What tools to use??

[MadMax_911]

I need some help on freeware tools tu use for video editing...
I's for a school project and my budget is 0$ I also have to be able to show them that the software/hardware I use are free, exept a dv cam and a firewire card.

First problem:
I need a basic Cut/join/insert/remove tool for dv video, a video editor capable of handling filters(internal or free), It should be able to do some basic transitions(like old star wars is acceptable) and it should all be free.
For this i know i can use just some basic cut tool, edit the pieces with VirtualDub and join again, but as far as i know i can't use transitions in vd. I also might require to use a blue/greenscreen for one shot.

Second problem:
Not a problem really but I would like to know some experience on video restoration done in VirtualDub. I have some footage taken in 1989-1994 mostly from Video8 (not Hi8) some I have original tapes and some transfered to VHS 1989-1994 so this is BAD quality. does anyone have experience in getting this old recordings to get alot closer to DV and what filters/settings did you use??

I know it is not possible to get the quality to match the newer footage but I need to get it alot closer. I may need to downgrade the DV footage a little to look like a VHS recording. Can it be done using filter cause I have limited time on the capture computer.

The completed movie shall then be encoded by TMPG/CCE to DVD-format and burned. So quality is important.

Please if you have experience with this please help me...

[housepig]

freeware video editing tools :

MovieXone - non-linear editor with transitions and some effects (there are several versions, there is a free one but it will take some digging to find it, they don't make it easy to get anymore - it took me about 8 pages of digging through a Google search to dig up the free version)

Zwei-Stein - www.thugsatbay.com

ABC Video Roll - like MovieXone, it took a while to find on Google, but it's out there.

also, if you can stretch your budget to $10 or so, Magix had a product called Audio Visual Office that was discontinued - it was aimed at doing presentations for business, but had various effects and transitions, and I found the Deluxe version at Office Depot for $10 brand new in the box. You might be able to find it online from a software reseller.

And I think that Half Price Books (www.halfpricebooks.com) sells one of the commercial versions of MovieXone, and last I checked it was getting down to the $10-15 range.

good luck.

[The village idiot]

Not that I really advocate Avid but, you could send them an email describing your project needs. They might hook you up with a beta copy of their so far un-released Avid XpressDV free version.

[MadMax_911]

Thanks for your help on software. I'll be digging up those software versions Housepig, and I'll try your idea Village Idiot. At the moment I'm at work and I don't need(and can't test them) them for another 3 weeks but I'm beginning to have a software/filter stack here now so I'll have alot of testing to do when I get home (in 3-4 weeks)...

Anyone with a filter/setting combination that can turn 10+ years old VHS qualiity footage close to DV or filter/settings that can turn DV into same quality as the "fixed" VHS footage.

As I'm not in a hurry take your time and return ansvers thought trough...

/Max

[MadMax_911]

if anyone have "fixed" their old VHS to resonable quality please include Before and after pictures if you have so I might know what to expect when fixing my own footage.
/Max

[MadMax_911]

Come on, Please...
Someone must have done really bad VHS to DVD...
All I need is to know what filters you used and if you know what settings you used...
I have tried some VD filters and I can get about the same result with very different settings and filter combinations. I have seen VHs footage repaired to alot better than what I managed to do to mine.

If you have managed to get reasonable quality from crappy old VHS then tell me how you did it...

I know there is no filter/setting/filter combination that can work miracles and transform blurry, grainy VHS to sharp DVD quality and restore picture information that was not there in the first place, but I know it can get alot better (atleast look like its better)...

Also is there any way to reduce VHS "color bleeding" I have a yellow flower on a grey & green background and about as much yellow outside the flower as on it. especially yellow "bleeds out" over other colors... Any help would be nice...

[SatStorm]

Some filters to try all together:

rm PAL (correct lines luminance/hue differences)
video de-noise (tape colour de-noise)
dynamic Noise reduction (MMX) (Stablise the picture)
Unsharp mask (sharps the picture)
static noice reduction (corrects the picture after sharping and also great de-noiser)

Also, search for 2D Cleaner

[MadMax_911]

Thanks SatStorm...
I've already tried most of theese filters at home (can't test them until I'm home again in 2,5 weeks) with various results. Did you mean that they should all be used at the same time? I know I can get similiar results with atleast 2 very different settings in video de-noise if I remember correctly. And rm PAL I did not get as good results as with video de-noise.

