"Greenish" Black & White To "True(r)" Black & White?

[DeathStalker77]

I have some old VHS transfers of Black & White footage that is shaded with a greenish hue. I'm wondering what the simplest way of re-encoding it to a crisper B&W would be? (Would like to re-size & deinterlace at the same time - they are AVI files).

Thanks!

[manono]

To make it true black and white you greyscale it. This is done in different ways using different programs. I frameserve using AviSynth so a simple 'Greyscale()' or 'Tweak(Sat=0,Coring=False)' do the job nicely.

If they're movies, most likely they need a full IVTC and not deinterlacing. Frame serving with AviSynth with an IVTC filter in the script is far and a way the best way to accomplish that. Resizing can be done using a number of different programs. And if you're new to video encoding, none of this may be all that easy for you to accomplish. Maybe others will be able to recommend some all-in-one programs that will allow you to filter the video the way you've asked.

[DeathStalker77]

They're not movies. I have never used AviSyth or frameserved. Other color correction I have done has been with programs like VirtualDub or TMPGEnc.

[hech54]

Hopefully you mean uncompressed AVI files?

[DeathStalker77]

No, they're either Divx or Xvid, haven't checked.

[jagabo]

Use the grayscale filter in VirtualDub. If you think that's too gray, use the HSV filter and adjust the hue and saturation. Of course, you'll lose quality by reencoding.

[DeathStalker77]

Doh! Somehow I went right by the Greyscale filter!

Will give it a try - thanks!

[jman98]

No, they're either Divx or Xvid, haven't checked.

While it is certainly possible to produce interlaced AVI files using Divx or Xvid, most files encoded with those are actually progressive so there's a pretty good chance you won't need to deinterlace. I'm not sure what your plan is but strictly speaking you don't HAVE to deinterlace or run IVTC. If it's appropriate and you want to do so that is fine, but it's not a requirement to do so before doing any further encoding using filters. You probably do want to get to progressive output if you're going to resize though.

[hech54]

No, they're either Divx or Xvid, haven't checked.

That means they have already been compressed to hell and back and will most likely look worse than when you started.