Batman 1966-1968 TV Series Restoration Project

[VideoFanatic]

Full episode of the last ever episode in case you guys want to find any other issues
3 Minute clip The times I mention below are based on this clip.

I have all 120 episodes of the Batman 1966-1968 TV series in MPEG2 704 x 480i (4:3) on 30 DVDs (1 hour 40 minutes per DVD). I would like to do restoration on the complete series as it has some issues that need fixing as detailed below. I will be making h264 Blurays at 4:3 720 x 480p unless someone knows of a reason why I shouldn't do that?

• Rainbows on the top of the video.
  -
• Black and white spots appear quite often. I need a way to automatically remove these. Places you can see them for example:
  First 12 secs
  During the swirling batlogo scenes at 37 secs, 1 min 50, 2 mins 1 sec, 2 mins 16 secs
  40 secs during animated into
  1 minute 33 secs
  2 minutes 31 secs during fight scene on animated logos
  2 minutes 54 secs during static scene with Alfred
  -
• Cigarette burns (these rarely appear). I think there's one at: 1 minimum 41 secs. I need a way to automatically remove these OR if I have to manually fix each instance of it then that's fine too.
  -
• Blocking artefacts. Also annoying are the black change of scene clips. See 1 minute 22 secs for example. Where's all the pixellated junk coming from and why does it only happen in the black scenes?
  Black scene: 1 min 22 secs
  -
• Ghosting or Halos? At the start of the video in Batman logo scene.
  At 19 secs on the left of the chair.
  At the end of the video for example you can see ghosting to the right of Batman's head.
  -
• Flicker such as at 1 minute 54 secs on Bruce's grey suit.
  -
• Chroma Bleed coming out the sides at 2 mins 3 secs on Robin's red suit. Same thing at 3 minutes. I know how to fix it coming out the top or bottom but how do you fix it for the sides?

I'm not sure why but the black silent scene changes are all pixellated after I encode to h264 even though the original MPEG2 video was OK quality at 4.74 Mbps Bitrate and it never had blocking in those sections, it just had noise which is normally removed yet I get blocking there.

I could use the CPU=6 parameter of MPEG2Source but that smoothes everything whether it needs it or not. For these videos it's not suitable as you can see in the Zsa Zsa scene at 24 secs. So I would like to get DeblockQED working as that apparently can deblock at full strength but only on frames that need it. If you know the correct usage for it in this video then please let me know. Should I be deblocking before McTemporalDenoise as I thought it's best to deblock first before doing anything else?

Observations

The left of the chair when just using QTGMC medium and no MctemporalDenoise has weird lines to the left of it.
When using McTemporalDenoise then QTGMC it doesn't. That's strange as I thought QTGMC at Medium would be enough to denoise this video.

I tried the below script with THIS avsi file which completely removes comets (not in this video) yet strangely it doesn't have much effect on removing spots in this video.

RemoveSpotsMC2x(last, 0) Separatefields() RemoveSpotsMC2x(last, 0) Weave()
# Use before QTGMC otherwise it has little effect

I tried just RemoveSpots() after QTGMC which does remove some spots but a lot still remain. Using multiple mentionings of RemoveSpots() isn't a good idea as it blurs the video losing too much detail.

Here's my script so far:

setmtmode(5,9)
Mpeg2Source("E:\Batman S3E26 Minerva, Mayhem and Millionaires clip.d2v")
setmtmode(2)

McTemporalDenoise(settings="medium", interlaced=true) 

Daa3()
AssumeTFF() QTGMC(Preset="Medium")
RemoveSpots()

SelectEven()

Crop(0,0,-8,-10)
AddBorders(12,4,12,6, $000000)

Should I run Daa3() before or after QTGMC? Normally it's best to use it before QTGMC if you're going to output an interlaced video but I'm making a progressive video so what should I do?

