Super8 to .AVI conversion, what went wrong

[rjonkers]

Yesterday I received a batch of Super8 movies transfered to AVI format on an external hard disk from my father in law. When I play the AVI file, or a conversion to DVD (CCE) both give weird results. The original AVI files (and the MPEG converted files) have flickering horizontal lines all over them. Can't watch them like this. I guess it's the result of a bad transfer. It it something I can restore, of does the transfer has to be redone?

Avi opened in GSpot
[s:432d2b9a99]Example of the transfered Super8 film (converted to MPEG2 for seize)
http://www.jonkers.net/video/example.mpv[/s:432d2b9a99]

Edit: MPEG removed, see AVI below

Any help or thoughts are much appreciated,

Ralph[/s]

[JohnnyMalaria]

Most likely you are seeing the results of poorly resized interlaced video. Do the AVI versions have the same thick bands or are they much thinner?

[DB83]

You could try putting the avi though virtualdub with a deflick filter

[jagabo]

Post few seconds of the source AVI instead.

There's more wrong with that MPG file than just improper resizing. It's hard to tell what was wrong with the original AVI vs what went wrong in the conversion to MPEG.

[Soopafresh]

Yeah, something wrong with the interlacing on those frames which seem to flicker. Looks pretty good otherwise...

Edit - Hey, the original AVI is at 720x480 and the Mpeg is 720x576, so perhaps the error did indeed occur during the letterboxing and resizing.

[rjonkers]

It's not a deflicker problem (I'm familiar with VirtualDub and that filter), it's more horizontal scan lines flickering fast. I've posted an AVI example here http://www.jonkers.net/video/example.avi. It's a sample Direct Stream Copy from Virtual Dub.

The only thing I've noticed is the format is 720x480 and is flaged as NTSC, while I'm living in PAL territory.

Edit: I did the MPEG conversion with CCE PAL DVD setting hence the 576 format. But the effect is the same on the AVI. The quality is quite good indeed, although not pleasant with the lines flickering.

Ralph

[Soopafresh]

BTW, great job posting samples of the problem!

[2Bdecided]

http://www.jonkers.net/video/example.avi - This page cannot be displayed.

Cheers,
David.

[rjonkers]

http://www.jonkers.net/video/example.avi - This page cannot be displayed.

Cheers,
David.

Sorry, fixed that. Should work now (replaced the AVI with a better example of a giraffe)

[2Bdecided]

If that's from DirectStreamCopy in VirtualDub, then your original streams are completely wrecked. It's not some simple deinterlacing issue.

EDIT: You've got to wonder - the file name mentions "18fps". Of course DV AVI can't be natively 18fps, though you can apply hard pulldown to put 18fps into standard NTSC DV. Maybe it's this part which went badly wrong?

Cheers,
David.

[jagabo]

I agree, that AVI is beyond any hope. It's very odd that it has an 720x480 frame size but a 25 fps frame rate. It has probably already been through a bad NTSC/PAL conversion.

[2Bdecided]

Hang on - look in GSpot (or VirtualDub) - it says 720x480 25fps. EDIT: as jagabo said! That's not right!

DV can be 720x480 29.97fps or 720x576 25fps. If you mix and match like someone has with your clip, it's not standard DV.

Could this be the problem?

Cheers,
David.

[JohnnyMalaria]

If it helps, I have looked the giraffe AVI and noticed the following:

The "effect" is periodic. Specifically it occurs over 8 frames. Every 8th frame is a perfect frame - good color, contrast and no banding. Between each 8th frame, the amount of banding increases and the contrast decreases.

Re the PAL vs NTSC DV: It is *impossible* for DV to be flagged with mixed information. i.e., either it is 720x480x29.97 or 720x576x25. Internally, the sample video *is* NTSC (I checked). It is the AVI header that is wrong.

Irrespective of PAL vs NTSC, it seems as if there is some form of "beating" between the frame rate of the recording and some other factor - e.g., the shutter speed of the Super8 projector.

The marked banding never appears on the good frames and on the worst ones, it isn't straightforward interlacing. This does suggest that at some point after digitizing the Super8 the video was converted to a different frame size.

[rjonkers]

Thanks for all the help guys.

The AVI files I received seems to be corrupt in one way of the other. VLC opens with a warning (reading 'should I fix this') every time, and Gspot displays some major overhead on the files (see below). I was hoping that there would be a simple fix for this, but I guess the source is too compromised. I'll have to ask to redo the conversion.

Ralph