How to proper restore HI8 Video. Presets and right steps

[Aaron79]

Hi guys,

i have startet to capture my old HI8 Videos. Im using huffyuv codec because lagarith dont work. FFV1 seem to produce mistakes. Only huffyuv is correct.
I have cropped a little bit on capturing. But i leave it now for later when im converting.

Tell me please what to do first.

My tought was to first deinterlace with QTGMC. This is my setting

SetFilterMTMode ("QTGMC", 2)
FFMPEGSource2("video.avi", atrack=1)
AssumeTFF()
QTGMC(preset="slower", EdiThreads=2)
Prefetch(10)

But i have to do these things too
1. Color correction
2. Halo correction
3. Cropping then resizing?
4. Little sharpening

I have spend days now for deinterlacing. Can anyone also some presets for my work (color,halo,croping sharpening)?
I cant find any presets for this.

Can i make it done in one step? Or first deinterlacing and than the other 4?


Thanks

Video
ID : 0
Format : HuffYUV
Format-Version : Version 2
Codec-ID : HFYU
Dauer : 59 min 4s
Bitrate : 65,2 Mb/s
Breite : 704 Pixel
Höhe : 576 Pixel
Bildseitenverhältnis : 1,222
Bildwiederholungsrate : 25,000 FPS
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:2
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scantyp : Interlaced
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 6.431
Stream-Größe : 26,9 GiB (98%)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : PCM
Format-Einstellungen : Little / Signed
Codec-ID : 1
Dauer : 59 min 5s
Bitraten-Modus : konstant
Bitrate : 1 536 kb/s
Kanäle : 2 Kanäle
Samplingrate : 48,0 kHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream-Größe : 649 MiB (2%)
Ausrichtung : Ausgerichtet an Interleaves
Interleave, Dauer : 10 ms (0,25 Video-Frame)
Interleave, Vorlaufsdauer : 209 ms

[dellsam34]

You may want to try preset faster for QTGMC if restoration is intended, preset slow applies harsh denoising according to some members here which wipes out details that are needed for other video processing. Keep in mind any digital processing you do takes away from the original quality, Do it only if it's worth the trade off.

[johnmeyer]

Deinterlacing is not a required step unless you need to resize. In case you didn't know, deinterlacing always degrades the video. It never improves it. All TV sets will perform deinterlacing for you.

With VHS, the most important thing is to get a good capture. This is covered in hundreds of posts both here and at DigitalFAQ. Many people can't get a TBC, which is always part of the recommendation, but one thing almost anyone can do is to make sure the internal sharpening circuits in the VCR are turned OFF. These circuits produce halos (which you say is a problem with your captures). Look for an "Edit" switch (or menu setting) and make sure it is turned ON (like "airplane mode" ON turns off the sharpening).

Once you have a proper capture, most VHS requires noise reduction and also help with the red blooming (for NTSC). Again, there are hundreds of posts which deal with VHS noise reduction. I use MDegrain, but if I had a big project, I'd probably re-visit that choice because I think there may be better denoisers now. For the red blooming on NTSC VHS I use CNR. Once again, there is probably a better plugin now.

[Aaron79]

Thank you for your ansers.

Well today no TV is doing an deinterlacing. Im watching the Videofile and only deinterlaced its looking fine

I spent now many hours of reading and testing. Maybe my learning will help others. Here i can thanks Andrew Swan who has an blog and on Youtube some tutorials how to deintarlace Videos.

First i have captured Video in 720x576 in Huffyuv. Important use only Huffyuv for capturing. FFV has problems with interlacing information

than install Avisynth+ and use this setting
768x576 resizing to get 4:3 Format

SetFilterMTMode ("QTGMC", 2)
FFMPEGSource2("nameofyourvideofile.avi", atrack=1)
AssumeTFF()
QTGMC(preset="slower")
Crop (12, 3, -22,-13 )
Spline64Resize(768,576)
Prefetch(4)

Croping is individual. Try first in Vdub2 what you need
For dehaloing you can try

DeHalo_alpha(rx=1.5, ry=1.5, darkstr=1.0, brightstr=1.0, lowsens=50, highsens=50, ss=1.5)

My setting for denoising

SetFilterMTMode ("QTGMC", 2)
FFMPEGSource2("yourvideofile.avi", atrack=1)
AssumeTFF()
QTGMC( Preset="Slower", EZDenoise=3.0, NoisePreset="Slow", Sharpness=1.0, SLMode=2 )
Crop (12, 3, -24,-10 )
Spline64Resize(1536,1152)
Prefetch(4)

Denoising and little sharpening
Last is good resizer. Here its 768x576 doubled

Next step Colorcorrection in Davinci Resolve. Here nearly everyone has the problem because Davinci Resolve doesnt support the codecs the most people use
Here is the solution

Grass Valley Lossless Codec for free. Its also known as Canopus Codec. Intermediate Codec for editing
https://www.edius.net/hqx.html
Download and install it.

