Deinterlacing and converting VHS animation

[IvynaJSpyder]

So I've been trying for years now to get the best possible quality from these old VHS rips I have.

After a lot of trial and error and some good youtube tutorials, I've gotten pretty good quality using Avisynth and QTGMC deinterlacing, using Virtualdub to encode the video.

There are two more things I'm struggling to figure out...

1 - Figure out what filters to use to further clean up the video, especially sharpening the outlines
2 - I really want to convert these AVI files to MP4 without much quality loss.


It looks like FFPMEG is the way to go for the latter, but I'm really struggling to understand how it works, and what settings exactly I should use. (For example, the raw files are around 400MB, and I'd like the final ones to be around 200?)

I've attached some before and after shots of what I have so far using this script:

SetFilterMTMode("QTGMC",2)
FFmpegSource2("Kirby_037_RAW (2).avi", atrack=1)
AssumeBFF()
QTGMC(preset="Slower", FPSDivisor=2,Edithreads=2 )
ColorYUV(gamma_y=160, cont_y=50)
LimitedSharpenFaster()
Crop(0,4,0,-4)
BilinearResize(720,540)
Prefetch(2)

Before:

[Attachment 54738 - Click to enlarge]
After:

[Attachment 54739 - Click to enlarge]

For comparison, here's how the picture in the DVD rip vids look.

[Attachment 54740 - Click to enlarge]

So if anyone has recommendations for filters to try, or ffmpeg settings I would be eternally grateful.

[manono]

You should post 10 seconds of the actual video, a section with steady movement. I doubt QTGMC is called for.

As for settings, just make a quality-based encode.

[IvynaJSpyder]

Well this is the original VHS rip:
https://mega.nz/file/PtlgVIYB#uo0oOhry1y_briudm5aaWoFNaawrrbnTzN6qc_kg4OA

Here's my first attempt to filter it with just VirtualDub and smartdeinterlace. No matter what I do it looks... jaggy? I dunno.
https://mega.nz/file/ull2WIrD#6OJnGyu3pvlNIiS_NjXPRgbNrA08uur4lqXTql0M0n4

This was my attempt using QTGMC and I think it looks a lot smoother. I just wonder what else I can do to improve it.
https://mega.nz/file/vplGgALQ#G9ON4rgu-QyDr5mqcqDPqR9XVTE_BibiMnpwEdYWGJM


And I have no idea what a quality based encode is or what it would entail! I'm a lowly newbie, hence posting in the newbie forum lol

[manono]

Don't use VDub for filtering when you know how to use AviSynth. There's very little it can do that AviSynth can't do as well or better. As I suspected, it just needs an IVTC and not a deinterlace. The true framerate is 23.976fps and not 29.97fps:

TFM()
TDecimate(Mode=1)

By deinterlacing it with QTGMC you degraded the picture somewhat and introduced more jerkiness.

[IvynaJSpyder]

Thank you for the filter suggestion! I will try it out.

And I did use Avisynth... I just used Virtualdub to actually encode the video.

I just don't know how to use FFMPEG well enough to use it for encoding, you know? It's like learning a new language.

When all I need to do it just... tell it to save the avs file into a nice looking mp4, you know?

[manono]

Use a program that accepts AVS input. I use RipBot264 to make my MP4s but there are many others.

Always make sure the AVS is a good one by testing it out in VDub to make sure there's no error message. VDub2 can also create MP4s from AVS input.

[IvynaJSpyder]

Oh, excellent! I'm most familiar with Vdub so I will give Vdub2 a shot Thanks!