Best way to reduce DVD artifacts while preserving details?

[GlitchBob]

Trying to clean up some episodes from a DVD released in 2000. Unfortunately with the release being when DVD tech was still relatively new, and storage space was at a premium each episode is heavily compressed, with 768MB to the largest being 879MB. Even with just 4 episodes per DVD, they really compressed them down. When in comparison, a release of these same episodes in 2011, each episode had at minimum 1.20GB. So why not use the newer release? Because while they should be better, the video is much softer, the top and bottom have been cropped off leading to lost portions of the video, and honestly just not as good as the older release even with it's compression artifacts and noise.

ADV 2000:

[Attachment 59207 - Click to enlarge]

Shout 2011:

[Attachment 59208 - Click to enlarge]

Of course neither release is helped by the fact that the series was rendered in PAL format, and these DVDs were converted to NTSC. Sadly no official PAL release was ever made of the first 3 seasons, and while the 4th did get a PAL release in Australia, it also has it's own issues.

Of the unofficial release (a company in Russia made it, but they didn't have a license), it's in the PAL format but they apparently made it from the broadcast masters and those were severely worn by the time those DVDs were made... additionally there's heavy compression per episode:

Russian 2003:

[Attachment 59209 - Click to enlarge]

Anywho, as I doubt there's any way to fix the Shout release to look as good as the ADV one with the details and sharpness, I've chosen to try and clean up the the ADV release. However the compression artifacts get REALLY bad during high-motion and scene transitions:


[Attachment 59210 - Click to enlarge]


[Attachment 59211 - Click to enlarge]

I've tried TemporalDegrain2, Deblock QED, MosquitoNR, TNLMeans, and other filters but while they DO remove artifacts, they also wind up removing the finer details in the textures used on the models. I've tried over and over again, and nothing seems to keep the details while clearing up the artifacts/noise/blockiness.

Is there any method to reduce the artifacts while retaining as much detail as possible?

I've attached 3 sample clips from the ADV release. Thank you for any and all assistance.

[davexnet]

Did you use QTGMC/Srestore to recover the 25 fps ?

[GlitchBob]

Did you use QTGMC/Srestore to recover the 25 fps ?

Actually hadn't tried that.

What I had been using was:

TFM(d2v="15_SystemCrash.d2v",mChroma=true,order=1, field=0,mode=1,pp=6,slow=2)
ChangeFPS ("pal_film")

Seemed to work relatively well.

[davexnet]

Have you looked at this?
http://www.avisynth.nl/index.php/FFT3DFilter
or this:
http://www.avisynth.nl/index.php/Convolution3D

Another possibility is to separate the parts and apply the filter to the frames that need it:

a=trim(0,30)
b=trim(31,63).MosquitoNR()
c=trim(64,0)
return a+b+c

You may get some more suggestions

[manono]

As it's been telecined off of a 25fps source, this works to restore the progressive frames:

TFM().TDecimate(Cycle=6,CycleR=1)

[GlitchBob]

Have you looked at this?
http://www.avisynth.nl/index.php/FFT3DFilter
or this:
http://www.avisynth.nl/index.php/Convolution3D

Another possibility is to separate the parts and apply the filter to the frames that need it:

a=trim(0,30)
b=trim(31,63).MosquitoNR()
c=trim(64,0)
return a+b+c

You may get some more suggestions

FFT3DFilter seems to help to a degree, though it does soften the overall picture. I'm not seeing a pixel different with Convolution3D. As for separating and applying filters and increasing their strength as needed per segment, yes I think that may be the only way since some scenes need them more than others and there doesn't seem to be any way to have it smartly applied to the whole episode.

As it's been telecined off of a 25fps source, this works to restore the progressive frames:

TFM().TDecimate(Cycle=6,CycleR=1)

Yes, that's what I was using previously, however I found that it seemed to select frames that had more artifacts than those that didn't.

With that method I'd get this frame:

[Attachment 59228 - Click to enlarge]

Instead of this one by using only

TFM(mChroma=true,order=1, field=0,mode=1,pp=6,slow=2)

[Attachment 59229 - Click to enlarge]

[davexnet]

I wish you luck with it, trying to compensate for those compression artifacts
can be quite frustrating. Been there, done that, with similar results.

[GlitchBob]

I wish you luck with it, trying to compensate for those compression artifacts
can be quite frustrating. Been there, done that, with similar results.

Thanks, here's hoping! Yes it's quite frustrating. I wish the 2011 release hadn't been screwed up as it'd be much better to use, but alas..... Perhaps one day the series will get a proper release on one of those "SD on Blu-ray" sets in it's native PAL format without tons of compression etc.

[DB83]

Whilst the subject is not to my 'taste' I can not see any difference in the first two images you posted in the OP.


