Is noise reduction on VCD (Tmpgenc) worth it?

[Findedeux]

I have been messing around with the settings for VCD, and after searching for this topic, it does seems most people think noise reduction is effective. But, I was wondering how you could tell whether the source your using would benefit from it? It takes me 52 hours to convert a 700MB AVI to MPEG under these settings, (and only 4 hours the normal way) and so I wanted to be sure if I could tell the difference beforehand. The sources I am using are secondhand, videos and series that have been downloaded from Kazaa. Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[ZippyP.]

Usually, I just view it on the pc and decide. If it's converted from VHS then noise reduction is called for. If it's a DVD rip, then usually I don't bother.

[vtoskov]

I found that any filter in TMPGEnc doen't make any difference so I don't use them. One more thing is that, you don't have to encode the whole movie and wait 52hr, you can just encode a small part like 5min and take a look at the difference

[txpharoah]

I'd disagree entirely. You can preview what the difference is when you look at the filter. If it looks better, use it. The guidelines are good too. If you captured the source yourself, it could usually use a good noise reduction "cleaning". If it a copy of a commercial source, they cleaned it already, so just convert.

The VHS->DVD guide below has some brief info on noise reduction in TMPGenc. Click and look.

[VCD GURU]

The noise reduction filter in TMPGenc works great!

Often when you shoot your own videos you dont use as much light as you should and so on..

This filter make the video smooth and nice to look on.

But it takes 20 hours or so to process per 1 hour video.

If you shoot your own videos and have alot of noise (small dots all over it)
Then i would give this filter a go. It does a really good job and makes the video smooth. There is a preview so you dont have to encode anything to see the difference.

[nellie]

Try converting 1 minute of the videos using different filters.
I found noise reduction was very effective..You can change the settings and see the difference as you choose.
Just multiply your 1 minute file by the entire length of your complete file to see roughly how long it will take.
I tend to encode mine overnight.

[Findedeux]

Thanks for the comments, I tested it with and without and I can't tell the difference, so I guess I won't use it. Thanks for the help.

[VCD GURU]

No noise in source no use to use it 8)

[Hong Kong Phooey]

I agree with postings re:VHS captures & Noise reductions. Definitely made a difference with tape recordings that were 14+ yrs old.

[neomaine]

findedeux,

If all you did for your test is check off the box, then you really didn't apply the filter. You need to double click on it and adjust the slide bar for the amount of filter needed.

Once on that screen you'll have an 'apply filter' check box. Keep adjusting the slide bar and check it on/off for each time you adjust to preview what your settings will be like.

Just wanted to make sure that you weren't running the filter but didn't adjust the default setting.

[Findedeux]

Neomaine, I think that's what I was doing. Thanks for the correction.

[Findedeux]

I was just reading another thread on the same subject, and one of the guides says something like "noise reduction is useful when converting from MPEG. Does this mean it is not useful when converting from AVI to MPEG? Just wanted to make sure. Thanks.

[neomaine]

findedeux,

Use the noise filter when you have noise, regardless of what the source encoding is. If you're re-encoding something like a DVD, don't bother, the source is already very clean.

However, if you caputuring from an analog TV station that has some obvious noise (speckles, snow, crackles, whatever...) it would probably help.

However, however , remember that what the noise filter does is smooth out the video to hide the 'noise'. In TMPGenc the preview window will give you a good idea of what's going to happen, although more pronounced since your looking at stills. Once you watch the video, things tend to look better with everything moving.

The poster may have been referring to the fact that if its mpeg already, re-encoding it (again) and using a noise filter may not make a difference anway.

[zzyzzx]

Just don't use the hight quality mode for the noise reduction. It takes vay more time and I can't notice the difference. It's definately not worth it. Just use the regular noise reduction or use the noise reduction in Virtualdub and take the output of that to TMPEGNC and use no noise reduction in TMPEGNC.