Alpha-blended logo removal with DeLogo

[Barnabas]

I have seen many posts here about removing logos. While some logos are nearly impossible to remove cleanly, alpha-blended logos can usually be removed without doing too much harm to the original image.

Here are a few screen captures that show the before and after affects of using DeLogo using the "deblend" only mode. As you can see, the resulting image, while not perfect, looks MUCH better than the original does with the logo removed. Noise is increased in the area where the logo was, but it still looks better than with a big ugly logo on the image.

Since there are a few people on here that always insist that the results of removing logos always look worse than simply keeping the logos, I am adding a poll to see what most people think of the results.

Here is the before logo



Here is the after logo



Before



After

[lordsmurf]

Stills don't mean much. I bet in action, that these would have odd looking amorphic blobs "living" in the corner of the screen.

[Barnabas]

No, with alpha-blended only removal NO blobs living in the corner. I can't post the whole movie, so you will have to take my word for it.

[gadgetguy]

While it's true that stills don't show the whole picture, I have had some excellent results using the delogo filter, but it requires alot of time and experimentation to achieve the desired results and they are usually not consistant throughout the entire show/movie. If done properly on alpha-blended logos, there are no "amorphic blobs 'living'" in the corner, but usually there will be momentary "amorphic blobs" that pop up now and again, (usually at locations where the logo fades in or out, or the logo moves slightly). These, FOR ME, prove to be more distracting than the static logo and for the time and effort required make it not worth it unless the video I'm working with has the logo consistantly throughout the entire program/movie (which is almost never the case).

[Barnabas]

Actually, once you have the mask made, which you can reuse, it only takes about 5-10 minutes to find where the logo is and mark it and then frameserve to your encoder. Not that much extra time. In areas where the logo fades in or out, you can simply wait until the logo at it's highest level and remove it from there.

[gadgetguy]

I have never been able to reuse a mask because the logo has never been in the exact same location twice in a row, but making the mask is not the issue. The issue is that the logo must persist in the exact same location throughout the entire video for it to be usable FOR ME.

... you can simply wait until the logo at it's highest level and remove it from there.

Yes, but then you get a flash of the logo which is even more distracting FOR ME than the flashing amorphic blobs, which I've already stated are too distracting.

Note: I haven't voted in the poll because I would rather watch the delogoed video IF all the conditions are right, but most of the time they aren't so usually I prefer the unaltered version.

[Barnabas]

gadgetguy,

GSN is REAL bad about having the logos be placed in slightly different spots on different shows, but most of the other stuff I cap fortunately seems to be always placed in the same place, so you can reuse the masks again and again.

What I do to get rid of the fade-in fade-out logo is simply run a 2nd instance of DeLogo, but use only repair on it. That gets rid of it.

[gadgetguy]

Barnabas
Obviously we've had different experiences with our sources.

What I do to get rid of the fade-in fade-out logo is simply run a 2nd instance of DeLogo, but use only repair on it. That gets rid of it.

I have done this as well, but usually found the results to be unacceptable, but it depends on what's behind the logo at the time. I have also selected individual frames of equal levels of "fade" and set up seperate DeLogos for each level, but if you can't get enough "equal" samples then it doesn't work. When you CAN get enough samples it gives excellent results, but this is what I was referring to earlier when I said it was time consuming and not worth it FOR ME. I find it easier to ignore a logo that is there most of the time, than it is to ignore flashes of logo or amorphic blobs.

To anyone else following this thread I recommend trying the DeLogo filter, using Barnabas and/or my suggestions and decide for yourself if it's worth it FOR YOU. For the majority of the time, the DeLogo filter works quite well and if you aren't bothered by the same things that bother me, then you'll probably be quite happy with the results.

[Giselle]

I voted for the logo to be removed, Barnabas you did an excellent job of removal! The graphics look perfect.... to logos!