Even so, I sympathise with you that we all want the best possible from a release. Truth is that standards were more advanced in 2011 than 2000. Even then a NTSC frame could have simply been a crop of a PAL one. The company that releases these have to weigh the cost of a 'proper' transfer against one that passes the initial test and the anticipated return. I waited many a year for the true AR release of a early Ken Russell film. That same film might be unknown to many of the people who viewed his more 'famous/notorious' stuff and the cost of preparing this was never reflected in the financial return. And that being said I still await a 'full' release of one of Ken's more controversial films. Yet due to the studio's reluctance, despite the financial rewards, that, I guess, will NEVER happen in my lifetime and the film is now 40 years young.

[jagabo]

Maybe a little cleanup before decimating will take care of that problem where TDecimate() keeps the worse of two frames.

v1 = Mpeg2Source("2_BARAHP.demuxed.d2v", CPU2="xxxxxx", Info=3) 
v2 = Mpeg2Source("14_Showdown.demuxed.d2v", CPU2="xxxxxx", Info=3) 
v3 = Mpeg2Source("15_SystemCrash.demuxed.d2v", CPU2="xxxxxx", Info=3) 
v1+v2+v3

TFM()

src = last
vInverse()
edges = mt_edge(mode="prewitt", thy1=150, thy2=150).mt_expand().Blur(1.4).Blur(1.4).Blur(1.4)
Overlay(last, dehalo_alpha(rx=2, ry=2), mask=edges) # only dehalo the highest contrast edges.

TDecimate(Cycle=6, CycleR=1)

You have to use 32 bit VirtualDub for this because the deblocking and deringing filters of Mpeg2Source() aren't implemented in the 64 bit version. I tried some other noise reduction between Overlay() and Tdecimate() but anything strong enough to remove the noise in the high action scenes completely obliterated details in other shots.

[poisondeathray]

How about mixing/matching some frames? Even if the 2011 release is softer, it might be better on those few degraded frames with high motion and scenechanges

[GlitchBob]

Maybe a little cleanup before decimating will take care of that problem where TDecimate() keeps the worse of two frames.

v1 = Mpeg2Source("2_BARAHP.demuxed.d2v", CPU2="xxxxxx", Info=3) 
v2 = Mpeg2Source("14_Showdown.demuxed.d2v", CPU2="xxxxxx", Info=3) 
v3 = Mpeg2Source("15_SystemCrash.demuxed.d2v", CPU2="xxxxxx", Info=3) 
v1+v2+v3

TFM()

src = last
vInverse()
edges = mt_edge(mode="prewitt", thy1=150, thy2=150).mt_expand().Blur(1.4).Blur(1.4).Blur(1.4)
Overlay(last, dehalo_alpha(rx=2, ry=2), mask=edges) # only dehalo the highest contrast edges.

TDecimate(Cycle=6, CycleR=1)

You have to use 32 bit VirtualDub for this because the deblocking and deringing filters of Mpeg2Source() aren't implemented in the 64 bit version. I tried some other noise reduction between Overlay() and Tdecimate() but anything strong enough to remove the noise in the high action scenes completely obliterated details in other shots.

Thanks this worked well! Much appreciated!

How about mixing/matching some frames? Even if the 2011 release is softer, it might be better on those few degraded frames with high motion and scenechanges

That might work, though there's some rather bad aliasing on the 2011 release. I don't think any filter can fix it.

[GlitchBob]

Whilst the subject is not to my 'taste' I can not see any difference in the first two images you posted in the OP.


Even so, I sympathise with you that we all want the best possible from a release. Truth is that standards were more advanced in 2011 than 2000. Even then a NTSC frame could have simply been a crop of a PAL one. The company that releases these have to weigh the cost of a 'proper' transfer against one that passes the initial test and the anticipated return. I waited many a year for the true AR release of a early Ken Russell film. That same film might be unknown to many of the people who viewed his more 'famous/notorious' stuff and the cost of preparing this was never reflected in the financial return. And that being said I still await a 'full' release of one of Ken's more controversial films. Yet due to the studio's reluctance, despite the financial rewards, that, I guess, will NEVER happen in my lifetime and the film is now 40 years young.

Perhaps we need a cunning plan? But yes, it is unfortunate and the increase in streaming isn't helping any hopes for properly done physical releases.


Just for example's sake, this is what I meant by bad aliasing on the 2011 release. I don't think there's any way to fix it.

2011:

[Attachment 59234 - Click to enlarge]

2000:

[Attachment 59235 - Click to enlarge]

Perhaps not the best comparison since the 2000 release uses a fade-in opening. So here's another comparison from that episode's intro:

2011:

[Attachment 59236 - Click to enlarge]

2000:

[Attachment 59237 - Click to enlarge]

As you can see, in the 2000 release you can at least make out the word "BAUDWAY" whereas the 2011 release... it's garbled. If you view the clip I attached from the 2011 DVD, aside from being overall softer, the aliasing is awful, there's a wobble effect happening and lots of flickering when panning out across the city. I really don't know if it was a bad source given to the DVD company or somehow the DVD company royally screwed up the transfer process... but yeah, yikes.