Help on cleaning up drone video

[ricardouk]

Hi everyone.

Recently bought a drone (not dji) and one of the first things i noticed was the video quality decreased if i recorded a video at the end of the day (low light), unfortunally i cant record the video again at a better time (acess to the place is no longer possible), been doing some experiments with avisynth and virtualdub filters but been unable to improve the video quality, can someone help me?

here's what i tried so far:

avisynth - QTGMC(Preset="slow", EZDenoise=1.5)

Virtualdub + dynamic noise reduction plugin with 12px and 24px threshold

Virtualdub + msu denoiser with normal, medium and hard presets

Virtualdub + smart smoother 1.1 plugin (5px diameter and 25 threshold)

i installed a after effects trial version but didnt have much luck with it, premium filters are needed.

not a lot of difference between them but smart smoother looked just marginally better.

here's a link if someone is interested in helping me (161MB).

https://files.videohelp.com/u/98565/dronesample.mp4
Thank you.

[jagabo]

Try TemporalDegrain(SAD1=400, SAD2=300, Sigma=16) or some lower settings. High settings like that will look bad in large areas with little detail (like the sky).

If you're going to use QTGMC() on a progressive source with slow panning like that you should try something like QTGMC(preset="slow", InputType=1, EZDenoise=1.5, DenoiseMC=true). InputType=1 so it doesn't bother trying to deinterlace, DenoiseMC=true for motion tracking. You can then get away with higher settings for EZDenoise.

The video could use more contrast too.

[ricardouk]

Hi Jagabo, thanks for your advice and being always so helpfull

will try your advice, the problem with avisynth is that there's a lot of dependecies to make something work, i remember the last time on a similar problem you also recomended an avisynth plugin but had so much problems with dependecies of the plugin, outdated dependencies x86 or x64, sytem dll's etc i nearly gave up...i tried QTGMC() because i was following a video on youtube about noise reduction... i would prefer using some program i could use like virtualdub or an NLE that could "survive the passing of time"... i was trying your suggestion and it displayed an error about "= must be a variable name"

script i used

DirectShowSource("dronesample.mp4")
QTGMC(preset="slow", InputType=1, EZDenoise=1.5, DenoiseMC=true). InputType=1

edit: spoted the error inputtype twice eheheh

will try your temporalldegrain sugestion.

Thank you once again

[ricardouk]

after a couple of test and scratching my head on how to setup temporaldegrain and its dependecies lol

10s sample

QTGMC(preset="slow", InputType=1, EZDenoise=1.5, DenoiseMC=true), nice grain/noise removal, 5min to process

TemporalDegrain(SAD1=400, SAD2=300, Sigma=16) - better results more "stable grain removal", 7 min to process

TemporalDegrain(SAD1=200, SAD2=150, Sigma=8) - grain is more visible worse than QTGMC, 6 min to process

whatever i choose i'll have to wait a long time, my video is 20m

any advice Jagabo?

Thanks

[johnmeyer]

The video you posted looks like it has already been processed. If so, it is impossible to provide any meaningful help. Mediainfo reports the encoding date as today (April 19), yet you say you took the video "at the end of the day."

So, is the file you uploaded directly from the drone, with absolutely no processing whatsoever applied to it?

[BÌG•bµdd]

Hi ricardouk i was playing around with a video you posted and i have done a test to reduce noise a little but not sure u will like it as i didn't used qtgmc(on my laptop qtgmc order is running very slow so i used mvdegrain3 with some other filters i can post a script later if needed) here is a encoded sample.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/hko88i

[ricardouk]

The video you posted looks like it has already been processed. If so, it is impossible to provide any meaningful help. Mediainfo reports the encoding date as today (April 19), yet you say you took the video "at the end of the day."

So, is the file you uploaded directly from the drone, with absolutely no processing whatsoever applied to it?

the video (45sec) consists of 3 15s segments, i used avidemux and "cut/delete/edit/keyframes" positions so that the final 45s wasnt encoded, so the video is untouched, no re-encoding. the mediainfo date is the muxing date (today), i choose 3 15sec segments so that a possible solution here could be tested with 3 diferent "environments" of the video.

avidemux . video stream copy

the drone is very stable and has a 13mpx cam thats why it might look "processed", its not a cheap 50$ drone.

