ColourLike problem

[sanlyn]

in AVISynth try RemoveDirt() it's a function you have to make an AVS file for. This is very effective at removing random spots, especially in chroma, without smudging.

Then use camcorder color denoise, curves, and levels in VDUB. (I recomend using the chroma denoiser before color correction)

Your last sample looks better than the colorlike sample in my opinion. Be careful not to crush your mid-tones by pushing the contrast too much.

Btw I just checked out RemoveDirt and WOW!! Just when I thought I was getting the hang of the script thing...this one comes along and proves me wrong. Haha!

There are two versions of RemoveDirt. The original is a plugin dll, the other is a more complicated script function (RemoveDirtMC) that requires RemoveDirt.dll, with lots of other stuff. I'm sure magillagorilla is referring to the plugin version. Check the html documentation that comes with the plugin download. It works in YUY2 and YV12. The author recommends light power, which is the default. The frame size dimensions must be multiples of 8.

[jagabo]

grayscale:
Black = 0-0-0
NTSC Black 16-16-16
Middle Gray 128-128-128
NTSC White 235-235-235
Bright White 255-255-255

Just to clarify for Cherbette, almost all software uses the rec.601 or rec.709 matrix to convert from YUV to RGB (including VirtualDub and the default in AviSynth -- ie, ConvertToRGB()). That means black is 0,0,0 and white is 255,255,255 when viewed on the monitor or as measured by CSamp. Only if you are using software that uses the PC.601 or PC.709 matrices will you see black as 16,16,16 and white as 235,235,235 (ConvertToRGB(matrix="PC.601") in AviSynth).

[Cherbette]

Ok guys I've got alot to catch up-on here Let me get to readin'...

[sanlyn]

Check, jagabo. I keep forgetting to include that "Rec" info.

[sanlyn]

cherbette, I should add this about color/luminance. Work in any colorspace (YUV, RGB) uses principles that are common to all color work (black and white, too). Different colorspaces just have different ways of storing data and processing the numbers.

[magillagorilla]

Sanlyn, I'm actually using (RemoveDirtMC) now. Thanks for clarifying the different versions as I failed to do so. This filter was the silver bullet for a huge portion of my multi-gen VHS archive.

[sanlyn]

Good work. And don't forget, you can't use the same filter or script for everything.

Now you only have about 300 or 400 more AviSynth and VirtualDub filters to go.

[Cherbette]

There are two versions of RemoveDirt. The original is a plugin dll, the other is a more complicated script function (RemoveDirtMC) that requires RemoveDirt.dll, with lots of other stuff. I'm sure magillagorilla is referring to the plugin version. Check the html documentation that comes with the plugin download. It works in YUY2 and YV12. The author recommends light power, which is the default. The frame size dimensions must be multiples of 8.

Yeah I downloaded "RemoveDirt.zip" which is the binary and the HTML documentation that came with it was what blew me away. Looks very confusing. So far I can tell the "cthreshold" is what I want to implement here and this is the script I'm just testing so far which is returning an error:

Loadplugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\Plugins\removedirt.dll")
AviSource("Cher Rosie.avi")
RemoveDirt(cthreshold=40)

Error: there is no function named "RemoveDirt"??

[sanlyn]

Error: there is no function named "RemoveDirt"??

You don't invoke it by that name. According to the html doc for RemoveDirt 0.9:

Introduction
Version 0.8 of this plugin has been completely rewritten from scratch. It no more contains a RemoveDirt filter. It now only contains the filter RestoreMotionBlocks, which is the core element of the AVS script function RemoveDirt discussed below.
. . . . .
Usage
RestoreMotionBlocks(filtered, restore, neighbour, neighbour2, alternative, gmthreshold, mthreshold, pthreshold, cthreshold, noise, noisy, dist, tolerance, dmode, grey, show, debug)

the html for the plugin gives a sample script for usage. That is, you stlll need the plugin dll, but you call RemoveDirt as a script with RestoreMotionBlocks inside it (so you might say it's really "a plugin that requires a script". Kinda clunky IMHO). I've never run that html's sample script, but I did adapt a similar one from another forum on a few AVI's some time back. I no longer have my old scripts, where I changed a few parms; I have no memory of how I figured them out, this goes back a while. The script below looks pretty much like the old one I used. I just now ran it on another AVI (in much better shape than CherRosie). The plugin as scripted calls other plugins that require YV12, so run this in YV12 instead of YUY2.

