Improving Betacam video resolution

[carlmart]

I have a doc that I shot in the early '90s in Betacam which I had converted this week onto miniDV.

After that I captured that on my PC and I have it in avi.

Question is I expected better resolution that I am seeing. So I wonder if I can apply some Avisynth techniques to improve on some problems and maybe better some images.

I am trying to capture some frames to post here, but as usual when doing that I fail.

[filmboss80]

Although analog, Betacam put out very good standard definition resolution. There may have been issues in the transfer to MiniDv, or....

What process did you use to capture the MiniDv footage to your PC? Did you use a firewire interface? Did your capture software make a direct transfer to DV-AVI files without any conversion or encoding in the process?

[carlmart]

I didn't really have any way to control how the Beta/miniDV conversion was made. They are rare nowadays.

On the miniDV I used my usual standards, capturing from my Sony Z1 with firewire interface. The program I always use for that is WinDV, with no conversions or encoding. What I was getting on the Z1 display was playing on the PC screen, so that transfer is OK.

This was not a copy, but the original Beta editing tape. There had not been any dupes involved, so it should be mostly second generation, which in analog editing did matter.

But I didn't check the original Beta edit on a modern monitor, and I can't do that now.

[filmboss80]

You captured to PC the right way, so that can be eliminated that as a possible source of the problem. You might consider renting a Betacam deck to see if you can re-digitize from the source tape.

I have drawn from a number of Betacam-SP archives, and they have looked excellent when digitized. (Of course, it is still standard definition, 4:3 aspect ratio, but it looks fantastic for what it is.) Please post a screenshot so that we can try to pinpoint the source of your problem.

[carlmart]

I feel embarrased to say this, but I must be doing something wrong when capturing screenshots.

I print-screen the screen, then open it with a graphic program (Lview, Irfanview), then save it. Problem is when I open the file the video screenshot is not there, only the upper and lower parts of the XP screen. The rest is black

How should I proceed?

[carlmart]

The problem I was having for not being able to capture was a tricky one. That's why I am now coming back.

Please have a look at the captured image, as there are several things I would to clean up, as the multiple vertical lines on the left and on the chimney. If I can get that all else should get better too.

Sorry about the low color quality, but I had to fit the file in 30Kb.

[edDV]

I've transferred all my Betacam SP tapes to DV format with a Canopus ADVC. Canopus also made an ADVC with Betacam analog component in that dub houses use. DV format exceeds Betacam SP on luminnce and chroma resolution so there is no resolution loss. An editor like FCP, Premiere or Vegas have adequate color correction tools but the learning curve is steep.

You are upsizing 720x480 to 1920x1080 which is a much more difficult task and is better done with AVIsynth. Fields need to be separated and upscaled separately for best quality.

[carlmart]

OK. First let's establish what I want to do with this doc, which is converting it into a good quality DVD, if possible.

Please disregard the upsizing info to 1920x1080, as I don't know where those numbers came from. Probably from my image capture. I intend to keep that doc in 720x480, so those are the parameters to work for.

Avisynth is certainly the tool and I wonder what scripts to use to improve on the images I have. Sometimes we shot using a fog filter to make images look good. Or at least to disguise the few lights we had available and the contrast on some situations.

Unfortunately I do not have the original shooting tapes, or I might re-edit it again. Re-capturing the edit is not an option either, as I need to keep this cost down.

[edDV]

That screen shot is not acceptable. The video can't be that bad. It looks like 5 bits with all that sky contouring.

If recapture isn't possible, send us a few representative DV format frames for evaluation (~3.5 MB/sec).

This site allows up to 30MB for a DV-AVI file attachment (~8sec). Include motion.

[carlmart]

OK. How do I capture 8 seconds?

[filmboss80]

That screen shot is not acceptable. The video can't be that bad.

Looks more like Betamax than Betacam.

[edDV]

OK. How do I capture 8 seconds?

Don't you have a DV editor?

[carlmart]

I chopped the doc in 30MB pieces and picked one sample.

[Cornucopia]

Couple of things I see wrong with this, and I'm not even viewing it yet:

1. Why AVC? And at that bitrate for SD material?
2. Betacam & DV have a DAR of 4:3, but this is 3:2. What happened there?
3. For Std NTSC, this should be interlaced, but it's progressive. You must have deinterlaced when exporting to AVC. What method did you use? 'Cuz I'm guessing it wasn't the right one.
4. If your intended output is DVD, why make a detour with AVC? DV should be converted to MPEG2, then authored.

Check your DV footage for quality. If it's ok, then converting to MPEG2 should be a no-brainer. If, after converting, it isn't, it probably has to do with your settings.

Scott

[carlmart]

Sorry if this conversion is not right. I just did it for taking a sample for showing you and go on with the Avisynth process. The original is the one I captured from the DV that was made from the Betacam edit. What bitrate should I use?

The screen ratio captured from the DV is 3:2, but I don't know what happened. It doesn't look distorted or anything, so I'm fine with that for this particular task for DVD, using this master.

Shouldn't it show in Media Info that the original is progressive and not interlaced? How?

As I said, this conversion to AVC was for sampling purposes and because the captured frame was rejected. This sample does not show anything that is different from the original.

The DV footage is not as good quality as I expected, but for the present purposes I would like to see if it can be eimproved using Avisynth.

[16mmJunkie]

Here's the info of the file you uploaded and I attached a image as well.

Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 29.5 MiB
Duration : 8s 8ms
Overall bit rate : 30.9 Mbps
Writing application : Lavf51.12.1
Video
ID : 0
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Baseline@L1.3
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, ReFrames : 1 frame
Codec ID : H264
Duration : 8s 8ms
Bit rate : 30.7 Mbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 3:2
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 2.965
Stream size : 29.3 MiB (100%)
Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Mode extension : MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 7s 915ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Stream size : 124 KiB (0%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 26 ms (0.79 video frame)

[carlmart]

What did you use to pick all that info?

[16mmJunkie]

What did you use to pick all that info?

MediaInfo

[carlmart]

Thanks. I didn't know all that data was available in Debug.

This is what Mediainfo says about my DV original:

General
Complete name : C:\file.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
Format profile : OpenDML
File size : 1.79 GiB
Duration : 8mn 24s
Overall bit rate : 30.5 Mbps
Recorded date : 2005-05-31 20:11:28

Video
Format : Digital Video
Codec ID : dvsd
Codec ID/Hint : Sony
Duration : 8mn 24s
Bit rate : 28.8 Mbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 1.500
Original display aspect ratio : 4/3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:1:1
Scan type : Interlaced
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 2.778
Stream size : 1.69 GiB (94%)

Audio
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Unsigned
Codec ID : 1
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Duration : 8mn 24s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 92.4 MiB (5%)
Interleave, duration : 33 ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 33 ms

[filmboss80]

Okay, take that original DV video and cut out a 5-second clip using VirtualDub in the Direct Stream Copy mode -- with NO conversions or encoding. Try uploading that. We need to see a small sample of the DV-AVI unmolested.

There is no reason a proper Betacam-to-DV transfer should look as poorly as the samples you have posted thus far.

[edDV]

Yes we want to see the DV-AVI file.

Can you supply any information about how your Betacam source was captured to DV?

Is it possible to recapture the Betacam tapes?

[carlmart]

OK. Did that. Now what?

But I don't think it looks better either way.

I don't care about the noise or grain, but the vertical fading lines following every object.

[edDV]

2PM here. Will look at this later. Something wrong with this Betacam to DV transfer.

[edDV]

It doesn't look like PAL Betacam. There is evidence of NTSC.

I suspect a levels problem during capture.

[carlmart]

It doesn't look like PAL Betacam. There is evidence of NTSC.

I suspect a levels problem during capture.

Why do you assume it might be a PAL Betacam? It's NTSC, of course.

Don't tell me that's because you read that Brasil is a PAL country, like Argentina or Uruguay, because it's not.

To start with the Brazilian PAL systems is 525 lines/60Hz, closer to NTSC than full PAL. It's called PAL-B.So it's very easy to convert PAL-B to NTSC here. The opposite too.

By the late '80s nobody was shooting with PAL cameras here anymore. PAL cameras you could rent were mostly NTSC conversions that were a real pain to work with.

So in the 90s all channels were accepting full NTSC edits on programs or commercials.

[edDV]

It doesn't look like PAL Betacam. There is evidence of NTSC.

I suspect a levels problem during capture.

Why do you assume it might be a PAL Betacam? It's NTSC, of course.

Don't tell me that's because you read that Brasil is a PAL country, like Argentina or Uruguay, because it's not.

To start with the Brazilian PAL systems is 525 lines/60Hz, closer to NTSC than full PAL. It's called PAL-B.So it's very easy to convert PAL-B to NTSC here. The opposite too.

By the late '80s nobody was shooting with PAL cameras here anymore. PAL cameras you could rent were mostly NTSC conversions that were a real pain to work with.

So in the 90s all channels were accepting full NTSC edits on programs or commercials.

No it was because I had you confused with the guy from India in the other similar thread. I'm very familiar with Brazil and PAL-M. Just search PAL-M here and see all my posts.

If NTSC then these Betacam tapes were captured with wrong black levels.



Try this
https://forum.videohelp.com/search.php?searchid=128305

[carlmart]

OK. PAL-M wasn't even close in this video. When I shot this it was many years I had discarded PAL-M for cameras or editing, and never got back to it.

We might be talking two things here: how were these shots and some others corrected during editing, perhaps altering black levels; how was this tape transferred to DV. Unfortunately I was not present at the latter.

The issue for me here is to improve resolution if possible, and contrast (or black levels) does not matter to me that much for the present task. That doesn't mean I could try adding some correction in avisynth to improve the blacks and see how it looks.

[edDV]

A simple 10 IRE (percent) black level shift down gets this.



Here is a simple before-after HSL (hue saturation luminance) adjustment.



You should make these adjustments while watching a calibrated broadcast monitor display.

[Cornucopia]

Yeah, but even with the levels adjusted, that looks like crap compared to some BCSP footage I've personally worked with (sorry, not to disparage your stuff...). BC really should be better than that on average. Are you sure about the generations/lineage of this? And just to clarify, this isn't Betamax, right? 'Cuz if it was, then it would be in line with what I was expecting. Even so, there is a WHOLE lot of grain/noise on that hillside shot. Low level, gain bumped up?

Would there even be any way of (you) VIEWING the Beta masters that these DVs were Xferred from (to compare)?

Scott

[carlmart]

A simple 10 IRE (percent) black level shift down gets this.


[Attachment 5781 - Click to enlarge]

Here is a simple before-after HSL (hue saturation luminance) adjustment.


[Attachment 5782 - Click to enlarge]

You should make these adjustments while watching a calibrated broadcast monitor display.

Thanks for the suggestion, but the idea on color hue was just to be yellowish, almost like candle-light. The lighter areas are also too bright.