How to: install MCTemporalDenoise

[quandore]

Hi guys, i'm having such a hard time trying to make this filter work for me. I heard a lot of good about this tool for avisynth and i wanted to give it a try with a very noisy Bluray source.
What i did is: create a new folder, i named it like "filter packages" and i put in it all the stuff i need for this denoiser (dll's and avs/avsi's required in the readme file). Problem is, whenever i try to load the avsi file by just typing "MCTemporalDenoise()" in the script field of MEGui, i get an error message "This DirectShow source cannot be opened etc". If i change the extension from avsi to avs and try to import it manually i get an error saying it was expected to be an a "," or "(" somewhere here and there.
As you noticed, i am an absolute beginner with avisynth scripts. I managed to make "TempGaussMC" work yesterday and i was so proud that think i got a big head.

It is clear to me that avisynth is one of the greatest tool (and free) we could ever imagine, but unfortunately is extremely poorly explained therefore its use results a bit frustrating for beginners. I've done many researches trying to get a hand on how to install specific filters and stuff but no luck so far.

Can anyone please explain me how to install MCTemporalDenoise ?

[manono]

A Blu-Ray source and using MCTemporalDenoise? Do you have a couple of weeks to do the encode?

Post the entire script and the exact error message, including the line referenced. Do you have all the required filters to make it work:

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/MCTemporalDenoise

[quandore]

yeah it's a bluray source, 25GB, i wanted to make an AVCHD (DVD5), 3.5GB or so (not including audio). Do u think it would take too long using that filter? If so please tell me then i won't even bother trying. I don't even have a Quad or sth, i have a centrino duo 2.56GHz...

error message:

"The file DirectShow source "C:\***", audio=false, fps=23.976, convertfps=true") cannot be opened.
Please make sure it's a valid avisynth script and that avisynth is properly installed. Then it says (in Italian) "eccezione lanciata da un componente esterno", which can be translated as "exception caused by an external component" well... something like that.

This only happens when i try to load a video file with the AVS script creator tool from MEGui. I put in the avisynth plugin folder all the ddl's and the avs/avsi specified in the page you posted above, but i have to be honest, i have no idea of what i done. i downloaded that stuff from different websites making sure that i was downloading the right version for each plugin/filter, then i arbitrarily put everything into the plugin directory (well, just the dll's and the avs/avsi files).

i actually created a folder and called it "MCTemporalDenoise", put all the stuff in there. that way i can keep my avisynth plugin directory clean and mess it up only when needed.
the attached file is the folder i was talking about and is supposed to include everything i need, but i don't feel too optmimistic about that.

thanks for your help.

[poisondeathray]

yes it will take a long time , but it will depend on the settings you use for mctd and encoding settings

if you have very noisy source, then you have to use higher settings for mctd = takes forever

since you are setting a bitrate (file size) , it would be better to encode to a lossless intermediate first (so you only apply the slow filters once instead of twice on each of 2 passes)

to get started, just make a simple 1 line script and see if that works (change filename and path to match), then start adding your filters later one by one. Post the error messages if any .

DirectShowSource("video.m2ts")

Do you have haali media splitter, ffdshow installed ?

Another thing: I wouldn't use DirectShowSource() for temporal filters like MCTD , because it isn't frame accurate and you can lose your position as it seeks fwd/bwd frames - this can cause blended frames and strange artifacts. I would re-rip your blu-ray using anydvd into a mkv container (eg use makemkv or eac3to etc...) , then use ffms2
http://code.google.com/p/ffmpegsource/

FFVideoSource("video.mkv")

[quandore]

i got both a good and a bad news.

the good one is, it was my mistake (of course) i messed up with the text of the filter: when i copied it somehow some "####" in the first line were missing and therefore the file was corrupted.
now it's working, and from the preview it looks AMAZING. even on a "medium" setting the video looks sooo much sharper and clearer, again, amazing tool.
now the bad news: i tried to encode in a loseless format (by "loseless" I'm assuming you mean a crf = 1 ???), anyway, my average speed is 1.2 FPS
its gonna take 2 days just for the filtering hehe

any hint?

edited: by the way i used the AVCHD preset in MEGui, fast mode

PS
Do we have some "must-have" presets around on the net?

[poisondeathray]

by lossless I meant huffyuv or ut video codec. You could use x264, but it's slower --crf 0 (not 1) . UT would be the fastest (encode and decode)

I still wouldn't use directshowsource - you don't want to encode it for a few days or a week, later to find out there are errors... This happens often with temporal filtering and directshowsource()

Another option would be to use dss2() , you take avss.dll from the haali media splitter package and put in avisynth\plugins directory. It will be frame accurate if video is in a container

e.g.

