Any way to make a .wmv video file look sharper?

[chrisj]

Are there ways to make a .wmv video file look sharper?
Any way to tweak it to improve it's clarity/sharpness?
It's slightly grainy.
Thanks for any suggestions.

[Baldrick]

Post a sample.

[chrisj]

Thanks for your reply.
Unfortunately, I can't post my client's video on a forum. So, I'm hoping I can get some general suggestions on what I might try to improve it.
Thanks again for any help.

[smrpix]

What have you tried so far?

[chrisj]

Thanks for your reply.
I haven't tried anything. I don't know of any ways to make a .wmv video file look sharper.
Any suggeations on what might improve it will be greatly appreciated.

[poisondeathray]

Try some filters

eg.

if it's grainy => use some degrain filters, or denoise filters
if it's soft => use some sharpeners
if it's dark => use a brightening filter
.
.
.
etc...

You might use something like virtualdub filters, or avisynth filters


It's extremely difficult to recommend specific suggestions without a sample or at least a screenshot

[sanlyn]

I don't think a client would object to a post of a short few seconds of video. I can understand the concern. But without something more to go on than "WMV", little can be said. As suggested, VirtualDub can handle most WMV videos and there are dozens of filters that will work with it.

[zoobie]

Since it's a final format, it may have come from a larger file so ask your client for that.

[chrisj]

Thanks for all of your replies.
After downloading VirtualDub and extracting the files, I ran VD and when I selected the wmv file to open in VD, a message stated "ASF files are not supported". I guess I need some assistance with VD. Can I get that help in this forum? If not, where, please.
Thanks again.

[poisondeathray]

use the vdub wmv plugin
http://gral.y0.pl/~fcchandler/index.html

[chrisj]

Thanks for your reply.
I downloaded the zip, added the wmv plug-in to VD plugins folder and now when I go to File > Open Video File wmv files are now a file choice, however, when I select the wmv file I'd like to open, VD shows MISSING CODEC. So, I appreciate all the help so far. Much thanks. I'm learning. Is it possible to figure out which codec is missing? Thanks again.

[poisondeathray]

use mediainfo (view=>text)

most likely it's something like wmv3 or wvc1

you can install ffdshow and enable whatever codec mediainfo says in the configuration (VFW configuration)


Another option to import files into vdub is to use either the directshowsource plugin or the ffinputdriver. The latter will open just about anything since it relies on ffmpeg


vdub has like 100's of 3rd party filters you can use

e.g here are some
http://www.infognition.com/VirtualDubFilters/



but you can also try something like avidemux which should open the wmv natively (has only limited filters)

[chrisj]

Thanks for all the replies. Especially about the mediainfo link, filters, etc.
I have a question about VirtualDub. If this isn't the place to ask it, please direct as to where I should.

Opened the file in VD - it shows the beginning frame of the wmv file in both panes. I went to video(full processiong mode) > filters, added in the internal VD sharpen filter, and selected the play button at the bottom of the screen, it shows (dub in progess) when it's finished both panes go black.
Now what? Where is the filtered/sharpened file?

Thanks again

[manono]

I went to video(full processiong mode) > filters, added in the internal VD sharpen filter, and selected the play button at the bottom of the screen, it shows (dub in progess) when it's finished both panes go black.
Now what? Where is the filtered/sharpened file?

You told it to play and not compress. In Video->Compression choose and configure a codec. Then File->Save as AVI.

[chrisj]

Thanks so much for your help.
I tried a few filters and codecs, but I don't see much difference in the output.
I used MediaInfo and it showed the video as: VC-1 WMV3.
Is their a particular codec I should use for this file?
Thanks for educating me.

[poisondeathray]

What you choose depends on what you plan to do with it and how you plan to watch it

ie. is this for DVD, blu-ray, flash, a computer file ? or is it for farther editing in other programs ?

In general, the higher the bitrate for a given compression scheme, the less quality loss (and larger filesizes)

[chrisj]

Thanks for your reply.
Ultimately, it will be viewed from a webpage in flv.

Is their a particular codec I should use for this file?
thanks again

[poisondeathray]

Ultimately, it will be viewed from a webpage in flv.