I have an 8 core 4.4 Ghz CPU. Each episode is around 25 minutes long. I can spend up to 3 hours encoding each episode. I'm open to any ideas as to how to improve the quality of these videos. Preferably the script would work in multithreaded without having to use VirtualDub but if I have to I'll use VirtualDub to create a lossless AVI then encode that with another program to h264.

[deadrats]

http://www.tvimport.com/batman-the-complete-adam-west-1966-tv-series-dvd-collection?gc...Fc07OgodDSAAUQ

there's 120 episodes and you're willing to spend up to 3 hours each in order to improve the quality, that's a total of 360 hours or at a 40 hour work week 9 weeks worth of work.

the complete digitally remastered set costs $90 and it's of higher quality than you will ever achieve. think of it as spending 10 bucks for every week of work you save yourself.

[hizzy7]

I've heard rumors of a pending blu-ray set. The set above is a bootleg. There is no official release of the series due to rights issues.

[hizzy7]

What is your source? VHS?

[lordsmurf]

What's the source? Not all broadcast masters were created equal.

I have the entire run, uncut, and logo-free. It's perfect as far as I'm concerned.
High bitrate MPEG-2 on 30 discs.

.tvimport.com

This is low-quality bootleg shit. Don't buy that. Think about it -- 120 episode on EIGHT discs. It's 6-hour mode EP Panasonic garbage from VHS tapes. Yuck!

[october262]

ebay has plenty - http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0&_nkw=+Batman+1966-...at=0&_from=R40

[deadrats]

ah, i didn't realize that they were bootleg, i went to amazon.com and followed a link they had and figured they must be legit. come to think of it $90 for the entire 120 episodes would be a bit on the low side.

[Vidd]

Why are you deinterlacing? You need to do a proper IVTC and restore it back to 24 fps.

Do a framestep and you will see a definite repetitive pattern of 3 progressive frames followed by 2 interlaced frames (3:2 pattern). You will degrade the quality even more if you use QTGMC to deinterlace.

[VideoFanatic]

What's the source? Not all broadcast masters were created equal.

I have the entire run, uncut, and logo-free. It's perfect as far as I'm concerned.
High bitrate MPEG-2 on 30 discs.

Sorry guys I completely forgot to post clips. I've updated my 1st post now with a clip and full episode.

I probably have the exact same set as you. My set is on 30 discs from studio masters and there are 6 discs of extras. As far as I can tell it's the best set available. Does your set have spots and the other issues I mentioned like my videos? If so it's hardly perfect.

.tvimport.com

This is low-quality bootleg shit. Don't buy that. Think about it -- 120 episode on EIGHT discs. It's 6-hour mode EP Panasonic garbage from VHS tapes. Yuck!

Quite right. They would look crap on 8 DVDs even if they were dual-layer. That makes me think Deadrats is plugging his own site.

The only other site I saw was TVShowDiscs.com which have all episodes on 6 Bluray discs. You could easily fit 30 DVDs on 6 Bluray discs however it says they are in 720p which sets my alarm bells as you would lose quality by upscaling. While it may be possible to fit 720p episodes on 6 Blurays I have doubts about the site as they are also selling 8 DVDs which would be crap quality. You can see a list of different sets sold by people here. It seems the best sets are either the studio masters set on 30 discs or the TV land set on 29 discs recorded off TV with station logos. The quality on those 2 sets seems to be similar from what I've read.

[VideoFanatic]

Why are you deinterlacing? You need to do a proper IVTC and restore it back to 24 fps.

Do a framestep and you will see a definite repetitive pattern of 3 progressive frames followed by 2 interlaced frames (3:2 pattern). You will degrade the quality even more if you use QTGMC to deinterlace.

You'll have to educate me about this as I've never heard of that before. How do I do what you said?

How do you know that it should be 24 fps?

[smrpix]

How do you know that it should be 24 fps?

