working with old cartoon videos

[andythebeagle]

I have taken on a daunting task by uploading things to Youtube. I'm totally new to anything conversion and work with nothing but cartoon videos. I like how vidcoder and handbrake seem to work and all, but know nothing about getting the most out of it. It appears that the most desired result is to convert to x264 from where ever a given video is. So many of them are in bad shape, maybe from being converted many times in the past and probably being over compressed. I've got everything from color bleeding, blockiness (artifacting, I think) general smudged look (like seeing the vid thru a dirty window) and just about anything you can think of. Is there a way to clean these up or even do some restorative work using filters?? Would AVIsynth help prior to using Vidcoder for the conversion?? The reason I ask about AVIsynth is there are so many filters available, Maybe they would work in handbrake?? I would really like to make these vids look as good as they can prior to uploading them.

You can probably see that I really don't know what I'm talking about and would like to "team up" with someone who can tolerate me going thru a learn as I go process, or OJT. I've got a lot of questions and really don't know which ones to ask first.

[manono]

Neither Handbrake nor Vidcoder (a front end for Handbrake) uses AviSynth scripts. Maybe you can encode from an AviSynth script in VDub to a lossless AVI before then feeding the AVI to one of those two programs. I don't really know, never having used either of them. For YouTube I often feed AviSynth scripts into XviD4PSP to make MP4s for upload.

[andythebeagle]

That being the case, where can I find just how each AVIsynth filter works and what its effects are, the order they are applied for best work and a good tutorial on both VDub and AVIsynth?? I need to learn how to write script. I've been looking around and still haven't found a place that holds my hand while teaching myself how to. Most of the stuff I've found assume I have a certain level of knowledge, which simply is not the case. I have never in my life compiled anything nor do I know any thing about doing any command line, or scripting. I know nothing about any programming. The only thing I have ever done was install computers for IBM and CDC. Even with PC's it is strictly hardware. Was all too busy troubleshooting bugs to learn any programming and left that up to the people who specialized in that. Believe it or not, they were 2 different worlds. Now I wanna figure out how to actually use one to do something besides watch cartoons.

Thanks for the quick reply and thanks in advance for any future help.

andythebeagle (a real dog, btw)

[poisondeathray]

You can either start by posting some samples, and learning the names for the problems , and filters commonly used, people will make suggestions - a good way to learn is through examples IMO and how different approaches can often be used for the same problem

or start with a generic reading approach, starting with the basics
http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Main_Page
http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Main_Page#New_to_AviSynth_-_start_here

There are some older websites with visual comparisions, you can learn about some of the commonly encountered video issues, and some possible solutions
http://www.aquilinestudios.org/avsfilters/

Another good resource is doom9 , and the forum (but be careful about posting there before you read the rules and familiarize yourself with the basics)
http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/guides.htm
http://forum.doom9.org/

[andythebeagle]

OK. Thanx so much. This won't happen over night, that's for sure. However, when I do decide I've one worth doing something with, I will definitely follow your advice.

[sanlyn]

Getting more specific about anime, with lots of details and graphic examples, there is AMV's page of a guide to Avisynth filters (don't neglect to read the text at the top of the page, then scroll down to see more goodies): http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/avtech31/post-qual.html

There are similar examples, if often older but nevetherless informative, from Scintilla: http://www.aquilinestudios.org/avsfilters/#intro

An entire website targets anime and anime submissions at AMV's main guide page: A&E's Technical Guides to All Things Audio and Video (v3).

Note that most of these filters and techniques can be used for non-anime projects.

[andythebeagle]

Thanx so much. There's so much stuff out there that it can be overwhelming. I never realized just how many people are into this stuff. And, they are good at what the do.

[lordsmurf]

More importantly ... which cartoons?