Deinterlacing a PAL DVD sourced from NTSC properly

[Mephesto]

http://www.sendspace.com/file/jhaeu0 All attempts have failed and produced undesirable effects like ghosting, color interlacing and various other glitches. What is the correct way to deinterlace a source like this?

[manono]

What is the correct way to deinterlace a source like this?

Yadif(Mode=1)#or your favorite bobber
SRestore()

I hope you know some AviSynth.

[jagabo]

If you can afford the additional time, QTGMC() will work a lot better than Yadif() with that video.

[Mephesto]

QTGMC, is that an upgraded version of TempGaussMC_beta1()? It is what I used at first but then attempts at proper decimation of the ghosted frames failed. My buddy used ITVC+other tools and while his was void of ghosting artifacts, it still had residual combing and outlined afterimages.

Manono, I tried your script and although it produced better results than mine or my partner's, it is still ridden with artifacts (observe the school bus and the residual outline of it from the previous frame that follows into the next).

If this is the highest possible quality one can get from any method, I'll go with it. If there is a much slower method and further post-processing required to master it, we're fine with it. We got the fastest equipment available and we can Tempgauss an entire episode in less than an hour.

[manono]

QTGMC, is that an upgraded version of TempGaussMC_beta1()?.

Yes, sort of.

Manono, I tried your script and although it produced better results than mine or my partner's, it is still ridden with artifacts (observe the school bus and the residual outline of it from the previous frame that follows into the next).

I said to use your favorite bobber. Yadif was an example, although I don't see any residual blending. I do see what looks to me like dot crawl, which has nothing to do with the fact that it's field-blended from an NTSC source.

If this is the highest possible quality one can get from any method, I'll go with it.

If you want the best possible output and encoding time isn't an issue, then use QTGMC as your bobber. Or buy the NTSC DVDs.

[Mephesto]

I looked at the QTGMC multithreading instructional page.

SetMemoryMax(M) # Optional line. Leave it out at first. See below for value M
SetMTMode(5, X) # See below for value X
YourSource("yourfile") # DGDecode_mpeg2source, FFVideoSource, AviSource, whatever your source requires SetMTMode(2)
QTGMC( Preset="Slow", EdiThreads=Y ) # Choose preset based on overall speed/quality you want. See below for value Y
Distributor() # This line may or may not be necessary, try removing it and see if you get more speed

Why do I see "SetMTMode" being added twice? And what does the "5" in "5, X" mean?

[jagabo]

QTGMC() was cleaner than Yadif() when I tried them on that clip.

[manono]

Why do I see "SetMTMode" being added twice? And what does the "5" in "5, X" mean?

First read the MT page over at AviSynth.org (the section on the six different modes is about 2/3 of the way down the page):

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/MT

5 is the mode and X the number of available processors. There are a couple of other links at the very bottom. Then, if you're using Set's MT for AviSynth 2.6, maybe read his first post also, for the correct way to use it:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=148782

You don't have to do it that way, of course, but maybe for stability it's best to let the pros guide you (us). You can always do it the 'old' way:

SetMTMode(2)

and hope for the best.

[Mephesto]

Okay, something's fucked. The QTGMC script (with SRestore) produced a video with ghosted and blended frames everywhere. It looks exactly like when I Tempgaussed (MCbeta1) the entire video and divided the frames in half.

It looks much better with TempgaussMC_beta1 and SRestore, but I hate to use an outdated version if I'm told QTGMC is better quality.

Also, why is SRestore decimating from 25 to 23.976 fps? Is the original video NTSC rate not 24?

[jagabo]

Film sources are slowed to 23.976 fps when telecined. Here's what I got with QTGMC()

Mpeg2Source("sp1.d2v", CPU=2)
AssumeTFF()
QTGMC()
SRestore()

You should also look into a dot crawl filter, fixing the black levels, and noise reduction.

[Mephesto]

Film sources are slowed to 23.976 fps when telecined. Here's what I got with QTGMC()

Mpeg2Source("sp1.d2v", CPU=2)
AssumeTFF()
QTGMC()
SRestore()

I notice you don't take advantage of multithreading. Your encode (in spite of other flaws) was good and had no ghosting.

