TemporalDegrain tweaking or some better advice?

[Srivas]

Hi guys.
I'm cleaning up old videos and you have helped me a lot to get into avisynth and start figuring things out. It does a much better job than the mainstream software can offer, that's for sure. So here's the situation: I've done some filtering on a clip but I'm still not satisfied with the results. Too much grain is still visible, I think, and since there's not so much detail there in the first place I feel like it could be cleaned up more. Here's the script:

LoadVirtualDubPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth\plugins\ccd.vdf", "ccd",0)
AVISource("C:\test.avi", audio=false)
AssumeFPS(25,1)
ConvertToRGB32().ccd(50,1)
ConvertToYV12(matrix="PC.709", interlaced=false)
dehalo_alpha(rx=2, ry=2)
TemporalDegrain(SAD1=400, SAD2=300, sigma=16)
MCTemporalDenoise(settings="medium")
Sharpen(0.2)
nnedi3_rpow2(2, cshift="Spline36Resize", fwidth=1280, fheight=720)
Sharpen(0.2)
nnedi3_rpow2(2, cshift="Spline36Resize", fwidth=1920, fheight=1080)
Sharpen(0.2)

Here's my questions: TemporalDegrain does a pretty good job but still grainy. I don't know how to adjust it except playing around with the default settings. If I crank it up, it starts to look like an oilpainting, so I leave it on default.

I tried putting in MCTD which actually does a pretty good job, I'm quite satisfied with the overall results (clip is quite smooth and enough details are preserved), BUT rendering becomes too slow. Probably not the smartest way to do it.

What would you suggest? I will attach two clips, one without anything and the other one with the above script.

Please bear with me. The problem for a beginner is that there is not enough documentation with the filters and it will take an age to try out all the variations of the settings available, especially not knowing what they are meant to be doing. At least that's the problem with TemporalDegrain. There's not enough information available ot I just didn't find much.

Btw. The original clip is 16:9, frameserved from Vegas Pro. I don't know why the one without upscaling renders 5:4 with MeGui. The original video is progressive mpeg2 with 8000 Kbps. I rendered the clips with a bitrate 14000, maybe unneccessary but seems like somehow more detail is being preserved.

[Selur]

There's not enough information available ot I just didn't find much.

Did you read:

• the documentation http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Temporal_Degrain
• the comments inside the script?
• the FFT3DFilter description? (to understand sometimes it might be better to lower settings instead to 'crank it up')
• the documentations of the other filters used inside the script?

also posting reencoded sample doesn't help much, if you want others to suggest other settings you need to post a sample of the source otherwise the noise characteristics will change due to the reencoding,...

[Srivas]

Did you read:
the documentation http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Temporal_Degrain
the comments inside the script?
the FFT3DFilter description? (to understand sometimes it might be better to lower settings instead to 'crank it up')
the documentations of the other filters used inside the script?

I agree. But can you imagine a person who has just been introduced to avisynth? I mean you have to start from the basics and have a certain frame of mind to learn what all the terminology means, hours and hours of testing all the filters, etc. I'm not against that, but it's quite sophisticated, to say the least. So it takes time and there's not so much of tutorials or say, simplified explanations available. There's a plethora of settings and now which ones should I use? I'm sure it will become more clear as you go, but if you want to achieve something immediately, then help from experienced users as on this forum is indispensable.

also posting reencoded sample doesn't help much, if you want others to suggest other settings you need to post a sample of the source otherwise the noise characteristics will change due to the reencoding,...

That's true. Well here it is.

[manono]

MPEG2Source("source test.d2v")
FFT3DFilter(sigma=6, bt=5, bw=32, bh=32, ow=16, oh=16, sharpen=0.4)

Raise or lower the Sigma value for more or less denoising.

Me, I like the noise. Unless trying to make this really compressible, like for upload to YouTube, I'd leave the noise alone. There are other more serious problems with it. In my opinion. For example, one problem not addressed in your script above is the fact that your whites are badly blown and the blacks non-existent. And that seems like a capture error to me.

[killerteengohan]

If working on animated sources, this works fairly well when you have lots of grain without going too overboard. Should do about the same for live footage I would think.

mctemporaldenoise(sigma=6, sharp=false, radius=1, ecrad=1)


you can also try this denoise/degrain filter. (Just raise or lower the 7 by sets of 2 for more or less strength)

deen("c3d", 1, 7, 2)

[Srivas]

Thanks, I'll check it out. Yeah, I was playing around with mctdenoise and it gives very good results, I like it. FFT3DFilter is fast but not satisfying for me in the case of the above video. I want quite clean material for Youtube upload. Anyway, I learned from the posts here, tried different options and I find the results satisfying. I will check out the deen filter also. Avisynth takes time to get into but it's worth it.

[killerteengohan]

Well deen is capable of very strong removal if you set it high enough. 3-11 is usually enough strength, but you can go higher if you want.


Just remember, denoising/degraining is going to ruin fine details usually so try not to go overboard. The stronger the strength, the more details get smudged out. Your sample doesn't really have any to worry about since it looks like a VHS tape rip or old tv capture or something, but something directly from a high quality DVD will.