CCE - Uses softening/diffusion filter on neighboring pixels?

[Wile_E]

I am converting captured VHS->DV->DVD. (Digital R3 off on my VCR) CCE seems to use some kind of softening filter. I've noticed it happens when you set the "Quality Setting" to Complex. Random "pixel noise" in captured video seems to be smoothed out. I've noticed that it takes adjacent pixels and makes their color smoother. This eliminates the noise in my VHS captures.

I'd like to know what CCE is actually doing to the video? Does CCE internally run a low-pass smoothing filter on all video? Detail seems to remain very well. All that is lost is that nasty random pixel noise. Makes VHS captures look good. Sort of reminds me of graphics dithering or diffusion. btw...Canopus Procoder seems to do the same. But it still is not as diffused as CCE's output.

[Wile_E]

After some experimentation and reading the manual with CCE Basic, I figured it out. According to the manual, when you check "Quality Setting" box, the encoder turns on a filter to smooth out the video. You then can adjust the amount of smoothness, by using the simple/complex slider.

Complex= max smoothness/less detail
Simple= less smoothness/more detail

If you uncheck the "Quality Setting" box, the filter is turned off. Moving the slider to far right, creates a soft image, but gets rid of all the noise in VHS tapes. Moving it one tick left, gives image quality comparable to Canopus Procoder Express output. Moving it further left, makes it comparable to Tmpgenc output(more detail/noise).

I find this filter very fast and useful for noisy captures. Much faster than using AviSynth. Canopus Procoder Express has no filter adjustment for quality.

[vhelp]

@ Wile_E

I thought you had the ADVC-300 box.

And, doesn't it have the advanced hardware filters for it ??

And, ain't one of them 2D or 3D comb noise removal ??

I'm curious as to why you aren't using the noise filter of
this device.

When it comes to commercial movies on VHS tape, the advc-100 is
not the best device to use. I was assuming that the advc-300
was to be the choice for this, w/ its built-in hardware filters.

This my theory..

The reason why I don't like using the advc-100 on commercial movie
tapes is on account of the unit not filtering the source. It does
not taint the video source.., which is a good thing, but not so
good for MPEG.

So, I alternative to my ADS DVD Xpress box, because it features
a hardware filter during the capturing stage. It even has some
adjustable hardware filter user-params for MPEG during the capturing,
and the sharpening filter comes in great with these types of VHS.

You can use this pic below, as a gauge, with your capture device,
if you have the movie "The Fifth Element" on VHS tape.. and run it
up against each other for comparison. PIC was taken from the link
below:

--> ADS DVD Xpress - My experience so far.



-vhelp 3506