Is this normal blurring - samples included.

[jlietz]

I'm converting old vhs-c tapes to dvd. I'm using VirtualDub to capture and TMPEGEnc 2.5 to convert. I'm not sure that I'm satisfied with the converted mpg's though. There seems to be more blurring and less detail than I would like to see. Check out the older man's striped collar on the left to see what I mean or the toddler's face directly in the center across the aisle.
Click here to see the original avi.
This is the same clip converted to mpeg-2 using LordSmurf's guide without noise reduction.
This is the same clip using LordSmurf's guide but with noise reduction set at 20-1-20.
This is the same clip using 2-pass VBR with an average bit rate of 7000, again with noise reduction.

My question is this: Does this level of blurring seem normal to you? If not what can I do to remedy this (filters, different encoder, etc...)?

Thanks.

[petar]

As far as my eyes can tell, you have the same blurring in the original AVI file. I don't use MJPEG for capturing so I don't know if this is normal or not.

The noise reduction filters soften the picture, so if that's what you mean by "less detail", it's normal. You can apply some sharpening if it bothers you but you won't notice it on a normal TV set.

You do seem to be loosing some contrast in the conversion though so you can try playing with the "basic color correction" filter in TMPGEnc.

[State Of Mind]

Interlaced video will often give viewers that "sharpened edge" look, as opposed to deinterlaced video where it blends the fields together and again noise reduction results in a bit of smooth. However, from seeing your sample videos, your video looks to be excellent quality. Once you put this to DVD and watch it on your TV, you won't let it bother you so much. Video looks better on a TV than it does on a PC screen.
You can use VirtualDub's sharpening filter but I don't recommend it as putting it up really high tends to make the video look "scratchy"...if you can visualize that. Too high and you get speckles in the video. Don't worry about that tad bit of detail loss, you're fine.