Here's my script, what did I do wrong?

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\megui\tools\dgindex\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\megui\tools\avisynth_plugin\ColorMatrix.dll")

SetMemoryMax(800)
SetMTMode(5, 8)
DGDecode_mpeg2source("C:\sp1.d2v", info=3)
ColorMatrix(hints=true, interlaced=true, threads=0)
SetMTMode(2)
QTGMC( Preset="Slower", EdiThreads=2)

SRestore()

You should also look into a dot crawl filter, fixing the black levels, and noise reduction.

The color correction and noise reduction will be no problem, but I'm not familiar with DVD artifacts (we don't do DVD rips) so I'm open to recommendations for a good dot crawl filter lest my partner screws something else up like today when he insisted there was no better way to deinterlace than his half-assed Decomb shit job.

[poisondeathray]

because setmtmode doesn't work well with some filters like qtgmc, very unstable

many avisynth temporal filters don't work well with multithreading

are you using avisynth 2.6MT ? SEt's build ?

[Mephesto]

because setmtmode doesn't work well with some filters like qtgmc, very unstable

many avisynth temporal filters don't work well with multithreading

are you using avisynth 2.6MT ? SEt's build ?

MT 0.7 (includes modified avisynth 2.5.7.5)

EDIT: It fails with SEt's build too.

[Gavino]

because setmtmode doesn't work well with some filters like qtgmc, very unstable

I wouldn't say that - qtgmc generally works well, though some people have reported occasional problems. When it fails, it's because it runs out of memory and usually crashes rather than producing poor results.

OTOH, I seem to remember that SRestore doesn't work under multithreading.

[jagabo]

many avisynth temporal filters don't work well with multithreading

That's why I didn't use it.

[seventhsamurai]

I've had to deinterlace PAL video for NTSC conversion several times, without money to buy any fancy software. I've found a couple of handy tools in Ubuntu to be very useful for this.

I have tried Avisynth and here's why I disliked it. For starters, the filesizes you end up working with end up becoming too large. Additionally, the final result isn't as great as the Ubuntu way.

The Ubuntu Way:

Take your interlaced source file, whatever format it may be in, and load it into Handbrake. Handbrake has the best darned deinterlacer I've see yet. Using the High Profile preset, set the encoding quality to lossless mode. Handbrake will warn you against using it. Ignore the warning. Set the framerate to 29.97. Keep the codec at H.264/x264. In picture settings, you can apply a crop if you want. Set the width at 720 and height at 480. Set Anamorphic to custom and check Keep Aspect or adjust settings to how you want it. Under the Filters tab, make sure Decomb is selected. Set Detelecine and Decomb to Default. Close the window. In the main window, make sure Large File is checked as the file Handbrake will output for a 90 min video can be close to 18GB. Set the audio settings to AC3. You can simply pass the audio through.

Encode the file.

Once the file is encoded, you will get a well deinterlaced, lossless mp4 file. The next step is to encode to mpeg2. For this, use WinFF which is a very simple and effective FFMpeg front end. Use one of the presets or if you are an advanced user, create/modify one yourself. WinFF will pop out a DVD compatible mpeg2 file which you can burn into a DVD with any DVD burning software.

If you are an Ubuntu user and are going to use a software like Devede or DVD styler to burn the DVD, you can skip the WinFF mpeg2 encoding step, as these programs will use FFmpeg and encode them on their own.

Keep in mind that anytime you deinterlace PAL video for an NTSC mpeg2 conversion, there will be significant loss in video quality. However, using Handbrake/WinFF combo gives a far better looking picture than AVISynth. Especially the amount of jitter is far, far less.

The snapshots version of Handbrake has an option to encode directly to an mpeg2 file. However I strongly suggest AGAINST encoding to mpeg2 directly with Handbrake as the file it outputs has some DVD compatibility issues, which will force your re-encode that file in your authoring software.