Fixing grainy footage in Avid/ FCP

[RebeccaStewart]

Hi all,

I've been given some very grainy footage that was filmed in a dark room. I want to try and take the edge of some of the grain but am at a loss as to how to do it without buying an expensive plug in.

I have both Final Cut Pro X and Avid 8.3.0 and am aware of Boris FX but can't afford to buy it so I'm really after an effect that comes as standard with either FCPX or Avid that will help de-grain/ de-noise my footage.

Any suggestions welcome! Thanks...

[smrpix]

In Avid and FCPX you need to use 3rd party denoisers. Neat Video, Magic Bullet, Boris -- for example.

Both Avid and FCPX have various blurs, but you're not likely to find that very satisfying.

There are a lot of free programs with good denoisers on the PC side (I'm betting you're on a mac) including Avisynth, but how technical are you prepared to go?

[RebeccaStewart]

Yes I'm on a mac and I'll admit I'm not that technical! So there's no real solution other than buying a plug in?

I've heard of neat video and boris - if I was to buy which would you recommend? I prefer editing in FCP but can use Avid if I will get better results.

Thanks so much

[smrpix]

They all have free trials, all should work in FCPX. I would probably lean towards neat -- but it's a gentle lean. I'm not sold on denoisers in general.

edit: oops, looks like Magic Bullet is only available for Premiere, AE and FCP7

[budwzr]

How about posting the worst frame and let's see whatcha got. Have you tried the "Levels"? Or compressing the blacks?

[RebeccaStewart]

Here's a short clip of some of the worst footage.

https://vimeo.com/120496051

[smrpix]

That footage is so compressed on vimeo it's impossible to judge the noise. Can you make it downloadable? On the other hand, the kind of smoothing and smearing now present gives you a preview of what noise reducers will do.