Help with de-interlacing/sharpening video.

[ziggy1971]

Hello all,

I have some music videos that have been recorded in MPEG-2 format and would like to de-interlace and convert them to a high quality format for playback on the PC.

The videos have the following specs:
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Frame Size: 720x480
Frame Rate: 29.970 fps
Video Type: NTSC
Frame Type: Interlaced
Field Order: Top

I would like to resize them to 640x480 to keep the video size the same (or at least close), de-interlace the video because it looks like crap on a PC, and do a little sharpening on the video because it looks like some of it was lost in the conversion process. The container to be used will probably be .avi with the Xvid codec.

Now, I've seen some videos that I've downloaded off of the internet, usually they're only about 320x240, but when viewed at 2x, 4x or even full screen, some of them look quite amazing in quality. However, I have no idea how others are achieving that kind of quality and hopefully I can get some advice on how to do this.

I can provide some video samples for anyone to experiment with if you like so you can see what I'm working with.

Any advice/help is greatly appreciated,
Thanx in advance,
Cheers,
ziggy1971

[lordsmurf]

Try to force an INVERSE TELECINE (removes interlacing) instead of a deinterlace. This often works better, with the sole exception of DV footage. Sharpening can be done some, sure.

I would use TMPGEnc Plus for this, convert to a high-bitrate, 640x480 MPEG-2 with I-frames only (use HP@HL instead of MP@ML). Import that into VirtualDub and encode to XVID.

Some folks would do it in one pass. Quality will not be lost with my method, due to the high bitrate and I-frame-only nature (it's an approved editing method used by Sony and others).

[Soopafresh]

Post a few seconds (up to 5 MB on this site) so we can have a look at the visual quality.

[ziggy1971]

Hey guys,

I'll try to upload a small clip on this site. If it doesn't work, you can get a clip (or a whole video) at the following website: http://www.zaxx-designs.com/temp/

Let me know what you think I should/could do to improve the quality of the video.

Thanx again for the assistance,
Cheers,
ziggy1971 8)

dixie%20chicks%20-%20wide%20open%20spaces2.mpg

OK, that name didn't quite turn out right, it's actually "Dixie Chicks - Wide Open Spaces".

[MysticE]

I grabbed the full download. I see no interlacing problems in either Nero ShowTime or MPC. I little soft maybe but's that to be expected.

[gll99]

If the plan is just to play this video on pc then why preprocess them at all. I just use KMPlayer which has all the basic and advanced filters you need to enhance the video and audio while it plays including sharpening, denoise, colour correction, brightness, chroma, resizing just to name a few, etc... and also of course the aforementioned multiple deinterlace options.

[jagabo]

The full MPG file is a little odd. It looks like it was originally progressive video but but each top field has a "shadow" of the previous frame. The bottom field is clean throughout. The top fields appear to be a blending of about 1/2 the previous frame and 1/2 the current frame.

29.97 fps progressive source frames: 0 1 2 3 4 5...

59.94 fields per second interlaced: (0+1)t 1b (1+2)t 2b (2+3)t 3b (3+4)t 4b...

where (a+b) means a blend of two frames, t = top, b = bottom.

[Soopafresh]

I have a feeling the source is a bad PAL-NTSC conversion. Something is jacked in the source. Bottom line, it's never going to look great. There's probably a better source file out there.

[jagabo]

No, I think it's a wierd 720p60 to 480i conversion. Or maybe it was shot at 30 fps progressive and the blending is an attempt to make motions look a little smoother.

AssumeTFF()
Bob()
SelectEvery(2, 1)

generates a smooth, blend-free, video: bot.avi


AssumeTFF()
Bob()
SelectEvery(2, 0)

generates a smooth video with blending in every frame: top.avi

Both were slowed down to 3 fps for clarity.

[lordsmurf]

dixie%20chicks%20-%20wide%20open%20spaces2.mpg
OK, that name didn't quite turn out right, it's actually "Dixie Chicks - Wide Open Spaces".

Actually, the one with %'s is correct. You're not allowed to use spaces in web addresses.

