DV AVISynth filters

[budgie63]

Hi all. Been lurking here for a few weeks now and have learnt a lot. Primarily I'm importing DV thru firewire and converting to DVD thru a standalone software encoder (TMPGEnc, CCE, Mainconcept etc). I've been experimenting with different AVISynth filters, specifically noise removal and sharpening filters but am yet to find filters I'm really happy with, particularly with sharpening. Just wondering what filters others are using for this and at what settings?

I'm trying to use CCE Basic because of it's speed and output quality, but like many others I also think that CCE tends to produce a "smooth" output. I'd just like to apply a little sharpening to it without getting a "shimmer" effect.

For TMPGEnc users, what noise removal filter(s) do you find work best? The inbuilt ones are just too slow for my liking.

[pijetro]

Please, can someone explain to me what kind of noise is going on with some of these DV tapings??
I have yet to see noisy DV footage(exept for really dark scenes)..Try a few lousy TV or VHS captures for a while, and you'll see that DV is like gold....

Sorry, I'm not ribbing you, honestly. I found personally that subtle noise is best cleaned up by _2dcleanyuy2.

AVISource("F:\capture.avi")
separatefields()
_2dcleanyuy2(0,3,1,2)
weave()

As far as encodes for TV output, I've personally found that noise is best left only for subtle removal. I've tried chasing miracles, but in the end found that since the TV does an even>odd scan, the quality isn't as finicky as it is on the computer monitor...

Just my 2 cents.
Good luck!!!!!!!!

[budgie63]

First of all, thanks pijetro for posting your filter settings.

To answer your question, I would have asked exactly the same question myself a month ago. I have a Sony TRV18 (single CCD DV camera) and thought the quality was the ducks guts when I bought it early this year. However, after repeated tests with various encoders versus the original footage, it became evident that in lower light situations (eg indoors, during the day but not brightly lit) there was a heap of noise in the output as the CCD gain tried to compensate for the lower light. Interestingly I couyld nolt see this noise on the PC monitor. Shoot outdoors and the noise is very difficult to see. I have also read here people stating that DV is a noisy format and I found it hard to believe until it was staring me in the face. Yep, they are right.

IMO CCE does a great job of reducing this noise using 2pass encoding without ANY filters applied. I'd just like to sharpen the end result and I'd be happy. I also found using a noise reduction filter frameserved to TMPGEnc produced a result with much less noise than the source.

Agree on the comparison with VHS. I'm also curious as to what filters people are using to encode this as I'm finding the noise reduction and sharpening challenge a worthy opponent!

[pijetro]

What kind of bitrates are you allocating to your footage.

I would try to find out what noise cleaning solutions work for you the best first of all, and then worry about sharpening later. I find that sharpening has to bee looked at with a magnifying glass personally.

It seems that the extra bitrates that don't go to the noise will instead go to the edges of you subjects, and that will solve most of your problems. I've done sharpening comparisons myself, and it would seem that people who get the advantage the most, are Anime folks, or perhaps people who are dealing with progressive footage, and not us interlaced source folks....

BTW, CCE doesn't reduce the noise unless you specify in the Advanced settings. What you're probably seeing is that there's plenty of bitrate to go around, so noise isn't an issue. If you're dealing with lower bitrates, then even the smallest of noise removals, even with SpatialSoften can work miracles, thus allocating bitrates elsewhere in the frame.....

Whatever you do though, always separatefields(), add your noise remover, and weave()..

Good luck!!!!!

[budgie63]

Bitate: I'm using 2pass averaged @ 8000. so bitrate isn't an issue. No, the softer image I get from CCE isn't related to lack of bits, I believe it's just what you get from CCE compared to some of the other encoders.

I'm using CCE Basic so there is no Advanced tab to select noise removal (BTW, how many here actually fork out the $ for CCE SP?). I just consider an inherent quality of CCE is that of removing the noise I've seen in low light DV footage (which is one of the reasons I like it). It seems able to produce similar results that I get when using AVISynth scripts fed into TMPGenc, but way faster.

[pijetro]

Perhaps at this point, the best one can do is spatial soften some of the noise out, before being fed into CCE, but I don't think there's any miracles here.
What i've done in the past is using a tweak command for dark scenes only, some spatial softening, and live with whatever CCE gives me.

AviSource("D:\blahblah.avi")
clip1=trim(0,12123)
clip2=trim(12124,15123).tweak(bright=40,sat=1.2)\
.separatefields().spatialsoften(2,4,8).weave()
unalignedsplice(clip1,clip2)
letterbox(8,8)

You can add variables to make this more legible, but this kind of idea works for me.

Good luck!!!!!!