[ricardouk]

Hi ricardouk i was playing around with a video you posted and i have done a test to reduce noise a little but not sure u will like it as i didn't used qtgmc(on my laptop qtgmc order is running very slow so i used mvdegrain3 with some other filters i can post a script later if needed) here is a encoded sample.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/hko88i

Hi Big Budd

Thanks for testing/helping out, the video looks as good as the temporaldegrain test i done, at the 30s mark the greenier trees on the left side dont have any "moving grain" on them, very good compared with my tests, can you share the script? Im on the night shift this week so any feedback can only be tested in 10 hours.

thanks everyone!

[themaster1]

it lacks definition somehow, trees look synthetic on the lower left side
try to sharpen a little (i wouldn't denoise):
LWLibavVideoSource("dronesample.mp4")
SetMTMode(3,4)
ConverttoRGB32(matrix="pc.709",interlaced=false)
LoadVirtualDubPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\VirtualDub\plugins\msu_sharpen.vdf", "MSUSmartSharpen", 1)
MSUSmartSharpen(0) # from 0 (small overall) to 5 (mad)
converttoyv12(matrix="pc.709",interlaced=false)

[BÌG•bµdd]

Hi ricardouk i was playing around with a video you posted and i have done a test to reduce noise a little but not sure u will like it as i didn't used qtgmc(on my laptop qtgmc order is running very slow so i used mvdegrain3 with some other filters i can post a script later if needed) here is a encoded sample.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/hko88i

Hi Big Budd

Thanks for testing/helping out, the video looks as good as the temporaldegrain test i done, at the 30s mark the greenier trees on the left side dont have any "moving grain" on them, very good compared with my tests, can you share the script? Im on the night shift this week so any feedback can only be tested in 10 hours.

thanks everyone!

Hello again ricardouk yea no problem mate here is script below ,i checked that part of clip maybe coz i used bit higher "thsad" value in mvdegarin try different value first or use some grain filter from avisynth's effects to keep some grain in video like eg:GrainFactory3, AddgrainC etc...

# Set DAR in encoder to 16 : 9. The following line is for automatic signalling
global MeGUI_darx = 16
global MeGUI_dary = 9

setmemorymax(1024)

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\MeGUI_2624_x86\tools\ffms\ffms2.dll")
FFVideoSource("C:\Users\Uzerer\Downloads\dronesample.mp4", fpsnum=30000, fpsden=1001, threads=1)
o=last

mb = o.Minblur(1)

mt = o.Mt_adddiff(Mt_makediff(mb,mb.Removegrain(4)))

h = Height ()
w = Width ()

super   = MSuper(mt, pel=2, sharp=1, rfilter=4)
bv3     = MAnalyse(super, isb = true, delta = 3, overlap=8, blksize=16)
bv2     = MAnalyse(super, isb = true, delta = 2, overlap=8, blksize=16)
bv1     = MAnalyse(super, isb = true, delta = 1, overlap=8, blksize=16)
fv1     = MAnalyse(super, isb = false, delta = 1, overlap=8, blksize=16)
fv2     = MAnalyse(super, isb = false, delta = 2, overlap=8, blksize=16)
fv3     = MAnalyse(super, isb = false, delta = 3, overlap=8, blksize=16)

MDegrain3(super, bv1, fv1, bv2, fv2, bv3, fv3, thSAD=400, lsb=true)# lower the " thSAD value" to 350 or 300 if thSAD=400 wiping out some detail's

msb = last.Crop (0, 0, w, h)
lsb = last.Crop (0, h, w, h)
DitherPost (msb, lsb)

BlindDeHalo3(rx=3.0, ry=3.0, strength=150, lodamp=25.0, hidamp=25.0, sharpness=100, interlaced=false)

FastLineDarkenMOD(strength=0, luma_cap=255, threshold=0, thinning=32)

FastLineDarkenMOD(strength=32, luma_cap=255, threshold=0, thinning=0).MergeChroma(last)

[johnmeyer]

Here is the result of a fairly straightforward application of MDegrain2:

Drone Video (denoised)

I haven't looked at the results of the other scripts, so I have no idea whether this result is better or worse. It if it is good enough to be of interest, let me know and I'll post the script.

