Chroma Noise Reduction and temporal smoother filters in VirtualDub

[rgs_uk]

Does anyone have any good tips for using the Chroma Noise Reduction filter by Gilles Mouchard?

I have have used it quite a bit but find that there is always a trade off between it doing a great job of removing the colour (PAL UK VHS), but causing a slight 'echo' effect behind any movement.

Also, the internal temporal smoother seems pretty good to me. But are there others that are better?

Thanks.

[sanlyn]

My experience has been that Mouchard's chroma filter, and just about every other VDub chroma filter, just creates new problems. I've tried every one I could find, and several AviSynth versions as well.

VDub's temporal smoother seems OK for many projects. It depends on the extent and type of the noise. I find it doesn't work well on really grainy video sources, works only partially. For truly horrible, thick noise I first use NeatVideo (yep, it's slow as hell) and then finish off with some moderate temporal smoother. On really bad VHS sources, it's just not possible to get rid of all the noise.

[lordsmurf]

This is why I use hardware to remove chroma noise, either a JVC TBC or a LSI chipset DVD recorder.

[sanlyn]

This is why I use hardware to remove chroma noise, either a JVC TBC or a LSI chipset DVD recorder.

True, and I've had good results with the LSI dnr filter in Panasonic's ES20 recorder. But with the ES20 you're limited to XP and SP -- LP or longer is useless on the ES20.

Another pretty good noise reducer i've found is using my Toshiba RD-XS34 as a pass-thru filter and line TBC, from which I record into the ES20 or into my ATI capture card. The XS34 "playback" filters can be used as pass-thru devices. The Toshiba also has some "input" noise filters, but IMHO I see no evidence that the input filters can be used for pass-thru -- on pass-thru, you're limited to the output settings. That's just as well; too many filtering stages can give you strange-looking results.

One good VirtualDub filter I've found is FlaXen's "VHS" filter. It does a decent job of cleaning up a color's positional shift (i.e, bleeding and mild ghosting), though this kind of shift is often lessened with a line-level TBC or, almost as good, some of the high-end mid-1990's VCRs with highly stable transport mechanisms. My ancient Sony SLV-585HF plays some really old tapes with little of the dreaded color shift or ghosting, and I hear JVC's HR-S6800 (no TBC) can cure many chroma disorders. The FlaXen filter also has some chroma filters, but I find that its settings are no better than anyone else's.

[rgs_uk]

Thanks for the replies.