VirtualDub filter settings, what works best for you?

[roadster3043]

Greetings.

I've found a few posts in the board about impoving video quality(eg. eliminating noise and such), but I haven't seen any posts that actually tell the reader for example, to do this, use this filter and this other one with this setting and this number, etc. I don't know if there are any posts like that, I might be entering the keywords wrong in the search, so I would appreciate your help on what keywords should I use.

I know that badly captured video and source can't be improved much, but I would like to know what you regular board members use, as in software like VDub, TMPGEnc, filters, filter settings, templates, and settings, etc. for improving as much as possible the video(mpg, avi, rm, asf, wmv, etc.), for eliminating noise, brightening a dark video, bit rate, making the file size smaller, larger, making the video optimal for TV viewing(VCD, SVCD, DVD, etc.)

What tips and tricks do you use often?

Thank you.

[Gees]

I haven't seen any posts that actually tell the reader for example, to do this, use this filter and this other one with this setting and this number, etc.

You will never see that simply because it's impossible. Every source differs, everyone's set-up differs, everyone's taste differs, etc. etc. etc..

So it follows that every "fix" is unique as well. There are Guides out there specific to certain situations - like cartoons or anime, but even within those there are ranges of possibilities.

I think you'll find most everything requires experimentation on an individual level to see what works best for you with any given source.

No shortcuts in all this :c) Sorry. It's a fact.

[Solarjetman]

Yep, exactly what Gees said. Video filtering is like buying a car. You cannot ask "What is the best car?". There are just too many factors involved. Do you prefer a pick-up truck or sedan, auto trasmission or maunal, do you want a powerful engine or good gas mileage.

[housepig]

roadster -

I have to agree with Gees - it's going to be very dependent on your video file and what kind of results you want.

my suggestion is, take a 30-second clip of your file that is most representative of the kind of noise and grit you're trying to clean, and save that as a separate file.

run tests on that file with different filter schemes, until you find some that improve the file the way you want. with such a short clip, it's very fast to run through different combinations and check their output. once you get results, you can apply that set of filters to the whole file.

[roadster3043]

Greetings.

Thank you for your prompt replies.

I know there is no best way, I just wanted to know what do you use in those situations, for filters and filter settings, so I can play with them in my computer and have a better understanding of the filters themselves.


TIA

[Gees]

No one can say. Your saying "situations", but each is unique.

Best thing for you to do is go here: http://neuron2.net/

Loads of filters all in one place. You can see what's available, download a few, and try them.

:c)

[Solarjetman]

Like Gees said, every situation is unique. However to get you started, in general I find the three most useful filters are:

* Denoise: removes speckles from individual frames, but seems to distort edges sometimes

* Smoothing: pretty much self-explanatory, it gives the picture a smooth appearance, but may reduce sharpness

* Temporal filter: reduces the number of pixels that change between frames. This allows for better encodes but can cause problems with moving objects or scene changes

Basically filters are trading one evil for another. Every filter is going to produce some bad side effect. The trick is to find the right combination in order to minimize the bad, and maximize the good aspects.

Also remember that the order you apply the filters is just as important as the type of filters you apply. And there is nothing wrong with just encoding the video without filtering if you are happy with it.

[Gees]

Beautifully said, Solar. All of it. :c)

[Solarjetman]

Beautifully said, Solar. All of it. :c)

Well thank you Gees.

This question hit home because I wanted to ask it when I started out as well. I found it a little odd that with all these step-by-step guides, no one suggested settings for filters. Then as I learned more and played around with them, I began to understand why.

[Gazorgan]

Greatest thing about vdub is the input/output windows. You can apply filters and see the results (hint hint hint). Too many filters and you can't real time the output, but since you don't have to actually encode to a codec, it doesn't come up that often. I typically spend 10-30 minutes fiddling with the filter settings for low/medium quality capture before I encode. This is for a particualr settup, say capturing a 6 hour cartoon marathon.....once you have the settings just batch process everything.

[roadster3043]

Thank you all.

That was the info I was looking for.

[xtreemkareem]

I duuno. Some of the anime captures I had were really crap quality - I found that TMPGenc's Noise Reduction and Sharpen Edge filters, along with Custom Color Correction work best. Problem is they're kind of slow. To date, I haven't found any vdub filters that even compare to the quality of the tmpgenc noise reduction filters.

[vhelp]

.
.
I don't know.., just that most encode could come out good if we all weren't
so brain-washed into using filters all the time. But, that depends on
first priority (capture device) and any feedback noise it (either) picks up or
produces etc. But, once that has ben addressed (assuming fixed) then there
really should be no reason to filterize your source during the
encoding process :P

I am slowly learning (thought I've had my theories for some time now) that
the practice of filterizing should be restrained from using unless the source
actually calls for it (again, after you've addressed the Capture device's
feedback noise [which could be any number of causes])

So, no matter what your source is (satellite, cable, dv cam, dvd, [even] vcr)
you should have no reason to filter anything (talking about de-noisers here)
Only filtering one should do is IVTC, de-Interlace, fps conversion or source
type ie, MPEG-1 vs. MPEG-2 etc)

Some filtering can help, in some situation, while others can only hurt.
For instance, about the only time when I would filterize (ie, de-noise) is
when I want to bring the bitrata down, for Media Space Purposes. Performing
some kind of de-Noising in your video can only help in space saving, and by
chance, once in a while (assuming begginer here) "slight on quality" too, but
only to an extent (from an "newbie" point of view) ..I say this because as
a veterin, we all know to well, that sooner or later, we'll spot things that
we didn't see previously or ignored for the time being, or that someone else
had caught and brought to our attention Small steps.

I am now almost (if not already) 100% far away from filterizing my sources.
Why ??
.
.
Well, becaues there IS a secret (rather a technique) to obtaining the
proper "quality" level (closely matching the source Captured) when proper
encoding methods are practiced. I will give you a small hint, and you can
do as you see fit w/ what I leave here.. AO pronouced, "OHH!!" as
in "dahh!" :P

* Aspect Ratios and Resizing
* Optimum Resolution for final author (encode project)

Sooner or later, you'll get it.

In the mean time, have a great weekend all
-vhelp