Early 1980s shot on video feature film - advice needed

[TenementLady]

Shot in the UK, 25fps PAL. I need to restore, de-interlace and upscale to 23.976 / 720p or even 1080p if possible. I have it on DVD-R from an old VHS ex-rental tape.

clip 1:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y42lRP5CRAEQ7jc4Gtrg4b82xNuJ5DL7/view?usp=sharing

clip 2:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vsnxwtF-5alwJFWss46ZxoYPZySWEkDD/view?usp=sharing

I'm on a Mac, with Hybrid installed. I also have a PC, but have not tried any Avisynth stuff so far.

Any suggestions?

[jagabo]

Why 23.976 fps? The video is PAL at 50 fields per second interlaced, not 24p film sped up to 25i.

And the samples improperly encoded as progressive, not interlaced. That caused the colors of the two fields to blend together. Is that indicative of your source or did you re-encode it improperly?

But here's a basic script to appended the two clips, deinterlace, slow to 23.976 fps:

v1 = LSMASHVideoSource("GBH-SA-clip1.mp4").AssumeTFF()
v2 = LSMASHVideoSource("GBH-SA-clip2.mp4").AssumeTFF()
v = v1++v2

a1 = LSMASHAudioSource("GBH-SA-clip1.mp4")
a2 = LSMASHAudioSource("GBH-SA-clip2.mp4")
a = a1++a2

QTGMC(v, FPSDivisor=2)
AudioDub(last, a)
AssumeFPS(24000,1001,sync_audio=true)
ResampleAudio(48000)

[TenementLady]

Thanks for the sample, can I do the same thing in Hybrid?

The video in going onto a US Blu-ray release. The original master was lost long ago.

What is the best way to export a few sample clips from a merged VOB file? I used MPeg Streamclip, which obviously did not do a good job.

So far I have tried QTGMC (fast) to bob, then sRetore to 23.976. Also NNEID3 to 720. It looks OK, but there is still ringing around dark edges against light, and the dark interior shots are very murky. I tried various DeRing options in Hybrid but I am unfamilar with what exactly each filter does and which settings to try.

[jagabo]

You need to use a dehalo filter to remove those oversharpening halos. Unfortunately, they are pretty damaging to the rest of the picture. Sometimes using a mask to limit them to only the worst halos works. Try dehalo_alpha(rx=6, ry=1). Dehalo_alpha() works best with smaller values so with low res VHS it sometimes pays to downscale the video, dehalo, then upscale. Something like BilinearResize(480, 576).dehalo_alpha(rx=3, ry=1).Spline36Resize(720,576).

The best way to address this is to use a VHS deck that doesn't create them. VHS is an inherently low resolution system so most decks apply a sharpening filter -- the cause of those halos. On a small CRT TV the halos make the picture look a little sharper. But when viewed on large modern screens they can look terrible. If your VHS deck has a sharpness setting turn it down before capturing. You can get much better sharpening in software.

[DB83]

Since you do not have even the VHS to re-capture ANY work should be attempted on the dvd vobs and not from samples that have been re-encoded by Google.


So better to upload mpeg2 extracts even those same scenes.


May I ask the name of this 'film' ?. AFAIK the UK does not do 'Public Domain' so copyright still exists in some shape or form even when original 'masters' no longer exist.

[TenementLady]

The rights have been licensed from the producer. As I said, the original master is lost.

What would be the best way to export a few .vob samples?

[DB83]

Name of the 'film' pls. This sure looks like 'The Professionals'


Must ask how you created the clips in the first place since you could surely do the same but for mpeg2.


But >> Avidemux >> Load vob (after extraction to HDD) > A/B markers > copy for video and audio > save as mpeg2 format

[TenementLady]

I previously used MPEG Streamclip, as I said above. I didn't check De-Interlace so I'm not sure what happened there.

I'll have a try with Avidemux on the old PC I have.

[DB83]

Avidemux does work on a Mac.