Could you help me write an AVIsynth script to improve this LD scene?

[jrodefeld]

Hello everyone,

Myself and a few others are working on a custom Blu Ray version of Jackie Chan's Drunken Master 2. We need to add in the cut scene from the end of the film. A friend captured the laserdisc and deinterlaced the scene for us. But it still looks rather blurry and the colors are washed out.

Could you possibly recommend a good AVIsynth script I could use to improve the quality of the image? We are trying to merge this with Blu ray video. Of course it will never match that, but we are trying to make it look as seamless as possible anyway.

Here is the video file:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cejeo8fqjd5ntp9/1.avi?dl=0

Could any of you offer some advice or maybe a script I could use?

Thanks.

[manono]

Tell your incompetent friend to send you the capture direct from the laser disc, before doing his best to ruin it. Movies aren't 29.97fps and Drunken Master 2 isn't 2.75:1.

[jrodefeld]

The video isn't 29.97. It's 23.976. He actually provided the same scene in three different framerates (24, 23.976 and 29.97) because he didn't know what source we needed to combine it with. And since I am combining the segment into an Adobe Premiere timeline, it doesn't matter and in fact is a good thing that he cropped off the black borders on the top and bottom.

I have this scene captured several different ways from two different sources. The issue with framerate and aspect ratio is not important to what I am asking here. I just need advice on a good AVIsynth script to make the image a bit sharper and better colors.

Do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions regarding that? Or even on more general terms, if you had to combine a laserdisc capture with an HD source are their specific filters and plugins you would use to improve the quality and make it blend in as seamlessly as possible?

[manono]

If the colors are washed out you saturate them. If the video is blurry then you sharpen it.

The video isn't 29.97. It's 23.976. He actually provided the same scene in three different framerates (24, 23.976 and 29.97) because he didn't know what source we needed to combine it with.

Your sample is 29.97fps. It's not like you have a choice - you make it what it's supposed to be, 23.976fps, most likely, maybe 24fps if that's the Blu-Ray framerate.

... it doesn't matter and in fact is a good thing that he cropped off the black borders on the top and bottom.

And left you with a video way too wide. Good luck.

[LMotlow]

Well...since I get suckered into a J.Chan movie now and then, I looked up some BluRay reviews. So, it happens that the BluRay is 2.35:1. From the reviews I'd say I'll bet it was made from the LD. Like, here are two descriptions of what the BluRay looks like:

Image details are just a hair better than the DVD, but the overall presentation is flat, hazy and unappealing the eyes, loaded with grain, smoke, dirt and other intrusive elements. Digital noise elements also sneak into darker sequences. Hopefully one day studios will find the time, and money, to return to films like these and grant them proper restorations.
-- http://www.ign.com/articles/2009/09/15/the-legend-of-drunken-master-blu-ray-review

for the most part, this is not representative of the possibilities of the medium. In other words: don't show this to your friends as evidence of what a smart investment you made.
-- http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/dvdreviews47/legend_of_the_drunken_master_blu-ray.htm

The comments pretty much describe the sad look of the sample clip. Glad I found these reviews before investing time or $$$.

The video isn't 29.97. It's 23.976.

No it isn't. Manono is right, the clip is 29.97fps progressive. It's also been converted to RGB. Any particular reason for that?

He actually provided the same scene in three different framerates (24, 23.976 and 29.97) because he didn't know what source we needed to combine it with. And since I am combining the segment into an Adobe Premiere timeline, it doesn't matter and in fact is a good thing that he cropped off the black borders on the top and bottom.

You're way off track. The BluRay you refer to is square-pixel 1080p video and is either progressive at film speed or is telecined at 29.97fps. Good luck combining any of those out-of-spec SD clips with the original BluRay in anybody's timeline editor. You might consider that even if you upsample the odd-sized sample clip to match your BluRay, it will look like trash. What would want for a final product, a BluRay disc or just some kind of PC-playback hybrid?

Anyway, you'd need more than a simple color correction script to clean up the mess that was posted.

The issue with framerate and aspect ratio is not important to what I am asking here.

I'd work up a little enthusiasm about those issues before you get started. Those are specs to be addressed 'way before you start playing with Adobe Premiere or color filters. The aspect ratio of the sample clip is 2.748:1. It would have to be resized and take a big jump upward to match a 2.35:1 HD BluRay image formatted for a square-pixel 16:9 display scheme.

Do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions regarding that? Or even on more general terms, if you had to combine a laserdisc capture with an HD source are their specific filters and plugins you would use to improve the quality and make it blend in as seamlessly as possible?

Matching up a low-quality SD original that has been "deinterlaced" (I think you mean it's inverse-telecined) with a 1920x1080 HD original that is likely a rework of the same low-fi or similar source, and make it "seamless", then your expectations are unreasonable. Physically it can be done. Seamless, no.

I'd echo manono's request for a better sample, from an original LD capture that hasn't been twiddled with by cropping or other processing. But you still have a rough road ahead, and it's probably not worth the effort.

[happycube]

It's possible that it's closer to 2.35:1 than it appears - 640x262 is 2.44:1, so it might just be horizontally stretched.

The bigger problem is that it's 30fps and there's differences in every frame, which means some sort of processing went on. There's also a bit of CLV smear, what player and other equipment was used to capture this?

Agreed that you're better off with a non-deinterlaced/telecined 480i file and working from there. I'm not sure how much you can get out of this disk, though.

[manono]

It's possible that it's closer to 2.35:1 than it appears - 640x262 is 2.44:1...

Except it's 720x262.

If it were capped and only had the black bars removed and then resized as a 4:3 source, it would be 640x256 or 2.50:1. I'm using ITU resizing which, I believe, is correct for an analog laserdisc source. Not using ITU resizing makes it 640x262, as you stated. Even at 640x262 it still looks too wide. It's always possible the Chinese (?) laserdisc producers screwed up the aspect ratio. And, of course, the aspect ratio can be corrected with a resize and a reencode.