Help Needed on Virtual Dub Noise Filtering - Old VHS

[EricB]

I have some very old family VHS tapes which I'm converting to DV and then SVCD. I get a good deal of video noise which consists of random white, horizontal static. These are easily discernable from the program material, but after trying all weekend, I still couldn't find a filter and group of settings to reduce the noise.

The filters I tried do improve the video quality, but none of them seem to address this classic noise content. Any help would be appreciated, as I have very little experience with Virtual dub.

Also, is there anyway to change the input / output preview screen sizes? With DV content, the output preview is mostly off the screen.

[Dragonsf]

Have you tried the dynamic noise reduction filter?
you can swap the input/output pane so output is left and input on the right.

[Shabubu]

Right click the preview, choose the size.

[EricB]

Dragonsf: Yes I tried DNR but it didn't reduce the white stuff much. Good on the rest of the background.

Shabubu: Thanks, just what I was looking for...

[nsdn]

Hi Eric,
I went through exactly the same process a few months back, and also did extensive searches for various filters.

I tryed the Flaxen VHS filter as well as Donald graff's noise reduction.
http://flaxen.dynip.com/vdf/fxvhs/help.html

The flaxen one takes forever, even on my athlon 1.2G and you loose too much definition. Donald Graffs filter seems to be the best however again you seem to loose too much detail. U can of course tweak them to the point where u do not loose detail but then you can see the noise again....

I assume your recording your VHS to DV then poking it over to your PC. This is the best way, however my DV cam did not have analogue inputs so I used a DV codec with a analogue capture card. This seemed to work quite well.

There is little point in using SVCD for your conversion, You would probably get a far better result in doing a XSVCD @ 352*288 (PAL) since the problem with MPEG conversion and noisy sources is that the encoder can not tell the differance between the noise and what is real info...so in order to reproduce the original as closely as u can u will need all the bitrate/resolution ratio u can get. Since VHS is lucky to reach the 352*288 resolution anyway any encoding at greater resolution is surplus. (it is however important to CAPTURE at higher resolution, although with DV (codec) the resolution is fixed anyway)

If you are happy with "softer pictures" then play with the noise reduction filters....they just were not right for me.

Hope this helps