*rm PAL (correct lines luminance/hue differences)
Have I tried and did not get especially good results.
*video de-noise (tape colour de-noise)
I have found 2 setting combination that give half decent result but I will need to get it better than that...
*dynamic Noise reduction (MMX) (Stablise the picture)
I have tried many filters but I do not remember ever tried this one... I'll give it a try when I'm home.
*Unsharp mask (sharps the picture)
This is a filter I'm quite familiar with but as it is right now I loose to many fine details if i use de-noise filters heavy enough to be able to sharpen as much as I want without sharpening noise. To get rid of noise without loosing too much detail I can only set this very weak.
*static noice reduction (corrects the picture after sharping and also great de-noiser)
I don't remember my results with this filter but I think I didn't like some of it's "worsening" effects.
*2D Cleaner
A classic. but unfortunatly looses too much detail if noise is to be removed.

I'll try combining all these filters and see what can be done.
Thanks alot SatStorm... Have you tried theese on some very bad VHS?? If that is the case what settings did you use? I only need some guidelines on someone elses work so I know where to start...[/list]

[SatStorm]

First of all, filters ain't only for what we can see, but for things the encoders can see and we don't!

rm Pal and Video De-noise for example, visually don't help a thing. But when you encode any analogue capture to mpeg, they manage to filter areas and issues in the picture, pretty well unoticed from the human eye. Use them and the bitrate per frame goes where it's needed!

Using Dynamic Noise Reduction MMX at a value of 12 (default), Unsharp mask (3-16-1) and Static Noise Reduction (6, default) helps a lot -FAST-. An alternative could be Temporal Smoother (full value) and Unsharp mask (3-16-1). But that is slow

2D cleaner is a classic and basicly blures a lot the picture. I suggest it only for very poor VHS or Cartoons.


And yes, you have to use them at the same time and in a specific order!

Try this order and those filters together:
rm pal - dynamic noise reduction - unsharp mask - static noise reduction - video de-noise.
It cleans well the source.

Also, try this: Temporal Smoother - Unsharp mask (the same time). Sometimes this has better resutls.

Finally, there are even better filters out there (3d colvution) but the set up of them is pretty scary!

Yes, I succeed cleaning really bad VHS tapes and encode them to xCVD. What I succeed was to make them look like the original VHS in low bitrates (3000kb/s average for 352 X 576). No blocks, good smooth picture. Like the way I see the tape on a good VCR with TBC.
You can't enchance the source unfortunatelly for real. You can make it somehow sharper or you can remove some analogue noise, but that is not enchancement....

[MadMax_911]

OK...
I think I have enough to start my tests on what to do. It's nearly 2 weeks until I can try. I only have 3 5minutes long samples from the tapes (I only managed to get 30 min on the capture computer before I went away)...

Now my next problem is... What filters can be used to downgrade the quality to somewhat match my VHS?? I know that some filters can create opposite effects on high settings when used on good footage.. Anyone who tried this or seen this effect or just somehow know a filter/filters that may create some VHS artefacts??
I don't have the time to record it to an old tape and capture it. I'm limited to total 1 hour on capture pc. And the 30 min I have left is goint to be 5 captures from rewinded tapes total of 26 min.

And I don't care too much on how good the encoder will be able to align bits in my footage cause It'll be a DVD with constant bitrate set to about 9Mbit/s or it will be variable bitrate with the average set to 8 or 9.

[MadMax_911]

Finally I'm home... I'll be starting some cleaning tests some time this week. I've got some other problems I need to take care of first.
But I feel a little confused, are there nobody who had played around with filters and accidently got it to look like an old VHS recording??
Anyway hanks alot everybody that tried to help me. I'll keep you posted (hopefully) within a week on my progress and what I managed to do with my crappy recording.

[MadMax_911]

I've been doing some tests on cleaning/restoring/enhancing my footage. and my results varies alot. on my 5 min clip I have 3 different types of scenes indoor, outside in broad daylight & outside in evening/cloudy and I can NOT use the same settings for these. I't seems that my camcorder/tape made very different types of noise in different light setups. So I think I will cut the video up in almost every scene and filter out what I can.
And by the way rmPAL does visible changes to video It removes red/green/blue lines that can appear on a capture.

I'll post my final results here when I have captured and fixed all my footage. I also found a reel of old super 8mm footage that I would like to have in this film. I'll maybe post all my tips after spending hours with vd and antinoise filters and somebody might find uses for them.

I'll keep you posted. I'll get the rest of my tapes in earliest 5 weeks. Couldn't get an earlier time for capture.

[SatStorm]

Try this for a start:

rmPAL
Temporal Smoother (set it to 5)
Dynamic Noise reduction (original) (set it to 8 )

This cleans any VHS with the less possible detail loss. Beyond this, you gonna loose something...