Noise redux. filter for Vdub

[Bull]

Anyone knows a good noise reduction filter for Virtual dub?
I'm making divX

[Chyron]

I find that most useful of such filters is FlaXen's VHS tool - good for fixing VHS/analog TV sources. Has temporal filter, spatial filter (post- and pre- porcessing). Highly superior to "temporal smoother" - if used properly, leaves no color "trails" etc.Also features chroma shift - even for one of channels.
Only problem - resource hog. On my Duron1200 average fps is ~1.4 on full PAL (768*576) resolution. But for DivX you do not need fullres - deinterlace,crop head noise, then resize to something like 640x480 or 512x384 - and it will be faster. Also speed depends on scene complexity.
If source rel. clear - disable noise reduction, at least on one of passes.
Well, also can be hard to configure - as always, the better, the harder to use.
Alternatively can be used combination of spatial noise reduction and temporal smoother - but sometimes this chain leaves color trails, and not much faster. On fade-in or fade-out temporal smoother show much noise - i.e. do not remove it, so i use smart smoother as prefilter for it - with cautioun .

Of course you can filter in realtime during capture - DivX5.02pro noise reduction (normal level) combined with VDub's noise reduction (threshold slider somewhere in "e" area) works pretty well for me when i capture TV at 376x282 ( cropped from 384x288).But for VHS - not very good.
My PC isn't fast enough to capture DivX5 (i always use slowest motion estimation) at fullres, so how good it's with deinterlacing etc - dunno. Can be even better, can be sh\t.

[Bull]

Thanks

I only have an analog PAL connection. I'm capturing with PICvideo codec at 768*576, and then I convert it to divX.
I have gone with divX 5.02 for a little while now and with that I resized it to 640*480, but I ahve just tryed the 3.11 codec with the 768*576 rez, that turned out to be just a little better. I don't really care of how long it takes to convert it.

So would the filter be good to this?

[Bull]

oh yeah, you hvae any good settings for the flaXen filter??
(I'm not really good at that shit)

[Chyron]

Well - not more than ones, included in filter's readme - actually EVERY capture need a little different approach - on air channels, even different weather can change quality.

Though, must say, default temporal stabilizing mostly works good for me - only time i need to adjust was capturing "Buffy" from one of our air channels - looks like they used low bitrate for network distribution - so contrast was low, colors - dim, and combined with a)radio noises/reflections etc of large city(St.Petersburg) b) SECAM color system..it was displeasing picture, till hard f$$$ing with that filter.

Noise reduction - i usually use only prefilter, diam 2, stregth 6, as
DivX5Pro makes very pleasing picture with "low" noise filtering.
So experiment a little for your caps.

Also - if you need to sharpen image, i recommend to use either "XSharpen" or "WarpSharp" - original "sharpen" or "unsharp" (also used in "fxVHS") most of the time sharpen noise too.

Codec - on single pass DivX5pro is king. On two pass - well, i still like good old DivX3.11 Low Motion with SBC (Nandub) - most of time see not much visual difference, but i can play/edit it on my old k6-2 w/o problems. Though now for final storage DivX5 (w/o GMC and q-pel) can be advised - as far as i know,chipset used in Sigma XCard supports it, so looks like you'll be able soon to play it on standalone player.

[TKS]

On that topic:


When you are using Flaxen's Vhs Tool do you put it first on your choice of filters followed by a deinterlacer?

Im asking only cause Ive heard serval people mention in other forums that you should list your filters in a certain priority.

tks

[Chyron]

My filter chain -

deinterlace (smart or MAP)

Brightness/contrast (if needed) - optional

Hue/Sat/Int (if i not adjusted this before cap properly - happens with TV) - optional

null transform (crop)

smart resize (512*384,bicubic or precise bicubic) (well, it's matter of speed mostly, but when you crop it's good to resize to resolution divisable by 4 anyway - some filters (snr for example) screws up if res smthng like 762x571, so two goods for prise of one results in habit )

fxVHS

hue/sat/int ( final)

Warp sharp (if needed - don't like fxVHS internal Unsharp -it's noisy imho) -optional