You likely won't need the LoadPlugin line (I have more than one plugin folder). Don't forget to change the path and name of your input clip:

LoadPlugin("D:\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\RemoveDirt.dll")
AviSource("E:\Videos\LIL2\LIL13_56k\TitleD\LIL56k_TitleApcm_NV2224.avi")
AssumeTFF().ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true)
RemoveDirt(10,0,false)
ConvertToRGB32(matrix="Rec601",interlaced=true)

function RemoveDirt(clip input, int limit, int rgrain, bool "_grey")
{
  _grey = default(_grey, false)
  _dgr1 = 0.35+rgrain*0.3
  _dgr2 = 0.45+rgrain*0.4
  repmode = 1
  clensed = Clense(input, grey=_grey, cache=4)
  restore = input.FluxSmoothST(3+3*rgrain,rgrain)
  restore = Repair(restore, input, mode=repmode, modeU= _grey ? -1 : repmode)
  restore = rgrain==0 ? restore.RemoveGrain(1) : \
    restore.VagueDenoiser(threshold=_dgr1, chromaT=_dgr1, nsteps=7, percent=75).RemoveGrain(1)
  alt = input.VagueDenoiser(threshold=_dgr2, chromaT=_dgr2, nsteps=7, percent=100).RemoveGrain(5)
  return RestoreMotionBlocks(clensed, restore, neighbour=input, alternative=alt, pthreshold=4+2*rgrain, cthreshold=6+2*rgrain, gmthreshold=40, dist=1, dmode=2, debug=false, noise=limit, noisy=12, grey=_grey)
}

discussion of the above at
http://www.bollywoodtorrents.me/threads/94285-Video-Enhancement-Discussion-Thread/page181

When you first encounter an AviSynth script or plugin, go into it thoroughly. They get renamed, revised, they disappear, scripts get posted that use old versions stored on hidden servers in caves on Iwo Jima, etc. Hassle. Watch out, there are old scripts around that still use the earlier RemoveDirt.

[Cherbette]

With that I get "there is no function named Clense". I assume I either have out of date dll's or the version of "removedirt.avsi" i have is written incorrectly in the Avisynth plugins directory. Do I even need that AVSI file?

[Cherbette]

Oh...apparently there are a bunch of DLL's needed to perform RemoveDirt that I was missing...

Edit: I got it to work and here are the before/after with no color correction as of yet:

[sanlyn]

With that I get "there is no function named Clense". I assume I either have out of date dll's or the version of "removedirt.avsi" i have is written incorrectly in the Avisynth plugins directory. Do I even need that AVSI file?

Clense is a function in two dll's of the RemoveGrain v.1.0 release package, which has RemoveGrain.dll and Repair.dll. There are several versions, but most scripts and plugins want to call v.1.0. It has several like-named dll's with "Sse*" extensions, etc. Just load the two dll's without fancy names. Many scripts still call these. The home site is here:
http://www.removegrain.de.tf/
the download is here:
http://home.pages.at/kassandro/RemoveGrain/RemoveGrain.zip
If I recall, it took forever to find the right version and an unbroken link. Par for the course.

Oh...apparently there are a bunch of DLL's needed to perform RemoveDirt that I was missing...

Edit: I got it to work and here are the before/after with no color correction as of yet:

Nice goin'! Looks much more workable than ColourLike (it has its uses, tho). Keep RemoveGrain around, many scripts use it.

AVSI: if you load an AVSI into the plugins folder, it loads automatically with AviSynth. Or you can copy the "function" code into an .avs. I don't keep too many AVSI's loaded, it can slow down AviSynth startup.

