Restore old VHS tapes

[NonOc]

I have a couple of very old VHS tapes of my little girl that I would like to capture and I have no problem with that. It's just that the tapes were shot on a magnavox camera that was one of the first available in the US and the films are very dark as well as faded from age. I have Video Studio 4 and I am in the process of getting Adobe Premier 6.5. What is the best way if any to restore these tapes? Maybe even improve on the original if I dare.

Trying to learn

[snowmoon]

You cannot get back what was lost, but their are ways of improving perceived video quality.

First: Capture the videos at the highest possible resolution and lowet compression you can.

Two: Filters

In VDub I would use the combo of

levels, 2d optimized cleaner, kNRC, resize, and a possible median sharpen.

These in combo do a bang up job of reducing the noise level on most video. Their are also many more specific filter for vdub. There are ones that can brighen up just the outside of the video or attempt to stabilize brightness across frames.

So good luck!

[presto]

Snowmoon. I want to try your suggestions. I know how to load the filters in Virtual Dub but are there settings for each one that I have to know? Also is it possible to see a live preview or do I just capture test clips and compare them?

Is there a How-To on using filters? I have found that filters inevitably have descriptions that mean nothing to me.

[zekeode]

i would like get answer for this too...

[Dragonsf]

Best way is to capture some test clips and feed them to VDub.Applying the filters needs some adjustments of the various parameters (try to start from the default in either directions).You can see the effect (i.e. result) on the scrren by stepping through the frames.
If you're getting satisfying results, don't forget to save your settings (and to load them next time).
If you want to see the footage later on TV, I'd make a test (S)VCD or DVD in order to comapre the results on a TV set.It looks different than on a Monitor (TV is more forgivable(?), but normally larger- you can seen more artefacts)

[snowmoon]

Ok, I'm writing at work, so I can be as verbose as I would like.

I cap 720x480 @ 29.97 MJPEG 18

I start with a ViewFields, this pulls all the odd lines up and the even lines down.

Levels. Sample several dark and several bright frames to set this up. output range should be 16-235. Input should be based on where the "dark spot" is ( a big hump at the bottom of the scale ) and "white spot" ( where it tapers off ). You can also use a subjective eye to adjust gamma so the picture is contrasted and bright enough. Play with this filter until it looks right.

Optimized 2d cleaner. I usually use vaules like 4-7 for threshold and 2x1 for the area. Basicly use the preview and make sure that it's just hitting areas with continuius tone. If the picture looks "painted" turn down the threshold. This is a big help because it works good even during action shots.

kRNC. Temporal NR. Basicly turn it down to the point that in both light and dark scenes their is little or no ghosting across frames This is most obvious in faces, there will be an unnatural grainyness or smearing.

Resize bicubuc 480x480

MSharpen. Lower settings I use 30 for the strength and 7-12 for the threshold. You can make it sharper, but if you go overboard it will hurt the encoder.

UnViewFields. Restored the original interlacing.


This is my recipe for noisy analog, for hgih quality low noise stuff I susally drop the 2d cleaner, and reduce the kNRC and msharpen.

Cheers.

[twinegar]

One thing you can do is to place a SIMA SCC VIDEO COLOR CORRECTOR like the one being sold here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1384298828. They cost around $100.00 but you will be able to enhance the brightness, contrast and various color qualities during capture. I have used mine for the same thing that you are doing with excellent results. Use the ideas above for the actual capture and the Sima to enhance the source during capture. For me it was worth the $100.00.

[snowmoon]

Actually I've adjusted the brightness/contrast/saturation by hand on the WinTV too.