Next step is to open your avs File in VirtualDub2 and choose MOV (avi container doesnt work here in Davinci)Container and GrassValley Lossless codec.
Select the option no change on colors. Leave it like you have captured in huffyuv file.

Now you can easily correct colors and more in Davinci Resolve

[dellsam34]

With 1536x1152 you will have compatibility problems, You want 1440x1080. First off crop in a specific ratio (not just crop H and V independently or you will have frame deformation), The specific ratio is 704x576 (4 pixels give or take is okay, hard to notice), Then resize to 1440x1080 square pixel that works on every platform or software.

[Sharc]

... Well today no TV is doing an deinterlacing.....

Really? Where do you have this from? Many TV stations in Europe broadcast HD as 1920x1080i25 and SD as 576i25, and the TV does the deinterlacing (usually bob-deinterlace). I assume your TV has a decent deinterlacer so you don't even notice it.
If your TV does not deinterlace it is probably because the video stream is not flagged as interlaced, which may be the case for .avi containers.

Personally I don't deinterlace and upscale VHS interlaced captures. Upscaling VHS video is pointless in most cases. I process the interlaced footage as interlaced and re-encode it as interlaced, leaving the interlaced structure intact. But as I said it's a personal preference.

[lordsmurf]

Well today no TV is doing an deinterlacing.

Not correct.
All HDTVs (4K,etc) deinterlace.

[dellsam34]

Personally I don't deinterlace and upscale VHS interlaced captures. Upscaling VHS video is pointless in most cases. I process the interlaced footage as interlaced and re-encode it as interlaced, leaving the interlaced structure intact. But as I said it's a personal preference.

Yes indeed it's a personal preference, Though when doing this for other people you want to de-interlace with a quality de-interlacer. Most people own modern cheap TV sets and those have poor processing for SD materials including poor de-interlacing and poor upscaling, Having done that in software frame by frame with good quality the TV will just display the HD video as is with no processing, if it is a 4K panel it will just double the lines.

This wasn't an issue a decade ago since most if not all TV's had decent SD video processing engines because it was the major selling point, Now it is all about cost so SD processing in todays TVs is not the main focus. Apps and connectivity is.

[jagabo]

And

FFV has problems with interlacing information

Not if you set it up correctly.

[johnmeyer]

Well today no TV is doing an deinterlacing. Im watching the Videofile and only deinterlaced its looking fine

As others have pointed out, if you are talking about HD TVs, that statement is simply not true.

However, the reason I'm posting isn't to simply agree with the point already made above, multiple times, but to point out that if you are really seeing a difference between interlaced and deinterlaced versions of the same content, then you are either looking at some other artifact; you are not providing a complete description of what you have done; or the script that did the deinterlacing was also doing a whole bunch of other things.

Finally, as I stated in my first post above, you only need to do deinterlacing when you resize. If you do it when you don't need to do it, it will degrade your video a little (or a lot) and if you use something like QTGMC, it will needlessly slow down the processing.

[lordsmurf]

Yes indeed it's a personal preference, .

Not really. That's like saying it's my personal preference not to stab myself in the eye with a dinner fork.

Deinterlacing is harmful, as is upscaling, and should only be done with the situation requires it. Not "just because".

Most people own modern cheap TV sets and those have poor processing for SD materials including poor de-interlacing and poor upscaling,

Not sure I agree with that. Most software methods to do this are vastly inferior. This conversation gets complex fast.

processing in todays TVs is not the main focus. Apps and connectivity is

Agree there.

[dellsam34]

Yes indeed it's a personal preference, .

Not really. That's like saying it's my personal preference not to stab myself in the eye with a dinner fork.

Deinterlacing is harmful, as is upscaling, and should only be done with the situation requires it. Not "just because".

Most people own modern cheap TV sets and those have poor processing for SD materials including poor de-interlacing and poor upscaling,

Not sure I agree with that. Most software methods to do this are vastly inferior. This conversation gets complex fast.

I specifically said high quality software de-interlacing, not just any de-interlacing, Your quotes are out of context. And there is no way in hell a $300 walmart TV de-interlaces and upscales better than a good software such as QTGMC. Yes those processing are personal preferences as you can't generalise the rule, For instance a videophile who has a state of the art TV or projector with good video processing chip may like to watch his captures de-interlaced, as well as his interlaced physical media such as laser discs, DVD's, D-VHS tapes, Off air recordings ... etc. Someone with poor quality TV or as what the OP is noticing thru his TV may prefer to do that in software and not having to worry about his TV butchering the viewing experience. I have seen and owned both types of quality standards equipment and I know what the OP is talking about and I know how good inerlaced materials would look in my Sony projector.