Improve Quality in WMV, etc

[drtalk]

Hi all, I come from a A/V technical background...this is BEFORE the implementation of DVD authoring let alone DVD burners and recorders. I recall during the few years I spent working for Sony as a sales rep, doing installs in night clubs - everything from video projectors to full blown sound systems. And at one point there was an item on the market that was manufactured by several companies called a LINE DOUBLER. This was a stand alone unit..quite simple in functionality, and did just what it said it did...it doubled the lines of resolution being fed into the video projectors. This evolved to LINE QUADRUPLERS...obviously 4 times the lines of resolution.
So my question is this: There is SO much cool video content available for download these days, but playback just plain sucks. I use several apps from Sony for my video and editing needs. I use Sony Vegas 6.0 for video editing as well as audio multi tracking. Sony Sound Forge 8.0 for strictly audio editing. And Sony DVD Architect for authoring. I have several other very good apps but these are the best of the bunch. Is there anyway to improve the quality or give the appearance of improved quality with let's say a WMV file?

I know, I know....garbage in...garbage out. But it just seems to me that there MUST be some way of doing this. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks in advance!

[redwudz]

WMV is tough to work with as there is just not as many programs out there for it as there is for some of the AVI formats. Sort of like RM video.

If you start with a high quality video, not a lot to do to make it look better. A lower quality video you may be able to adjust the color balance, do some light noise filtering and tweak it around to improve the appearance. But it doesn't really do anything for the quality.

I'm not sure how much of that you can do with the WMV format, but you can always experiment.

And welcome to our forums.

[drtalk]

Thanks for the warm welcome Redwudz! And thank you for your input. I kind of figured color correction and noise would be the most common replies I would receive. I do also however have a very useful app called WINAVIVideo Converter. This handy little app will convert and/or transcode from practically any file format to another. I'm wondering about converting those WMV files I mentioned to AVIs and seeing what can be done there. Or possibly try a conversion of each type that WINAVI offers and see if there may be more options. Anyway, thanks again!

Dr. Talk

[ZippyP.]

I do also however have a very useful app called WINAVIVideo Converter.

Perhaps you should read this: click here.

[drtalk]

Hmmm....interesting article. I on the the other hand have had great success with simple conversions with WINAVI...even with files that run 2 hours. Perhaps the app was simply not compatible with that person's computer or there was a conflict between software...could be millions of things. Computers rank #1 with Murphy's Law lol!

Thanks for your input though, I appreciate every tid bit of info I receive here and encourage everyone to submit their thoughts regarding this.

Dr. Talk

[ZippyP.]

If you're happy with the results from winavi then that's all that matters. Quality wise though, it's pretty well known that winavi is not one of the better applications.

[edDV]

First steps first. Assume a DVD source.

First homework is to read this as to DVD progressive playback vs. Line doublers.
http://www.dvdfile.com/news/special_report/production_a_z/3_2_pulldown.htm

Now since you are in the biz, VC-1 is the technology that will bridge traditional interlace broadcast to MPeg4.

Second homework project:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VC-1

Now, if you are abandoning quality for free downloads, restate your problem. Progressive wmv will play back from a computer and some advanced DVD players.

[zoobie]

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/enclfc.aspx

[drtalk]

Hey GREAT input guys!!! Thanks a million! Some very usefull information provided here.

[drtalk]

If you're happy with the results from winavi then that's all that matters. Quality wise though, it's pretty well known that winavi is not one of the better applications.

What apps do you suggest or find best for quality from your own experience? BTW, thanks for all the replies so far guys. I wasn't sure anyone would respond.

[ZippyP.]

What apps do you suggest or find best for quality from your own experience?

Personnaly I use TMPGEnc, but here's a good reply quoted from another thread:

Encoder list from 'Tools': https://www.videohelp.com/tools?s=40#40

For popularity and ease of use: TMPGEnc
Freeware: QuEnc
Faster encoders: CCE, Procoder

My favorite all in one is ConvertXToDVD, it handles most conversions, but it also has limitations.

Video conversion was a learning process with most of us. The main thing to learn is to use the right tool for the Job. That's why there are so many listings in 'Tools'.

[DarrellS]

I use Virtualdub more than any other editing program. It only encodes to AVI but with VirtualdubMod you can frameserve to TMPGEnc to encode to MPEG.
The newest version of VirtualDub-MPEG2 is my favorite of all Virtualdub versions. Not only will it handle VOB/MPEG2 but it will now handle WMV. Using direct stream copy and job control, you can now batch convert WMV to AVI at the speed of light and once converted, you can now join the files together if they're from the same movie and direct stream copy those files also. Most WMV are VBR movies so there will be a sync issue on alot of files but this is easy fixed by warping the audio in Goldwave. All together, converting, joining and fixing the audio on a 1:30.000 movie will take about a half hour. That's alot faster than the old way of having to convert each WMV to AVI in TMPGEnc and then joining them with VDub. If you want to try and clean the movies up then Virtualdub has all the filters you need to do that and if you need more, they can be downloaded from the internet. Adding the filters will force you to have to recode which will add a few hours to the process.
Virtualdub also has it's own user forum but since most people in this forum use one of more versions of the software, you can find out pretty much what you need to know here. What we can't tell you, the creators that hang out at VDub can.

[drtalk]

Interestingly enough, I happened to be burning a DVD last night using Nero and decided to check out all the little extra features before I went ahead with the burn. In the editing mode, you can add FX like transitions, fades, wipes, etc. But there was also a section that had 3 options...I believe they were gamma correction, color filter and Multiply pixel. I haven't gotten around to it yet, but I wonder if the Multyiply Pixel option does what a line double doubler would do (technically speaking) Anyone tried using this feature in Nero?