Will a Full-TBC, get rid of random sparkles in VHS tapes?

[Wile_E]

Okay, so far I have been using a JVC-HRS9911U, and a Canopus ADVC-300 to capture. This has been working excellent, and the videos look great, except for random "sparkles" of noise in some of my older home video tapes. Some of my tapes are getting pretty old, 25+ years, so maybe it's the age, or from wear. I've read that these speckles may be caused from lack of magnetic particles on the tape, from wear. The "sparkles" look like very small horizontal white lines. Can a Full-TBC like the DataVideo TBC-1000, actually reconstruct the frames and fix these little sparkles?

Would a Full-TBC cause problems, since I already have a Line-based TBC in the JVC VCR, and in the Canopus? I suppose converting from analog to digital and back again, is not a good thing. The VCR already converts it to digital then it goes out analog to the Canopus. Then the Canopus converts it back to digital. Putting a TBC-1000 in there will make one more conversion.

[qlizard]

The analog to digital conversion is only happening one time here, when the signal enters your ADVC. A TBC does not convert to digital.
But to answer your question, in my experience full TBC does not do anything to help clear up these "sparkles".

[lordsmurf]

Nothing will fix this.

[mikel]

What about maybe something like this?

Dropout Compensator (DOC)

An electronic device in a VCR or VTR that detects the presence of a dropout and replace is with information from the preceding line, thereby covering up the dropout.

[FulciLives]

The DESPOT filter for AviSynth works freaking miracles!

You can get it here:

http://www.avisynth.org/warpenterprises/

Here is a common script I use:

LoadPlugin("Convolution3d.dll")
Loadplugin("avisynth_c.dll")
LoadCPlugin("despot.dll")
avisource("D:\capture.avi")
SeparateFields()
odd=SelectOdd.Convolution3D (0, 6, 10, 6, 8, 2.8, 0)
evn=SelectEven.Convolution3D (0, 6, 10, 6, 8, 2.8, 0)
Interleave(evn,odd)
Weave()
ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true)
despot(interlaced=true)
ConvertToYUY2(interlaced=true)

This is for a top-field YUY2 capture using CCE as encoder.

Despot works well for me when there are "flickering" spots or what you are calling random sparkles. I used it on a cable broadcast that had a lot of random sparkles and it worked like a charm!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[lordsmurf]

I'll test this when I get a chance.
For TMPGENC, I just need to change this:

ConvertToRGB(interlaced=true)

correct?

[FulciLives]

I'll test this when I get a chance.
For TMPGENC, I just need to change this:

ConvertToRGB(interlaced=true)

correct?

Yes that is correct.

If you are going to edit in VirtualDubMod so as to import your edits into the script put the TRIM command after line 4 (right after loading the source).

If you need to crop or addborders or resize etc. I would do that at the very end right before the last line.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
My guide to using VirtualDubMod for editing along with pointers on Convolution3D:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=225951

[BSR]

Depending on how bad the noise is, I've used the AVISYNTH filter undot() in the past and it worked great.
Also, it isn't a CPU intensive filter.

Not sure how it compares to despot.