DSS2("video.m2ts")

[quandore]

Alright.
I demuxed the *.m2ts and remuxed it with mkvtoolnix. Now i have a 25GB *.mkv file with audio and subs. I also installed the HuffYuv codecs successfully.
So good so far.
Now... I've spent about 2 hours trying to figure out how to convert your proficient outputs into useful inputs but i miserably failed. Problem is, I've spent half an hour to even understand what you say.

My noobness is perhaps inconvenient and (likely) unpleasing, but it's half past one here in Italy and i'm still struggling, yet, not surrending to my sad fate.

What I'd really like to understand is: how the heck do I encode a file with avisynth? Believe me, it's not that I am a lazy dumb and don't want to search for info myself, i did i swear. My researches are quite... inefficient.
I mean, i construct my *.avs, something like

FFVideoSource("video.mkv")
MCTemporalDenoise(settings="medium")

then? what else? what other software do I need (considering I already have all sort of codecs), and how should I proceed?
I can play that avs file with wmp, I am really proud of that, but still I have no idea how can I encode a file with huffyuv because i don't know what software would make the trick (if any).

[poisondeathray]

you can use vdub

load that script into vdub, video=fast recompress, video=>compression (select huffyuv), file=>save as avi

make sure you have lots of HDD space

when it's done, then your new script for megui will be AVISource("huffyuv.avi") (or whatever you named the export from vdub)

I would probably resize your video to 1280x720 . You probably won't get very good quality at 1920x1080 squeezing onto a DVD5 bitrate, unless the movie is very short like <1 hr . Besides, most hollywood blu-rays actually don't have that much detail (they are lowpassed)

[quandore]

Yes, i tried yesterday with vdub but somehow it wouldn't import my avs file by drugging and dropping; now i just open the avs with vdub and it works! (???). anyway, i did as you said (i'm using vdubmod though, hope is the same thing). Unfortunately i haven't got any significant benefit in compression speed. In fact, I'd say x264 is even faster with the UltraFast setting on (0.7 FPS vs 1.2). This is aggravating...

Seems like i need to buy a new PC, possibly a desktop one, or we still have hope?

PS
yeah i always resize to 720p, and I totally agree with you... Hollywood blurays are sometimes very bad!! The one i'm talking about is Robin Hood (the bundle with the DC version and Gladiator too), and I was so disappointed with the video quality, so much noise!! and that's why i wanted to make a rip, with the right filtering i'm pretty sure i can get better results than the source itself.

[manono]

You aren't confusing film grain with noise, are you? The reviews say the video quality, while not reference-grade, is pretty good. A couple mention aliasing in a few scenes (specifically mentioning the chain mail armor), but that's not noise either.

[quandore]

whatever you wanna call it, it just don't look good. gladiator looks actually better. either way, with this filter i get much better video quality in the preview, and i trust my eyes more than any review
but i AM probably confusing the two things, i looked into wikipedia and i should say that the weird artifacts i'm noticing is definitely video "grain"
do we have less-cpu-consuming filters just for the grain?

[manono]

Well, the better spatial-temporal filters are slow but do a better job of limiting the artifacts (often blends or double images during movement and an unequal removal of the grain which can be quite noticeable and annoying), so a good job takes time. But AviSynth has a ton of similar filters:

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/External_filters#Spatio-Temporal_Denoisers

[quandore]

Thanks for the link, i'll have a look.

Just for the recordo i want to show you what i'm talking about:

snapshot of the source



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

snapshot of the filtered video (MCTemporalDenoise, setting: high)



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

you can see the difference and i resized it 1280x720, otherwise is even more visible.

[poisondeathray]

That's grain. They actually add more of it in post production on purpose

I don't want to turn this into a discussion on film grain or what is better - that's subjective and there are plenty of other threads for that

Eitherway, you won't be able to retain the grain at the bitrates you're planning to use

[quandore]

Ok, i still don't understand why they do that. No need for all that grain, in my opinion.

Anyway thank you both for your help and precious advises.

Francesco

[poisondeathray]

if you have a supported gpu, you can speed up mctd a bit by using gpu=true . It uses fft3dgpu for parts of the filter instead of fft3dfilter

e.g.
MCTemporalDenoise(settings="medium" , gpu=true)

Also, if you find x264 crf=0 faster, then you should use that instead. I find UT faster, but it might not be on a dual core

Beware of over-denoising ; part of the benefit of retaining grain is a dithering effect. By removing the grain the dithering is eliminated. When you denoise all the grain, you will get ugly banding in gradients - look in scenes where there are skies or long shadows. You will see this especially in anime