Because it was shot and edited on film. Which is also why a good 720p version is theoretically possible. (fingers crossed)

[sanlyn]

VF, it seems ambitiom exceeds means. Your samples were made from tape played at EP speed, captured to a computer to lossy DV-AVI thru a webcam and then re-encoded at a stingy bitrate to lose even more detail (if you can consider EP tape playback to have any "detail" to begin with). It's worse than a little chroma bleed and some block noise -- it's garbage. That's another way of saying that if you had the original VHS tape from which this bandit rip-off was made, the original VHS would look better than the digital video.

Of course, it would be a great learning experience. AT this point you don't know what hard-telecined is, which would be a good place to start (what it means is that you don't deinterlace this video, you run it thru the inverse telecine plugin (TIVTC). That will give you a 23.976 or 24fps progressive video. The poor thing has no detail to begin with, and the industrial-strength filtering job you'll have to do will decimate what's left.

It's up to you, of course. But what you get from all that work will look worse than what you're starting with. You might want to start with VideoFred's restoration thread on doom9. He started with 8mm, but in many cases his sources looked more workable than your mpeg.

[lordsmurf]

The "720p" set is made from downloads. Junk.

It's been several years since I watched this set. It's indeed uncut, though it's not logo-free. It aired uncut on Canada TVLand about 8 years ago and was directly captured. The logo-free version was NOT uncut that I recall. That was the difference. I vaguely remember comparing them some years ago.

The 30-disc set was made by two hobbyists I knew, and most of what they know comes from me. (ie, professional and serious hobbyist methods were used). Both are now retired from the hobby. The set is intended to be a stop-gap for hobbyists, something to watch until a perfect studio release (hopefully with lots of bonuses!) gets released someday. This set is pretty perfect already, but a film transfer would is always better than broadcast masters (better color clarity, better IRE, better gamma).

The show is tied up in rights limbo (multiple issues between ABC, Fox and Time last I checked), and may never be released.

Anyone selling this set for big bucks is an ******* profiteer. That's not why it was made. It was for fans to enjoy, not to make tons of money (especially when the people selling it didn't do jack shit). Most profiteering ******** sell the crappy 8-disc sets, because it's cheaper and quicker to copy. Did I mention that they're ********?

That video source you have is terrible compared to what I have. On its own merits, that's a B+ quality VHS source. The chroma noise ruins it some. Obviously SP mode recording, probably 3rd generation copy. I've seen many, many tapes through the years.

I'm tired right now. I'll put something together for you tomorrow. This makes for several good topics.

And I'll includes clips!

[yoda313]

The show is tied up in rights limbo (multiple issues between ABC, Fox and Time last I checked),

I thought I remember reading it was because it wasn't just batman characters. Weren't there cameos and guest shots from other comic companies?

Edit - please feel free to flame me if I'm wrong. I'm just saying what I thought I remembered.

[lordsmurf]

The show is tied up in rights limbo (multiple issues between ABC, Fox and Time last I checked),

I thought I remember reading it was because it wasn't just batman characters. Weren't there cameos and guest shots from other comic companies?
Edit - please feel free to flame me if I'm wrong. I'm just saying what I thought I remembered.

Not other comics, no. At worst, Green Hornet was in an episode.

[yoda313]

Not other comics, no. At worst, Green Hornet was in an episode.

Ok I was wrong. Thanks for letting me know.

[Des]

FWIW:
http://comicsalliance.com/warner-bros-makes-a-licensing-deal-for-the-batman-tv-show-br/

"Part of the trouble is that the rights to the show are an absolute nightmare to sort out. The sheer amount of guest stars and cameos over the course of three seasons causes a legal headache, as does the fact that there’s a separate set of rights for the design of the classic Batmobile — which is why it’s one of the few things you can find a licensed product of. Throw in disputes between the production companies, the involvement of ABC, the clearances for music and a bunch of contracts that were signed twenty years before home video was even a concern for Hollywood, and you’ve got a pretty thorny situation."

--dES

[vhelp]

please don't use sites like MEGA, they are now forcing you to download chroma or firefox extension, which i don't need and won't do. so i can't d/l your sample.