Hint on color in this shot: skin tones too blue. IMHO, looks like too much blue everywhere. But cleaner than the first effort. The YTube has the opposite problem (crippled blue) and looked kinda messy.

[Cherbette]

Ok I've adjusted some colors and saturation a bit....still not done just tinkering a bit. One thing I've noticed is that the Camcorder Color Denoise seems to be adding an extra bar of orange color in the background behind Cher's head where there shouldn't be one:




And even with the Camcorder Color Denoise plugin turned down to a setting of 10 (which still leaves lots of chroma niose) the extra orange bar is still there...

[poisondeathray]

Looks like chroma upsampling error. How are you loading it into vdub to use that plugin? Through avisynth ConvertToRGB(interlaced=true) ?

[Cherbette]

AviSource("Cher Rosie.avi")
AssumeTFF().ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true)
RemoveDirt(10,0,false)
ConvertToRGB32(matrix="Rec601",interlaced=true)

not set in stone just testing it out with that so far

[poisondeathray]

if you disable the camcorder denoise filter temporarily, are the artifacts visible in the preview ? (re-enabling it makes the artifact re-appear?)

If you 've narrowed it down as the culprit, I'm sure you can find comparable filters with similar functions elsewhere

[Cherbette]

Yes it's most definitely the camcorder denoise...

[sanlyn]

By bringing the colors and gamma somewhere near normal, the noise in the shadows becomes more obvious (I just had to play with ColorMill a little. Sorry). I tried throwing a little light into those shadows, but it barely helped. Gotta find a chroma cleaner that won't do much damage but would smooth those "dusty" areas better.



Here's a 2X enlargement of shadow detail. Kinda clumpy. huh? Cher would beat us about the head and shoulders.



Saints above, please stop people from making godawful copies of video. It's not just tape. It's done with digital stuff do.

[poisondeathray]

Yes the actual resolution is so low and there is lack of detail. It's almost as if Cher's face looks "plastic" (OOOOHHH sorry bad joke)

[sanlyn]

Not a bad description, though. I kept playing with that shot; there's so much fine gradation missing or corrupt, just very slight changes in the dark-to-bright-midtone ratio make a huge difference, for better or worse. I wouldn't mind if this shot came out a bit softer (maybe that's what it needs ??) if it would round those scratchy edges and help make faces look less clay-like.

But still a big improvement over the ColourLike effort, IMHO.

[sanlyn]

Kept looking at that original cap image of Cher, wondering what caused the vlay face effect. Destroyed detail has a lot to do with it. But mainly it seemed there was a gap in the colors beytween the dark hair and the skin tones. It looked as if color between RGB 30 and aboiut 80 was, well, missing. So I popped up the VirtualDub histogram again. Voila! There was an answer:



sharp peaks indicate of color "spikes", esepcially when peaks are accompanied by deep valleys. Note the gap between RGB 30- and 80. The "upper darks" and the "lower midtones" are too far about. Note how the midtones (skin colors) are shifted to the right -- too bright, washed out. How to narrow that range and try to populate the gap? I added the Levels control:



By nudging the left and middle sliders a bit at a time, and shuttling back and forth to readjust color filters, the gap was narrowed and the histogram was levelled somewhat. The more I worked at this, the more I realized that that about 40 RGB points of data really was missing. There would still be some nudging and angst to work through, but faces look better:



It it weren't for those ugly corrupt shadows around RGB 60 to 80, things would be much prettier. Really need a cleaner that can smooth the chroma junk without destroying everything that's left, which ain't very much.

Because this was allegedly a copy of a copy of a copy of copy (and on and on) of a continuous "live" broadcast, every shot in the clip should have a similar color correction requirement -- as opposed to commercial movie VHS, where from shot to shot there's no telling what you'll find. So I pulled a couple of earlier original-cap images into VirtualDub and loaded the same filters used above. DId it work for every shot? Well, almost. But pretty close.

