How do I increase brightness/contrast on DVDR only have DVD to work with)

[sonicdeth]

Anyone know the easiest way to increase the brightness on a DVD? A DVDR is the only source that I have to work with for the video. It's a concert vid, but it's just extremely dark! If anyone knows the easiest way to go about this, I'm all ears. Thanks.

[manono]

Unless you're just adjusting the gamma, contrast, brightness, levels, etc. at playback time, this will involve demuxing the DVD video, filtering it the way you like and reencoding it before putting the pieces back together again. If you've had no experience (and judging by your 'easiest way' request you haven't), this might turn out to be a major undertaking.

Perhaps one way would be to use an all-in-one program such as DVD-Rebuilder for the job, but you'll have to read up on some of the available AviSynth filters that are available for use within DVD-Rebuilder. Reencoding DVDs isn't really for the inexperienced.

[fritzi93]

In DVDRebuilder:

Options -> AVS Options -> Advanced (Expert) Options -> Filter Editor
Enter the following line exactly:

Levels(0,1.3,255,0,255)
#Corrects gamma for display in a brighter environment. Second number from 1.0 to?

Save and exit. Re-encode the DVD with DVDRB.

The second line with the # is just a memo to remind one (me) what the script does. :P The # ensures it is not read. It's the second value in the script that counts. I'd say you could maybe push it up to even 1.4 or 1.5, but the picture will start to look washed out. Then you'd have to go to a different filter, such as "Tweak". "Levels" is an internal filter, if DVDRB is installed, you have it already.

Anyway, give it a go, see if that is good enough. Good luck.