When do I use filter?

[weshuang]

I just made a DVD from an AVI captured from my camcorder, which is a MiniDV. The AVI looks fine, from what I can tell, but the quality of the low-light portions of the video look awful on the TV. There is a great deal of white snow in the darker scenes. Interestingly, it doesn't look as bad when i play the .iso file on my PC.

I used Ulead VideoStudio 6 to capture to avi. I used TMPGenc to do the encoding, and used TMPG author to author and burn. When I encoded, I used a 6000 bitrate on VBR, and used the High Motion Search setting. I am going to try using a higher bitrate, and using the Very High setting to see if that improves things.

My question is, I've read that using filters can improve the quality of the endproduct. However, I can't seem to figure out where to use filters with TMPGenc. Do you only use filters at the capture stage? If so, does the fact that the avi looks better than the dvd on my TV suggest that a filter will do me no good?

[twodogs]

TMPGEnc Filters are under Settings, Advanced.
Simple Color Correction (tick and then double click) lets you adjust brightness, etc.

You will find more and arguably better filters in VirtualDub.
You can load your AVI into VirtualDub, apply filters, then frameserve to TMPGEnc.

[theDruid]

You may also want to try using a Noise Filter - which TMPGEnc and VirtualDub both have, if you're describing 'snow' in the picture.

It will make encoding take quite a lot longer, but it may help improve the quality of the final product.

Try encoding a sample first (and burning to a RW disc if you can), to find what combination of filters/settings works best.

cheers,
mcdruid.

[weshuang]

TMPGEnc Filters are under Settings, Advanced.
Simple Color Correction (tick and then double click) lets you adjust brightness, etc.

You will find more and arguably better filters in VirtualDub.
You can load your AVI into VirtualDub, apply filters, then frameserve to TMPGEnc.

Newbie question, but what's frameserve? Is that some sort of streaming input into TMPG?

[weshuang]

You may also want to try using a Noise Filter - which TMPGEnc and VirtualDub both have, if you're describing 'snow' in the picture.

It will make encoding take quite a lot longer, but it may help improve the quality of the final product.

Try encoding a sample first (and burning to a RW disc if you can), to find what combination of filters/settings works best.

cheers,
mcdruid.

I take it from things I've read that VDub has better filters and is probably a better capturing program than Ulead VS anyway. Guess I'll try to figure out how to use it as well (the neverending project, my wife has come to call it).

Should I assume that it's better, in terms of either time or quality, to do the noise filtering in Vdub while it's still an avi rather than as parting of the encoding process in TMPG?

Also, can I load other filters into TMPG in the same manner that seems to be possible with VDub? If so, what's the best noise filter out there?

[theDruid]

For frameserving, look at this guide.

In terms of capturing, VirtualDub may well be better than Ulead - I have no idea. I would say it's worth finding out how to use it, but it's not always compatible with all capture cards - particularly when it comes to being able to capture at different resolutions.

The Noise Filter in TMPGEnc is thought of very highly, and I'm pretty sure it will filter the source before encoding.

There are other filters available in TMPGEnc - although not via the Wizard. However, I don't think you can plug in external filters; which is one of the best features of VirtualDub.

I would try some small samples filtering your avi in VirtualDub, then frameserving into TMPGEnc - and then try just using the filter in TMPGEnc.

cheers,
mcdruid.

[weshuang]

For frameserving, look at this guide.

In terms of capturing, VirtualDub may well be better than Ulead - I have no idea. I would say it's worth finding out how to use it, but it's not always compatible with all capture cards - particularly when it comes to being able to capture at different resolutions.

The Noise Filter in TMPGEnc is thought of very highly, and I'm pretty sure it will filter the source before encoding.

There are other filters available in TMPGEnc - although not via the Wizard. However, I don't think you can plug in external filters; which is one of the best features of VirtualDub.

I would try some small samples filtering your avi in VirtualDub, then frameserving into TMPGEnc - and then try just using the filter in TMPGEnc.

cheers,
mcdruid.

Thanks for your help, mcdruid!

[Gazorgan]

VDUB has that nice ability to show you the affects of your filtering in realtime. You set a filter and parametrs, then view the output. It's almost mandatory in captures. Too much temporal filtering and it looks animated, too little and what's the point. Same for Noise. Once you get the filters set, then the MPEG2 encoding is cake!!!!! You can do it in AVISynth, but there are a lot of extra steps to preview your work.

[weshuang]

VDUB has that nice ability to show you the affects of your filtering in realtime. You set a filter and parametrs, then view the output. It's almost mandatory in captures. Too much temporal filtering and it looks animated, too little and what's the point. Same for Noise. Once you get the filters set, then the MPEG2 encoding is cake!!!!! You can do it in AVISynth, but there are a lot of extra steps to preview your work.

That is a nice feature. However, for some reason, when I play the .iso file on my PC, it doesn't look nearly as bad as the DVD looks on my TV. And the .avi file, when I play it in Windows Media Player, also doesn't show the snow that shows up so badly on my TV. So I'm assuming that things just look different on a PC monitor than they do on a TV, and that viewing the filtered material on my PC doesn't help. I'm resigned to burning multiple versions (too bad my DVD player can't read -rw!)