Is their a particular codec I should use for this file?

Best quality / compression for FLV streaming will be h.264 video, aac audio

You cannot do this directly from vdub . Indirectly you can frameserve out of vdub using the vdub frameserver, or use the vdub external encoder feature available in experimental builds. Or you can export a lossless intermediate (e.g. lagarith, huffyuv, ut video codec) for your import into whatever program you are using for FLV encoding

[chrisj]

Thanks again for your help. Much appreciated.
And for: Best quality / compression for FLV streaming will be h.264 video, aac audio.
I looked at Frameserver, and ffdshow, this sure seems like alot of steps to simply try improve video quality.
What would be the next best quality/compression?
Thanks again

[poisondeathray]

Thanks again for your help. Much appreciated.
And for: Best quality / compression for FLV streaming will be h.264 video, aac audio.
I looked at Frameserver, and ffdshow, this sure seems like alot of steps to simply try improve video quality.
What would be the next best quality/compression?
Thanks again

For FLV streaming formats, the only "good" choice is h.264, aac

For FLV container, the next best is VP6 (significantly worse)

You don't want to do all this work trying to improve it only to have it look worse than the original, or have a filesize a few times larger



Vdub can only export AVI formats directly (non streaming); indirectly there are those workarounds listed above



You can use other non FLV containers for streaming like webm or vp8 for HTML5, but the quality is worse .

[chrisj]

I have a wmv file that I'm trying to improve, that, I will be converting to an flv for web viewing.

I'm not clear on if what you've said here, and how it relates to wmv:

"Vdub can only export AVI formats directly (non streaming)"

and

"Best quality / compression for FLV streaming will be h.264 video, aac audio
You cannot do this directly from vdub"

I look forward to your clarification.

[poisondeathray]

I have a wmv file that I'm trying to improve, that, I will be converting to an flv for web viewing.

I'm not clear on if what you've said here, and how it relates to wmv:

"Vdub can only export AVI formats directly (non streaming)"

and

"Best quality / compression for FLV streaming will be h.264 video, aac audio
You cannot do this directly from vdub"

I look forward to your clarification.

It means exactly what it says. Vdub can only export AVI formats directly, not WMV, not FLV, not MKV or anything else

WMV is just the import format. You don't care if you can export WMV or not since the final result will be FLV for streaming

To export out of vdub, you either use a temporary lossless intermediate AVI (e.g. lagarith, huffyuv, ut video codec) , to use as input into another program to encode to FLV (using h.264/aac compression, FLV is only the container). The filters you applied are reflected in that AVI you export. You use a lossless intermediate so there is no quality loss until it gets encoded to FLV, that's when the quality loss is incurred . If you didn't use a lossless intermediate, you would incur another (avoidable) stage of quality loss

The 2nd option is to use vdub frameserver, the benefit is no large intermediate file is produced

The 3rd option is to use the external encoder feature - this is only in experimental builds . You can find a guide here. It's essentially using a frameserver of sorts
http://forums.virtualdub.org/index.php?act=ST&f=5&t=18789&



You don't have to use vdub, there are other methods such as avisynth, other programs you could use. Vdub was suggested because there are many filters available and it's easy to use.

[sanlyn]

And we still have no idea what your WMV looks like, so suggestions are severely limited.

[budwzr]

And we still have no idea what your WMV looks like, so suggestions are severely limited.

Yes, I'm tempted to add an XXL bloviation myself.

So, you have a "grainy" VC-1 file? Get the Windows Media Encoder from Microsoft, and decompress it. If you decompress with any other decoder, it won't work well. The same compression algorithm must be used. Theoretically, the artifacts will reverse in the same pattern.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17792

Then you will want to recode to Lagarith, or another uncompressed format. Use a portable HardDrive. You may want to upsample the resolution at this time too.

Then do what PDR mentioned above.

Video "grain" occurs due to low light during shooting. It's actually "noise" coming from the sensor. If you shoot "Auto", the camera will run up the ISO way too high. Learn to shoot manually, and how to use a lens that gathers light more efficiently, like a 100mm prime lens.