Need advices to improve this video

[Hunk91]

Hi everybody,

Nearly 2 years ago, I recorded a diving training session with a cheap action camera : 720P-30 fps (There are a lot of duplicated frames so the real frame rate is around 20 fps).

I decided to improve the quality of the video.

MOVI0026-short.avi : is a sample, directly stream copied from the original video
MOVI0026-short-rife.mp4 : is the improved sample with the folowing avisynth script used to improve.

FFMpegSource2("MOVI0026-short.avi")

Spline36Resize(640,360)

ConvertToYV12()

QTGMC(Preset="Slow", InputType=2, ProgSADMask=12.0, Sharpness=0.2)

SMDegrain(tr=2, thSAD=300)

Tweak(sat=1.15, cont=1.05, bright=0, coring=false)

LSFmod(strength=75)

Spline36Resize(1280,720)

Limiter()

Z_ConvertFormat(pixel_type="RGBPS", colorspace_op="709:709:709:limited=>rgb:709:709:full")

RIFE(model=11, fps_num=60, fps_den=1)

z_ConvertFormat(pixel_type="YUV420P10")

What would you recommend to do, in order to improve it ?

Best regards

[abolibibelot]

Hopefully someone experienced in restoration will chime in, but why did you resize to 360p then back to 720p? That alone results in a significant loss of detail and sharpness. Or perhaps it's intentional, to smooth out the blockiness?
The outcome is definitely smoother but darker and blurrier.

[Attachment 91869 - Click to enlarge]

[Attachment 91870 - Click to enlarge]

Somewhat decent regards (that's all I have left – was expecting a shipment of premium fair trade organic best regards earlier this month but it got stalled because of the Strait of Hormuz crisis ).

[Selur]

I don't get duplicate frames in MOVI0026-short.avi,...
Maybe:

SmoothLevels(input_low=16, input_high=128, output_low=16, output_high=23)

+ GrayWorld for the coloring
and
MCTemporalDenoise (+ preset depending on your liking) for denoising.

[Alwyn]

I don't get duplicate frames in MOVI0026-short.avi,...

Yes, something fishy going on there, pardon the pun).

Opening it in VDub2 shows every third frame is duplicated.

Opening it in VLC Player shows no duplicates.

Opening it with LWLibavVideoSource and FFMpegSource2 in AVISynth shows no duplicates.

Opening it with AVISource in AVISynth shows the duplicates.

[Selur]

The avi-Container reports 274 frames, but when opening it with anything that is libav based (BestSource, LWLibavSource, FFMS2) I see 183 frames.
Remuxing with mkvtoolnix produces a file with 183 frames, but vfr (... just, evil ...).
Seems like the source is a vfr avi file with 183 frames.
Using:

clip = core.lsmas.LWLibavSource(source="C:/Users/Selur/Desktop/MOVI0026-short.avi", format="YUV422P8", stream_index=0, cache=0, fpsnum=30, prefer_hw=0)

I get 274 frames.

[Sharc]

I think there are 183 unique VFR frames in the stream, but every other frame with double duration. Depending on the source filter the double duration frames are played back as 2 individual frames (Vdub, or forced CFR playback) giving total 274 frames, or as 1 frame (LWLibav ...) giving 183 unique frames.

Added: .... Selur beat me

P.S. I might be wrong, but it looks to me like every 2nd frame has some more motion blur, indicating a longer exposure time .....
Not sure how the 183 unique frames should be played back. 20fps (CFR) looks natural to me. Converting to a standard framerate like 24fps or 30fps - if desired - by motion interpolation.