[ricardouk]

it lacks definition somehow, trees look synthetic on the lower left side
try to sharpen a little (i wouldn't denoise)

Hi, thanks for your help/opinion, i think its a matter of personal taste, it brings up some detail but the overall "dancing grain" its a no go for me, the lack of definition, bluring at the edges/sides is a side effect of low light recording, under ideal lighting (from 10am to 5pm) its a lot better, i completely forgot this problem that day, thanks for your input on this.

[ricardouk]

Here is the result of a fairly straightforward application of MDegrain2:

Drone Video (denoised)

I haven't looked at the results of the other scripts, so I have no idea whether this result is better or worse. It if it is good enough to be of interest, let me know and I'll post the script.

Thanks again for your help, your video look s too "smoothish" but i would like to see your script, altough it didnt work as good as the others it might be helpfull in another situation.

Thanks

[ricardouk]

Hello again ricardouk yea no problem mate here is script below ,i checked that part of clip maybe coz i used bit higher "thsad" value in mvdegarin try different value first or use some grain filter from avisynth's effects to keep some grain in video like eg:GrainFactory3, AddgrainC etc...

 ...code removed for easier reading...

your video looks good but i cant figure out how to make it work, it doesnt seem like a normal avisynth script, it looks it was copied from megui, can you help?

[BÌG•bµdd]

Hello again ricardouk yea no problem mate here is script below ,i checked that part of clip maybe coz i used bit higher "thsad" value in mvdegarin try different value first or use some grain filter from avisynth's effects to keep some grain in video like eg:GrainFactory3, AddgrainC etc...

 ...code removed for easier reading...

your video looks good but i cant figure out how to make it work, it doesnt seem like a normal avisynth script, it looks it was copied from megui, can you help?

sorry man just being little busy today. yes ricardouk what's happening do u getting any error while using that script ?

[ricardouk]

no prob, im redoing all the tests, the error is:
Mdegrain3 does not have a named argument "lsb"

[BÌG•bµdd]

no prob, im redoing all the tests, the error is:
Mdegrain3 does not have a named argument "lsb"

i think you need MVTools2 http://ldesoras.free.fr/src/avs/mvtools-2.6.0.5.zip
and dither tool http://ldesoras.free.fr/src/avs/dither-1.27.2.zip

[ricardouk]

Hi everyone!

After some testing, this is what i done:

1- speed up the video to 90fps but processed as 30fps, my intention was to the speed up the video in the end since the drone is moving very slowly, i found that speeding it up before any grain/noise removal actually made the video less grainy.

2- Used Deshaker to remove some slight "shakiness" after speeding up the video.

3- Used "QTGMC(preset="slow", InputType=1, EZDenoise=1.5, DenoiseMC=true)" to remove grain

Big Budd i tried your way but there were several other errors with dependencies, thanks for your help/time.

Thanks everyone!

[ricardouk]

here's a sample of teh final result, i tried to add contrast brightness but altough it looked better it has some ugly side effects:

https://forum.videohelp.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=41334&stc=1&d=1492804981

[LMotlow]

i tried to add contrast brightness but altough it looked better it has some ugly side effects:

https://forum.videohelp.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=41334&stc=1&d=1492804981

Contrast maybe, brightness no. Black levels are wrong in the washed-out original. Mistake = trying to make subdued light look like bright direct sunshine, but it won't work here, not enough dynamic range with this lighting. Lower the black levels and add contrast. Throw away the sharpeners. I didn't denoise as heavily. HD originals shouldn't be that noisy to begin with.

drone_Levels.mp4 (~64MB): https://www.mediafire.com/?6aka3n9lzpxt2p7

I used this for levels correction (tweak at your pleasure):

ColorYUV(off_y=-32)
SmoothTweak(contrast=1.25)
SmoothLevels(16,0.90,255,16,240,chroma=200,tvrange=true,dither=100,protect=6)