DVD with what appears to be frame blending

[ThaKarra]

Hi all,

I've recently come into possession of an old NTSC DVD screener from 2004, a pilot for an animation that aired on Cartoon Network back in the day. I'm trying to do some restoration on it but I'm running into some trouble.

Obviously I don't know the history of this DVD or how the video was previously handled.. All I have is what's on the disc.

I've ripped the contents of the DVD using "MakeMKV" so I can mess around with the raw MKV file.

The video itself is interlaced at 29.970 fps.

What I usually do is run the following script:

LWLibavVideoSource("VideoFile.mkv")
tfm()
tDecimate()
vinverse()

This restores the progressive frames, removes any duplicate frames and reverts the video back to 23.976 fps.

Now admittedly I don't know much about video scripting.. This has always been the template script that I've used for NTSC DVDs in the past and I've never had an issue with it. - It usually does exactly what I need it too.

However for this particular DVD, Although the interlacing is fixed and the video is 23.976 fps, I'm being left with what appears to be frame blending/ghosting (I'm not sure the proper name for it). I assume the person who made this DVD handled the video poorly and this is the result.







There also seems to be no pattern of it in the frames.. It's just completely frequent and random. - Is there anything I can do to remove the frame blending or is the video completely damaged with the point of no return?

I've attached a sample below if anyone wants to have a mess around with it. Just extract the rar file and preview the .avs script.

[rrats]

It seems like some genius resized it

[ThaKarra]

It seems like some genius resized it

Sorry that was probably my mistake. I should have clarified...

I cropped the black border and resized the DVD to 720x570 to give it a 4:3 ratio. The plan was then to upscale it to 960x720 using some AI software.. But that is getting offtopic.

The DVD originally came as 720x480 and flagged as 640x480. But regardless of me resizing it, the ghosting and blending was still present.

Here are some screen shots of the DVD without any scripting/resizing @ 720x480. - I've taken the raw MKV file, dropped it into VirtualDub and exported the frames as they normally would be.







EDIT: I prepared another sample but I couldn't upload it to the forum due to their 500mb limit. So I uploaded it to my Google Drive instead. These are the untouched frames of the same sequence. They are interlaced and I haven't messed with the size, but as you can see the problem still persists.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bmJS4bmFoI8jJTai3t4knOl3-FC7to7y/view?usp=sharing

EDIT EDIT: I've been told I should provide a demuxed sample of the DVD. You can find this attached below. In the .rar you will find the M2V, D2V and the AC3 file.

[jagabo]

The video is interlaced top field first, but is encoded progressive bottom field first -- causing the chroma of the two fields to blend together. It was improperly resized while interlaced causing the two fields to commingle. And it was frame rate converted with field blending. I recommend you look for a better source.

[ThaKarra]

The video is interlaced top field first, but is encoded progressive bottom field first -- causing the chroma of the two fields to blend together. It was improperly resized while interlaced causing the two fields to commingle. And it was frame rate converted with field blending. I recommend you look for a better source.

Thanks for taking the time to check it out. Means a lot

There is no other source of this quality. This DVD-R was found by someone who worked at Cartoon Network. It's a screener for a pilot that only ever aired once on TV in the early 2000s.

But I appreciate the fact its damaged beyond repair and nothing can be done about it. I wont waste my time on it anymore. - It's a shame that the previous person who put the DVD together really ruined it.

[jagabo]

If that's all that exists you can clean it up a bit. I would start with QTGMC() and SRestore(). Then maybe replace remaining bad frames by copying the frame before or after. That may get rid of most of the bad frames. But some problems will remain.

[ThaKarra]

If that's all that exists you can clean it up a bit. I would start with QTGMC() and SRestore(). Then maybe replace remaining bad frames by copying the frame before or after. That may get rid of most of the bad frames. But some problems will remain.

Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a shot

[ThaKarra]

I would start with QTGMC()

Sorry to be a pain but with QTGMC(), what parameters should I be using? Just that on it's own?

I've never used it before so I have no idea how I should be adding into my script.

Regards

[jagabo]

For fixing this video I don't think it matters too much what parameters you use with QTGMC(). Try with the various presets QTGMC(preset="fast") for example. Normally slower presets give smoother edges with less buzzing. But it won't fix all those other issues.

And since you're using QTGMC and SRestore together, a very slow combination, you might want to use a fast preset while working, then turn it up to a slower preset for the final job. Or even use a much faster deinterlacer while working -- like nnedi3(field=-2), or Yadif(mode=1).