Handbrake knobs and dials to lessen grain in source

[SM1872]

Hello, I'm wondering if it's possible to lessen the grain on my DVD source as I've no drive on my laptop and looking to place on my USB.

Actually surprises me that the retail DVD I purchased had this level of grain, but perhaps that's due to it being a 30-35yr old item.


[Attachment 63751 - Click to enlarge]


[Attachment 63752 - Click to enlarge]

Yes, I will seem an idiot to you boffins! But I'm keen to learn. Have tried Grain Encoder Tune, Denoise hqdn3d, and also advanced options Denoise 7,7,5,5 & NR=1000.

Given the plethora of options (and my dangerous lack of knowledge) I was wondering if someone could suggest some knobs and dials to twiddle?

[jagabo]

You probably want a temporal denoiser like MCTempralDenoise(), TemporalDegrain() or SMDegrain() in AviSynth.

for example:

SMDegrain(tr=3, thSAD=1000, refinemotion=true, contrasharp=false, PreFilter=4, mode=0, truemotion=true, plane=4, chroma=false)

Adjust thSAD to get more or less grain removal. Those aren't available in Handbrake.

[SM1872]

Thank you, Jagabo. I'm passable with FFMPEG as I encode image sequences using it, but old habits (using Handbrake) die hard. Your help is very much appreciated.

[jagabo]

You can try the NLMeans filter in Handbrake. But I suspect setting it high enough to eliminate the noise will also blur details substantially.

If you can provide a non-re-encoded sample I (and others here) can try a few things in AviSynth or VapourSynth.

[jagabo]

SM1872, Here's the sample you PM'd me processed with AviSynth:


[Attachment 63757 - Click to enlarge]

The basic script I used was:

Mpeg2Source("o2.d2v", Info=3) 
SMDegrain(tr=2, thSAD=1000, refinemotion=true, contrasharp=false, PreFilter=4, mode=1, truemotion=true, plane=4, chroma=false)
KNLMeansCL(d=0, a=2, h=2.0)

One problem with MPEG 2 sources is that some of the grain gets "locked in" from the compression, ie, some of the grain doesn't change much from frame to frame (whereas film grain changes with every frame). So temporal noise reducers can't get rid of all of it. So I used a purely spacial noise reducer (KNLMeansCL(d=0)) after the motion compensated temporal noise reduction (SMDegrain()). Attached is a filtered sample that contains your second image above, frame 398 in the full sample, frame 48 in the short clip here.

You can use more or less noise reduction by adjusting the parameters. Shots with more motion can suffer from heavy temporal noise reduction so you might need to lower the settings it a bit.

[blud7]

Actually surprises me that the retail DVD I purchased had this level of grain, but perhaps that's due to it being a 30-35yr old item.

Grain is normal. has nothing to do with the age of the disc.
In fact, preserving the grain is usually recommended. Removing it may also be aesthetically pleasing so, to each his own.

[jagabo]

That video was probably shot on grainy 16mm film. The film was telecined and recorded onto studio video tape retaining the grain. The tape was then digitized and written to DVD without any noise reduction.

[SM1872]

Thanks very much for looking. I'd really love to learn how to do Avisynth but not sure of where to start, although the above script does give some useful pointers.

Many discs to go through and I love playing with things like this. Again, it's appreciated.

[jagabo]

Start by installing the 64 bit version of AviSynth+ AviSynthPlus AviSynth Plus. Install the 64 bit version of VirtualDub2 for editing and viewing the results of your AVS scripts. You can also encode with VirtualDub2.

Start VirtualDub2 turn on the script editor (Tools -> Script Editor). In the Script Editor window type:

Version()

With the Script Editor window active press F5. Since the script hasn't been saved yet it will ask you where you want to save the script. You can pick somewhere convenient like the Desktop, or some other folder of your choosing. Be sure to add the extension .AVS. Once you have saved the script you will see the result in VirtualDub's main window:


[Attachment 63764 - Click to enlarge]

Make sure it indicates the "x86_64", the 64 bit version. You have now verified that AviSynth and VirtualDub2 are installed correctly.

http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Main_Page
http://avisynth.nl/index.php/First_script
http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Getting_started

We'll move onto the next steps later...

[SM1872]

I thank you for your help.

I've tried to load the little script in post #5. Made the d2v in DGIndex using the MPG file, changed the target directories


[Attachment 63857 - Click to enlarge]

[Attachment 63856 - Click to enlarge]

Was hoping it'd be simple enough by allowing me to do that, but no! I've really been dragging my heels as it looks so user-unfriendly.

I installed AviSynth+ in my Videos directory under my own personal profile. Wondering if that would cause any conflicts, i.e. requiring admin privileges and so on?

[jagabo]

Use File -> Open Video File, not File -> Run Script (the latter is for VirtualDub's own scripting language which has nothing to do with AviSynth).

The little script in post #5 requires that you download and install several other AviSynth filters. You should follow the instructions in post #9 first. Once you have that working we can go on to the next step.

[SM1872]

Where's the like button on here for you, jagabo? You answered that in the time it took me to install Bill Gates' latest Windows vaccine!



Big round of applause, wherever you are.