Remove Noise from VHS Videos

[abazabam]

Is there any filter or program that I could use to get the same results as http://www.compression.ru/video/tuner_tv_restore/index_en.html or http://www.compression.ru/video/super_resolution/super_resolution_en.html? Thanks

[guns1inger]

Plenty. Aside from the first link you posted, which is a virtualdub filter, there is also Neat Video, avirtualdub or Premiere filter (beware - one of the slowest filters I have seen <1 fps on a 3gHz P4HT), as well as many other temporal or spatial filters for virtualdub.

Then there is avisynth - peachsmoother, convolution3D, vague Denoiser and many more.

There is a great discussion on filtering VHS transfers here

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=309181

[abazabam]

Well, which one would you consider to work the best? The denoising filter didn't seem to help at all with the video I tested it on. Maybe I don't have the settings right.

[Z-C]

abazabam - The best you could do is test several filters on your own and check the results. In my own experience, the best combinations I could find are the following:

1. NeatVideo. Best results I've seen. However, it's indeed extremely slow. So slow it can drive you nuts.

2. Peachsmoother + VagueDenoiser - They only seem to give me satisfactory results when applied together. However, they do provide extremely good results and are pretty fast. Sometimes the results are really close to NeatVideo. They're a bit harder to use though, but not too hard(just read the docs once and your'e fine).

3. Convolution3d. Nice results, pretty fast. But in my opinion it causes more blurring than the others.

This is just my own experience with a lot of help from the other guys here in the forums.

Good luck!

[redwudz]

If you want more information on filtering, our Restoration Forum is probably the place to look. Moving you.

[CogoSWSDS]

I can vouch for peachsmoother+vague denoiser. These filters are very good at cleaning up noisy video.

CogoSWSDS

[guns1inger]

I would probably agree pretty much with Z-C, although slow hardly describes NeatVideo. On my 3gHz P4 I was getting 1 fps using just Neat, no other filters, and on moderate settings. And while it did well in most areas, it did kill small details that the other left.

In comparison, Peachsmoother wqas processing at 11 - 12 fps, as part of a longer chain of filters, and the results were, in this case, at least 95% as good as Neat's.

However none of them are perfect for every occasion, and the best method is to try them all, learn them all, and the use the one that best suits the video you are working on.

[lordsmurf]

What kind of noise? Chroma? Grain? other?

[ronnylov]

Look at this thread:
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=294129&highlight=

I have been using the avisynth filter FFT3D with the parameters in the thread above, FFT3DFilter (sigma=3, sharpen=0.3, interlaced=true), and I like the final results after encoding.

[sanlyn]

True, NeatVideo is slooow, but highly effective and highly tweakable. I find that the other denoisers mentioned above create too many new problems. As for speed: My old P4 2.2 GHz was getting about 0.7 to 1.5 frames per second with average NeatVideo processing, but I just got a $600 Gateway cheapo PC with an Athlon 3800+ dual-core cheapo chip -- it's running 1.8 to 3.2 frames per sec (that's about a 200%-plus increase) with the same filtering. I read where the dual-core Athlon 4200+ is even a bit faster with video. All the new Athlon dual-cores beat the pants off the same class Intels for video processing, and they beat the older Intel single-cores by a mile. Any way you look at it, a very thorough denoiser performs a LOT of work that takes LOTS of time, period.

[sphinx99]

NeatVideo is by a wide margin the best noise reduction filter I've used. It works the same wonders on video streams that NeatImage did for static images. It seems to remove noise while preserving detail to a degree that I haven't seen any other filters approach.

It's abysmally slow... I get around 3-5fps with a E6700 Core 2 PC and the current version, which is something I can live with. I used to get 1fps on my P4/2.8GHz with the initial release version. It's gotten better and the hardware is getting better, which makes it less painful. I don't use it as much as I should since it's the only piece of my encoding/decoding/processing chain that I actually trust.

[cerveaupro]

NeatVideo (50% luminance) coupled with vReveal 2 (mpg/divx output) is the best solution for my VHS. I am using the Panasonic AG-1980P VCR (found on eBay). I compared the VCR output with some newer VCRs on secondary layers in Premiere timeline and clarity is much better on the AG-1980P. Going directly with vReveal's noise artifacts cleaning leaves undesired noise, but processing with NeatVideo before makes it look best. Also you can fix shaky cam and enhance many other things with vReveal.

[sanlyn]

There's a learning curve to NeatVideo. Their default settings are seldom (i.e, never) suitable -- too slow, and too drastic. Look at their user manual and learn to play with the advanced settings. Their filters are extremely versatile with many possible settings. Also, don't expect an entire tape to look good with a single setting: tape noise varies, sometimes scene by scene, so some segments of your video will require different settings.