DIVX settings for dark or low-light TV shows

[gminnick]

I am having good results from shows with enough lighting and can get away with just a temporal smoother filter in Virtual Dub. However, one of the shows I am trying to record, Angel, is a low-light type of show and I have tried several settings with no luck. I have used Temporal Smoother, Flaxen VHS, TV filter, etc... The Temporal Smoother takes out the noise but loses the detail. I guess in a dark show, it has a hard time keeping things smooth. If anyone records this particular show or similiar and has been able to compress with good results please post your settings.

Thanks,
Gary

[lusid]

The most important thing on darker footage is to get the brightness and contrast just right. If brightness is too high, blacks aren't black and cause extra blockiness in the mpeg. If contrast is too low, the dark shades and blacks get crunched causing loss of detail and more blockiness. Using the histogram in virtualdub will get you close, but you'll need to still do some trial and error tests to get good detail in dark scenes without washing out bright ones.

If your capture driver has a "backlight compensation" setting turn it off.

Also, unless your source is really noisy, or a vhs tape, temporal filtering may be overkill. Smart Smoother or the optimised 2D cleaner should be enough with the right settings.

You didn't mention your output res, but capping at a higher res and resizing later usually gets a better result.

[gminnick]

I am capping at 320x240. I tried capping at 640x480 and resizing and did not see that much difference. Except my harddrive filled up faster. I have not looked at any settings for the capture driver and did not know I could. I am at work now, but will look for that when I get home. I assume I go under device manager in windows and select the properties for my cap card?

On the temporal filter comment, I was trying it and smart smoother, but ss seemed to blur things too much. The temporal smoother (on a 4 or 5 setting) actually seemed to take out the noise and leave the detail. But this was on well lit shows. My cable signal is really good. And actually, most of the noise is seen on the monitor and not the TV. I have just been using the temporal filter to make it nicer on the monitor. I may try the 2D cleaner. I do have some Buck Rogers on VHS I would like to record. I tried the smoother on it, but by the time I got the noise out, it was a little too blurry in areas.

I am still learning about filters and read so much my head hurts. Everyone has their own preference.