[Soopafresh]

Quite possible, jagabo. This is the best I could muster with the MRestore Script. Much of the blends are gone, but it's still too soft.

mrestored.avi

[ziggy1971]

Hi guys,

Looks like you guys are having trouble discerning the origins of the video. After looking at it now, I see that it wasn't a really good example, well, maybe a good example of what NOT to do, hehe.

The video was originally recorded on my PC with a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 MCE tuner. I recorded several hours of video and edited out each of the individual videos separately with Sony Vegas 7.0.

When editing the video, I was using the "Bottom Field First" for the field pattern, which is the default in Vegas 7.0 (I'm not sure what the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 MCE actually records it at, I guess I neglected to check this, will do it now, it's actually "Top Field First"). So I guess that would be one of the problems to start off with.

Anyway, I'm uploading 2 more videos (Don't_Send_The_Invitation.mpg & Little_Bitty.mpg), hopefully they will show the interlacing better. You can get them at the following: http://www.zaxx-designs.com/temp/

Also, what software are you using with these scripts? How is it set up? Codecs used?

Thanx again for the help guys, it's really appreciated.
Cheers,
ziggy1971 8)

[manono]

Also, what software are you using with these scripts? How is it set up? Codecs used?

jagabo was using a standard AviSynth script used to examine a source. And another one to pull out every other bobbed field to make the final video. I don't know what else (if anything) he did to it.

Your place has decent download speed, but we don't need that much to determine what you have. Make them smaller next time. I'm getting it now and will chime in after having a look.

[ziggy1971]

Hi manono,

Sorry about the file size, I just thought it would be better to have the whole video, I'll make them smaller next time. But thanks for taking the time to look at this for me.

Hope to hear from U soon,
Cheers,
ziggy1971

[manono]

I'm uploading an XviD of Don't Send The Invitation. I don't know quite how it was created, except for the fact that it was originally shot on film and edited on video (and has broken cadences at just about every scene change). I'm not knowledgeable enough to know where all the blending came from. I do know how to unblend and deinterlace it, though. And if you have a lot of these things, it'll be in your best interests to learn some AviSynth as it's the only way to get things like this looking their best. I gave it a lower resolution and didn't sharpen it (I'd use Limited Sharpen Faster, although this one's pretty hopeless), but this is the script I used:

LeakKernelBob(Order=0)
CDeblend()
BlendBob()
TDecimate(Mode=2,Rate=23.976)
Crop(0,60,0,-62)
LanczosResize(528,288)

There are a bunch of ways to unblend it. I then encoded it using the XviD codec, 1-pass quant 3, along with the original audio. 50 MB total final file size. With a higher resolution and sharpening the final AVI will be even larger. Pretty cool video, though. Thanks. I'll link to the AVI when it's done uploading.

[ziggy1971]

Hi manono,

Just to let you know I currently have about 1200 music videos like this. About 1/2 of them are recorded at 8000 kbps and the rest at 6200 kbps. It's 50+ DVD's that I have in MPEG-2 format.

Thanx,
Cheers,
ziggy1971

[manono]

Hi-

1200, eh? That should keep you busy for awhile. Here's the link to Don't Send The Invitation, if you're interested:

http://www.mediafire.com/?0jennngf0sy

The Alan Jackson one, Little Bitty, has its own quirks. It's fullscreen, of course, so the crop and resize will be different. What makes it interesting, though, is that it's variable framerate. After removing the blending, parts are 24fps, parts are 20fps, and parts are 15fps. I suppose for AVI I'd make it 23.976fps following a script similar to the one earlier. I didn't bother uploading an AVI of it as it's blended in pretty much the same way. The only real choice you have to make is what final framerate you want. I suppose a case can be made for 29.97fps, although I'd go for 23.976fps. Or you could use a container that supports VFR (MKV) and get all the duplicate frames out.

[ziggy1971]

Hi manono,

Exactly how do you determine what the frame rate is for different parts of the video? I didn't know it was possible with MPEG-2.

