usually works best, but if it doesn't try some of the greys. I think it depends on whether the original logo was done in white or grey, but depending on the level of transparency, it can be really hard to tell how it originated.

And yes, It's also been my experience that I had to delete the filter and start again to try a different grey.
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Rogert · Member Joined: 16 Dec 2006 Location: United Kingdom

Ive just started experimenting with Delogo and Virtualdub .Im trying to remove a fairly large timeclock on black background at the top of the screen.Im getting good results but not perfect.Any one offer any advice.I was thinking of maybe running the software twice to remove it completely

Barnabas · Member Joined: 29 Dec 2001 Location: US

Rogert,

If it's a timeclock and the time displayed keeps changing what's on the screen this won't work well for you. Anything about the logo that's changing will effect the masks. You would have to make up a mask for each different digit that's displayed and use THAT mask for it only.