VHS graininess in video

[bphays]

I have a Pinnacle Studio Deluxe device and am capturing from a VCR VHS tape. I am encoding in DVD resolution (704x480) at around 6000 per sec. When I watch the VHS tape on my big screen TV, I can see the graininess but was hoping that by bringing it in on my computer, I could clean up the quality and burn it out to DVD and take out some of that look. The tape is a copy of another tape which both are in SLP format. Should I maybe try to go back to the first tape and see if there is a better quality gained from it? Any other thoughts on how to clean up the video for DVD format?

Thanks

[Martí]

If you can capture the original tape, that's the best. But whenever you can make it or not, you have to load the captured AVI into Virtual Dub, and use the "Dynamic noise reduction" filter to clean the image. "20" is a good value when using this filter.

Good Luck!

Martí

[bphays]

Thanks for the reply! I have another question. I have used Pinnacle Studio to output to MPEG-2 file. Should I instead be saving it as an AVI file @ 704x480 resolution and then running it through Virtual Dub and then later converting it to MPEG-2 format to burn it to DVD. This seems like extra steps that I don't have to currently do but if it will improve the graininess, it will be worth it.

[Martí]

Yes, it's the better way. I suggest you to encode the final video with Tmpgenc (2pass VBR) or, if you got it, with Cinema Craft Encoder(the best option). The pinnacle encoder is not very good.

Good Luck!

Martí

[EricB]

Marti

I have Virtual Dub 1.4.5 and do not see any "Dynamic Noise Reduction" filter. Could you tell me the version you are using or the source of the filter? Thanks.

[TheInformer]

One source for VirtualDub filters and information on them can be found at http://sauron.mordor.net/dgraft/

Go under the "Mine" option on the left side of the page and scroll down until you find

In addition to my filters above I have also modified Steven Don's Dynamic Noise Reduction filter to support scripts:

Steven Don's Dynamic Noise Reduction Filter

You can download the filter there.

On another note, capturing from a copy of a copy is a bad idea. Each time you copy a VHS tape, you lose 15% of the video signal if you record in SP and an even larger percentage if copying in LP/EP/SLP. Capture from as close to the original as you possibly can!