Also, do U know of any good tutorials on AviSynth? I've done some reading at this website http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/avtech/index.html but it seems to be directed more towards anime videos.

Thanx again.
Cheers,
ziggy1971

[manono]

While NTSC DVDs do indeed all play at 29.97fps, they often have a "base framerate" lower than that. Movies, for example, are 23.976fps and use 3:2 pulldown to add duplicate fields to bring the output framerate to 29.97fps. If you were to field match a 29.97fps movie, you'll find one duplicate frame in every 5 frames, which when removed brings the framerate down to 23.976fps. In the case of Little Bitty, after unblending and unbobbing (the script through BlendBob, but before the TDecimate dupe removal line), parts had one dupe frame in 5, other parts had one dupe in 3 (19.98fps), and other parts had one dupe in 2 (14.985fps). It's just a matter of opening an unblended 29.97fps script in VDub(Mod) and stepping through it doing some counting. All parts were blended and interlaced to bring the output framerate up to 29.97fps.

The AnimeMusicVideo site is quite good, anime or not. Also read thoroughly the documentation included in the DGMPGDec package, and everything you can at the AviSynth site. There are a number of 3rd party utilities to help you make your scripts, like AVSEdit and others. Learning how to remove blends comes with practice and isn't all that easy for beginners. There are a number of filters, but I often use the ones included in the R_Pack (CDeblend, MRestore, FixBlendIVTC):

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=95924&highlight=MRestore

[ziggy1971]

Hello all,

OK, so now I've determined that my original video was encoded using Top-Field-First and I re-encoded with Bottom-Field-First, which brings me to some more questions.

Is there a way of changing the order of the fields back to Top-Field-First without re-encoding the video again?
What effects will this change have on the video quality?
Should I convert the video to uncompressed before making the change back to Top-Field-First?
Should I just leave the video at Bottom-Field-First now so as not to lose any more quality?

Also, I tried the following script in VirtualDubMod and it seems to have fairly good results, in my opinion, but I have since learned on this site that my videos are somewhat questionable.

import("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\Mrestore.avs")
import("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\Cdeblend.avs")
MPEG2Source("E:\Working_On\Invitation\Invitation.d 2v")
LeakKernelBob(order=0)
BlendBob()
TDecimate(Mode=2,Rate=23.976)
MSharpen(threshold=50,strength=150)

I used that script on the video "Don't Send The Invitation" if anyone would like to try it and perhaps have some other suggestions.

Once again, any advice is really appreciated,
Thanx again,
Cheers,
ziggy1971 8)

[manono]

Hi-

Is there a way of changing the order of the fields back to Top-Field-First without re-encoding the video again?

ReStream can do it. It works on elementary streams, though (the video only, and not the muxed mpg). It will affect the video quality in the sense that you do it only to get the correct field order if you've encoded using the wrong field order, so you'll go from jerky playing to smooth playing. Other than that, it does nothing to the quality.

Should I convert the video to uncompressed before making the change back to Top-Field-First?

No.

Should I just leave the video at Bottom-Field-First now so as not to lose any more quality?

If it doesn't play jerky (I mean real jerky), there's no reason to change the field order at all.

That LeakKernelBob line is for BFF video, which was true for the 2 videos I downloaded. Open other videos in DGIndex and run the preview (File->Preview) to find the field order. If it turns out to be TFF, then Order=1.

If you put the MRestore and CDeblend scripts in the AviSynth plugins folder and rename the extension from .avs to .avsi, then you'll not need the Import lines. They'll load automatically. And you didn't actually apply either of them in the script - at least not the script you showed us - so your videos are as blended as they would be just using a deinterlacer. And they probably play jerky to boot, since you didn't really create any duplicate frames to remove with your TDecimate line. Maybe that's why you suspect an incorrect field order? As the help files included in the R_Pack explain, you have to load some other plugins to use them to unblend a video.

For example:

basic
---------------
Use import("Cdeblend.avs") in your script and load the necessary filters to be able using this function.

required: - mt_masktools

For CDeblend, you have to load the MT_MaskTools.dll