Desperately need deinterlace help!

[winstonoboogie]

I wasn't sure if my question belongs in here or the vid conversion forum but here goes nothing...

So, I'm trying to backup some concert DVDs but I'm having a hell of a time with it because they are interlaced. I usually use Handbrake for my backups which works well most of the time. However, for these concerts its decomb isn't cutting it and the deinterlace settings drop the quality too much. I've lurked on here and the Virtualdub forums for about a week trying to learn how to use DGIndex and AVIsynth, but I just can't get the quality where I want it and I don't really have enough knowledge troubleshoot. I've tried, really! Now I must ask for help.

I've uploaded a small portion of the source. If someone could take a look and offer some advice (or better yet, figure it out and tell me what they did), I would be SO grateful.

Thanks.

Source clip here: http://www.mediafire.com/?3d0kcxk5awrfsr5

[jagabo]

It's a PAL to NTSC conversion with blended fields. Use this:

Mpeg2Source("sample.d2v", CPU=2)
Yadif(mode=1, order=1)
SRestore()

That will get rid of most of the field blending. A short sample:

[poisondeathray]

but parts of it look like pure interlaced NTSC with no blends

only the intro credits seem to have clear blends

[manono]

Yep, I agree. The credits up to about the 40 second mark are more-or-less standard field-blended PAL2NTSC. It looks to me that for the rest of it additional fields were created by interpolating and it's now true NTSC interlace. Using a script that produces 25fps also creates a jerky playing video. Bob it and then check the fields as the conductor is greeting the orchestra members. The violin bows are blended, but not in a way that lends itself to unblending. And there are no paused fields as there would be with field-blended PAL2NTSC. That's why I think additonal fields were created.

If it has to be made progressive at a single framerate, I think that framerate should be 29.97fps using something like:

Yadif(Mode=1)#or the bobber of your choice
SRestore(FRate=29.97)

Or even just a single-rate deinterlacer.

If for DVD I think I'd leave it interlaced since those credits make up so little of it.

[jagabo]

The credits up to about the 40 second mark are more-or-less standard field-blended PAL2NTSC. It looks to me that for the rest of it additional fields were created by interpolating and it's now true NTSC interlace.

You're right. I missed that. I was going to mention that titles and end credits were often handled differently!

Yadif(Mode=1)#or the bobber of your choice
SRestore(FRate=29.97)

That looks better.

[winstonoboogie]

Wow, everyone, many thanks for your input.

Just to make sure I get it right, how exactly do I employ the suggestions that you've made?

Perhaps I should add that my goal is to encode these discs to x264 MKVs with AC3 5.1 passthrough.

[manono]

Earlier you said that Handbrake's deinterlacers didn't produce good quality output but weren't specific about what the problems were. Orchestra concerts can be tough to deinterlace because of all the fine diagonal lines, like from violin strings, so you get a lot of aliasing. If this thing is to be made progressive you have to deinterlace. The best are the AviSynth deinterlacers. jagabo and I used Yadif because it's fast and produces reasonable quality output. But it will have problems with aliasing. Better quality deinterlacers won't have the problem, with the drawback that they can be very slow to work their magic.

SRestore can be found here:

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Srestore

Yadif can be found here:

http://avisynth.org/warpenterprises/

But if you find it's not doing a good enough job, then try QTGMC:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=156028

It should take care of the aliasing and any other problems. But it will be slow to very slow, depending on the settings used. How badly do you want to do right by your concert?

[jagabo]

try QTGMC:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=156028

Sounds like some good improvements. I'm still using TempGaussMC_beta1mod()!

[winstonoboogie]

The problem with Handbrake deinterlacing seems to be that it tosses out too many frames, creates noise, and retains aliasing, which is especially apparent (as you said) on this video because there are lots of lines and fast movement.

Quality is of the highest concern here. I don't mind if it's slow. I also really want to learn how to deinterlace properly for future reference.

I read the QTGMC link, downloaded all the files, but the QTGMC download was just a script. Shouldn't there be a .dll for it? Like I said, I know my way around this stuff pretty well, but I have little experience using AVIsynth successfully and even sparser experience with scripting. I would value some slightly more verbose instructions as to how to properly set up and use QTGMC. I downloaded and extracted the contents of all the required files for it to my AVIsynth's plugins directory. But as for how to craft a script to use it, I'm a bit of a novice.

Let me know how I can help you help me!

[jagabo]

QTGMC is only a script. It uses a bunch of other AviSynth plugins (dll's). Download and install all those plugins (listed in the "reference" section) then you can use QTGMC in you own scripts. If you put QTGMC.AVSI and all those plugins in AviSynth's plugins folder they will automatically load when AviSynth is invoked.

Your script (a plain text file with the extension .AVS) will end up looking something like:

WhateverSource("filename.ext")
QTGMC(preset="slow")

Open that file with your editor/encoder.

[winstonoboogie]

EDIT: I think I've got it. Had to clear out my plugins folder and re-install everything.

Now, one other minor problem. I'm recompressing with x264vfw in VDubMod, here's my command line:

--ref 6 --no-fast-pskip --bframes 6 --b-pyramid normal --direct auto --deblock -2:-2 --subme 10 --analyse all --trellis 2 --aq-strength 1.2 --psy-rd 1.0:0.0 --b-adapt 2 --me umh --merange 24

But it always spits out the video in the incorrect aspect ratio. How do I ensure that video comes out appropriately dimensioned?

[manono]

Me, I don't do much x264 encoding, and when I do I use XviD4PSP. jagabo and especially poisondeathray should be able to help there.

You might first test the script using Yadif. Open it in VDub(Mod) and step through it to check if the script is good and if the results satisfy you. Then substitute QTGMC to see if you like the results better. Go to some places that were problematic with the Handbrake output. Or make some test XviD AVIs using VDub to get an idea of the encoding speeds and the results. If you get any error messages you can't figure out, post them here together with your complete script.

[jagabo]

Add AR specs to your command line: --sar 10:11 or --sar 40:33 for example.

[winstonoboogie]

Ah, of course, because it's NTSC anamorphic. I needed that 40:33 in there.

QTGMC looks great!

Thank you all so much for your help.