[Cherbette]

Perhaps McTemporalDenoise on the chroma noise is gonna be the way to go for this one? Gonna try some of the tips you suggested to help make the missing RGB values less noticeable

[sanlyn]

The shadows are tricky, but you'll need the kind of detail-specific work available in RGB. The chroma does need work in YUV first, though. Right, I think MCTemporalDenoise at lower powers would help a lot. But omit "MergeChroma", it's just to easy to oversaturate certain areas and makes work with Levels, etc., more difficult. Work on saturation later. Try just on this shot, if it works here it'll work OK on the whole clip.

Here, I used the same color settings as above but added VirtualDub's built-in chroma smoother. Like, folks, you can't do much with only one frame, but this image shows that a chroma cleaner would help more than a general hi-octane denoiser. With only one frame to work with, the smoothing effect is subtle but visibly cleaner. I still think Cher's a little orange here. Tackle that later. The histogram in this whole clip is such a mess). Shadow and contour edges look smoother - still discolored around RGB 60 - 80 - more frames and working in YUV will likely look better.

[sanlyn]

Attached is a VirtualDub process settings file (.vcf). The forum doesn't recognize vcf's, so it's zip'd. If you do any YUV work, these settings might not have exactly the same effect, but looking at them might tell you something about how the filters work. The order in which the filters are placed does make a difference. Load these into VirtualDub with "File -> Load processing settings..." Make sure you have these in your plugins folder (chroma smoother is built-in). I used 6 filters, 2 are turned off:

ColorMill (set general color/gamma levels)
curves #1 (tweak the above)
curves #2 (tweak more, and adjust for different shots in the clip when needed)
Levels
chroma smoother (turned off)
Color Tools (turned off)

[magillagorilla]

Wow, Removedirt worked really well on that footage. Try playing with the values RemoveDirt(20,0,false), RemoveDirt(40,0,false) etc..

Remove dirt can rub out a lot of chroma splotching. I dont' really see the orange bar problem you are talking about from camcorder color noise. Camcorder color denoise usually works well on footage that went through a composite generation, whitch it looks like this footage did.

Another powerfull chroma tool is the chroma denoiser in VDUB. It's highly adjustable.

Sometimes on a restoration I settle for a 90% solution or I'll get stuck in tweaking hell. If I see a filter that creates 1 error but fixes 50 errors, it may be worth applying.

[Cherbette]

Attached is a VirtualDub process settings file (.vcf). The forum doesn't recognize vcf's, so it's zip'd. If you do any YUV work, these settings might not have exactly the same effect, but looking at them might tell you something about how the filters work. The order in which the filters are placed does make a difference. Load these into VirtualDub with "File -> Load processing settings..." Make sure you have these in your plugins folder (Levels and chroma smoother are built-in). I used 6 filters, 2 are turned off:

ColorMill (set general color/gamma levels)
curves #1 (tweak the above)
curves #2 (tweak more, and adjust for different shots in the clip when needed)
Levels
chroma smoother (turned off)
Color Tools (turned off)

Hmm...all that I saw in the zip was a JPG

[Cherbette]

Wow, Removedirt worked really well on that footage. Try playing with the values RemoveDirt(20,0,false), RemoveDirt(40,0,false) etc..

Left: RemoveDirt(20,0,false) Right: RemoveDirt(40,0,false)

[sanlyn]

Hmm...all that I saw in the zip was a JPG

That's a big OOPS, cherbette. My bad . Too early in the A.M. for us granddaddys to be multi-tasking.
vcf attached.

[magillagorilla]

I vote for Removedirt 20. 10 was too light and 40 may be too heavy. Now, run removedirt witn Sanlyn's VCF and I bet it will look pretty good.

[Cherbette]

It's quite alright...it happens to us younguns too!! Ok I loaded that VCF just to toy around with what you had done thus far and I noticed that Rosie looks somewhat normal in color but Cher looks a bit too blue or maybe too cyan. Gonna try to toy with that a bit over here: