Moving colors after converting AVI to NTSC DVD

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Hi,

I am trying to convert PAL AVI to NTSC DVD. The picture is fine but the background is like alive. I see the small colored cubes or pixles blinking all the way. It is especially easily seen on the light color background.

I am ready to provide the info about the file but not sure what info would be useful:

Frame: 1016x432
FAR/DAR:2:352

What is it? Can it be fixed?

Thank you.

[guns1inger]

It might help us if you could also post the method and tools you used for the conversion, a g-spot of the source and converted video, and perhaps a still or short clip showing the problem happening.

[vertical]

guns1inger,

Thank you. I will prepare all the stuff and will post it.

[vertical]

Edit: For some reason I cannot post all the screenshots. I tried a few times but it does not work for me.

Hi,

The tools used:

Procoder 2.00
FitToDisk 1.21
DGPulldown

Here is the GSpot shot for source:

[Img]source.jpg[/Img]

For target:

[Img]target.bmp[/Img]

I used the follwoing script in Procoder 2.0:

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\MaskTools.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\MT_MaskTools.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\RemoveGrain.dll")
DirectShowSource("E:\DESTIN-LONG\TestShadowNoSound.avi")
LanczosResize(720,480,0,1,608,334)
AssumeFPS(23.976, true)
dull=last
Sharp=LimitedSharpenFaster(ss_x=1.25,ss_y=1.25,Smo de=4,strength=600,soft=30)
Soothe(sharp,dull,25)

It was created by FitToDVD:

[Img]fittodisc.jpg[/Img]

Actually I tried quite a number of scripts with different resize options and the result was pretty muvch the same. Finally, I see the same thing while watching the source AVI file.

I had the following settings in Procoder:




After I converted the clip to 25 PAL with Procoder I used DGpulldown 25 > 29.97. That's it.

Here is the link to the uploaded clip:

http://rapidshare.com/files/3545624/Shadow-Test_MPEG2_DVD_NTSC_Mastering_.m2v.pulldown.m2v.html

Actually I noticed the same thing while watching many old movies (AVIs).

Can something be done to remove or conceal it?

Thanks!

[guns1inger]

I suspect it is an issue with a directshow filter. Do you see the same thing if you load the avi into virtualdub ?

Anyway, still downloading the vid, so will post agsin when I have watched it.

/edit

That's what you get for firing blind. Ignore my first comment. You don't need to fix your filter, you need to get a better source.

What you have here is an over-compressed, relatively low resolution source, resized up to DD resolution and possibly over sharpened. What you are seeing are all the artifacts from all the pain this video has been put through.

Some things that anyone who is converting downloaded avi to DVD needs to consider

1. The gamma difference between PC and television is sufficient to expose a lot of flaws not visible when watching with your favourite media player
2. Most media players and many directshow filters have lots of trick built into them to improve the visual appearance of over compressed avi files during playback. These tricks are not in play when you encode.

I would suggest using a deblocker in your avisynth script before sharpening, and live with a little less detail if having more means enhancing flaws.

[vertical]

[vertical]

Yes, I do see it in VDM and I would say it is more clear there than on a player.

Source:

[guns1inger]

Even worse - a high res, very low bitrate image. No wonder it is in such a state. That sort of bitrate is barely adequate for an avi file with a quarter that resolution.

[vertical]

Do I understand you right that it is impossible to impove the quality of the picture? Ot better to say, to improve within the reasonable effort?

[guns1inger]

You can make marginal improvements if you use a deblocking filter and do some noise removal. However most of the damage was done by compressing too much in the first instance.

If the numbers you have given are correct, you have an avi file with a resolution of 1016 x 432, compressed with the old Div3 format and a bitrate of 846 kbps.

Even "good quality" avi files compressed with Xvid or Divx would have a resolution of around 640 x 272 or even less at that bitrate. So your source file either has a resolution twice as large as it should be for the bitrate, or a bitrate one quarter what was required for the resolution. Either way, all the damage you are seeing was done during the initial compression. The data is lost, and you cannot get it back. The best you can hope for is to hide the worst of it with some clever filtering, and accept that it will always be damaged goods.

[kschang]

You can try filtering, but gunsl!nger are among the purists here who basically states that converting from AVI to DVD, esp. an AVI that has such a low bitrate, is a waste of a perfectly good DVD media. Remember, GIGO. On the other hand, you may be perfectly satisfied with the result. It's up to you.

I personally would say let it run overnight and see how it is in the morning, maybe use the fast solution like Divx2DVD to do the first 5-10 minutes of the film. If that generated a decent output to your satisfaction, then do the whole movie this way and get a nicer (but probably NOT that much nicer) result.

[vertical]

guns1inger,

Thank you, I will probably dump it. But it was educative and at least I would be able to determine the reason for such picture quality in the future.

[vertical]

kschang, thanks.

It could be a better idea than my previous post. I have lots of old movies and many of them are like this one. So, I can try and see whether I can get something worthy of it.

But actually I would join the party of "purists" -)

[guns1inger]

If you want a little light reading, I would suggest this post -> https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=309181 which starts out in one direction, then spends 3 pages on a some great denoising discussion, including sample scripts for various denoisers, then finishes with a discussion on rendering to lossless codecs. Pages 2 - 4 will be on most interest.

You might also want to look at these two, regarding the blockbuster avisynth plugin

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1502451#1502451
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1518428#1518428

Even if it doesn't end up reclaiming this video, it might well be useful for the next one.