[vhelp]

if you have channel (43 WZME) you can capture 2 episodes every saturday evening at 7pm.

if you recorded them to vhs years ago, then the ivtc will restore the original (film) framerate, otherwise, they are time expanded/compressed at the telecine level these days, since the commercials are paying for the timeslot, so ivtc is mainly ruined if you capture them from your broadcast cable or dvr today.

[VideoFanatic]

please don't use sites like MEGA, they are now forcing you to download chroma or firefox extension, which i don't need and won't do. so i can't d/l your sample.

I have Firefox 20.01 and I can download without needing any extensions to do so and I've never been offered an extension by the site.

[vhelp]

thats because you already d/l'ed them and didn't know it at the time. i'm running a recently downloaded v19.0.2 and won't bother with later versions.

[VideoFanatic]

thats because you already d/l'ed them and didn't know it at the time.

Not sure what you mean? When I uploaded the file it doesn't download as well without me initiating a download.

I tried running Firefox 20.01 in a Sandbox where I never used the Mega site before and Mega didn't require any extensions to download.

An explanation for why the extension is needed on older Firefox versions is here.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/meganz/reviews/429532/

Web technology advances all the time. You will inevitably have to upgrade your browser at some point to be able to take advantage of that new technology.

[El Heggunte]

Web technology advances all the time.

That's what THEY want us all to believe in.

FYI, not everything that is advertised as "advance" or "progress" is actually advanced or better ---
--- often, it's quite the opposite.

Javascript didn't allow modifying the contents of the user's HDDs for a very-good reason (*security*).

The fact is, the new megaupload wants to protect their own asses from possible legal threats in the first place, this is the ONLY *raison d'être* for their <BULLSHIT>advanced Web technology</BULLSHIT>.

[Brad]

There's no reason to use MEGA to share samples here anyway. You can attach 500MB files, and they won't be dead and gone in 2 months when someone else wants to correct the same issues on their tapes.

[VideoFanatic]

There's several reasons why uploading to Mega is better than any other file sharing site or uploading directly to this forum but that has nothing to do with the subject of this thread. No more off topic posts please guys.

[smrpix]

It's relevant if you want folks to watch your samples in order to offer suggestions.

[sanlyn]

That video source you have is terrible compared to what I have. On its own merits, that's a B+ quality VHS source. The chroma noise ruins it some. Obviously SP mode recording, probably 3rd generation copy. I've seen many, many tapes through the years.

I would have guessed 2nd generation, but your analysis looks more like the hazy 3rd gen copy I downloaded. 704x480 might work on a few BD players, but it's not standard and could be refused by some. I wouldn't even want to think about resizing this dude to 720x480 but I guess it could be done.

[lordsmurf]

I would have guessed 2nd generation

Maybe if the person used a Go.Video dual-deck VCR, which was a real POS. It was a bad, bad unit, that screwed up videos. A Go.Video tape looked like a 3rd-5th from two (any brand!) VCRs hooked up via composite.

I was sort of conservative guessing 3rd gen, because of the chroma error. Yet I didn't see chroma shift or grain compounding too bad. Hence 3rd.

I'm working on a project right now. I'll do this when that's done.

[jagabo]

At this point you don't know what hard-telecined is, which would be a good place to start (what it means is that you don't deinterlace this video, you run it thru the inverse telecine plugin (TIVTC). That will give you a 23.976 or 24fps progressive video.

Normally, I'd agree. But with all the time base jitter QTGMC might work better. Maybe something like:

QTGMC()
SelectEven()
TDecimate()

or

QTGMC()
Merge(SelectEven(), SelectOdd())
FixBlendIVTC()
TDecimate()

[sanlyn]

I've been using this. Working OK so far:

TFM(order=1).TDecimate()
Stab()
# --- clean up borders after Stab() -----
Crop(2,2,-4,-8).AddBorders(2,4,4,6)
QTGMC(preset="faster",InputType=1)

That leavea it pretty well denoised with smooth edges and motion -- (ahem) except for the spots, bleed, ghosts, halos, border stains, bad color, low contrast, etc., etc.