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  1. Thank you for reading my problem, it is from a Network DVD Armchair Theatre production 1959, I suspect the audio quality is a result of best available and it broken up quality cannot be improved as the information is not there in the 1st place? Thoughts are very welcome. I have TMPG Mastering works and Goldwave at my disposal as well as Handbrake, mastering works audio filter is awful and ruins the file even more. Its video filters however are imho excellent.

    The audio from the original DVD is the same .
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  2. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    While there could be a few things that might help in a minor way (eq, noise gating/expansion), you are fighting a battle you can't win. The analog processes that preceeded digitization were low bandwith to say the least. You have a narrow range of remaing usable frequencies, multiple layers of noise, a bit of distortion in parts...
    Then the copy you have has been encoded to ac3 (for dvd, yes). So you now have some compression artifacts on top of that.

    You could spend months/years and only move the bar from a 3.5 to 3.75, if you were lucky. And that doesn't allow for the real possibility that it messes something up further. Especially if you would then need to reencode to ac3 or similar.

    My recommendation is to leave it as it is. It is likely the best it could be given the circumstances of its history up to that point.


    Scott
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  3. Originally Posted by Cornucopia View Post
    While there could be a few things that might help in a minor way (eq, noise gating/expansion), you are fighting a battle you can't win. The analog processes that preceeded digitization were low bandwith to say the least. You have a narrow range of remaing usable frequencies, multiple layers of noise, a bit of distortion in parts...
    Then the copy you have has been encoded to ac3 (for dvd, yes). So you now have some compression artifacts on top of that.

    You could spend months/years and only move the bar from a 3.5 to 3.75, if you were lucky. And that doesn't allow for the real possibility that it messes something up further. Especially if you would then need to reencode to ac3 or similar.

    My recommendation is to leave it as it is. It is likely the best it could be given the circumstances of its history up to that point.


    Scott
    Thank you scott,pretty much what i figured, no matter what we want, it can still come down to the old adages, silk purse out of a sows ear or rubbish in rubbish out. May your God go with you Sir.
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  4. Member DB83's Avatar
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    Just a quick Q.

    Is there not a PCM audio track on the dvd as well ? Could be slightly better.
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  5. Originally Posted by DB83 View Post
    Just a quick Q.

    Is there not a PCM audio track on the dvd as well ? Could be slightly better.
    Very good point for consideration as I convert my dvd collection to mkv, but sadly not on this DVD Set. Thanks though.
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  6. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    Dvd's rarely have PCM tracks except for audio-centric and/or concert type titles. Bitbudget priority usually goes to the video side.

    Scott
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  7. Try a de-esser to reduce the distortion of the sibilants then a crystalizer to increase high frequency content. ffmpeg has both.
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  8. Member DB83's Avatar
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    That is a fair point.

    Now I do not own this series but I do have a later re-incarnation called "Armchair Cinema" and I might dig that out to see what audio options existed then.


    What, however, I do see that this series has three programs on each disc. Assuming that each each program was 51 minutes (the other 9 being taken up per hour for commercials) we have 153 minutes per disk. I would be interested in a mediainfo report of the said disk just to see the actual video compression.


    Not sure what media this would have been 'recorded' on (1959 is many years before the BBC - this is commercial ITV before anyone picks me up on it - would regulatily wipe video-tape recordings to re-use the media.
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  9. Originally Posted by DB83 View Post
    That is a fair point.

    Now I do not own this series but I do have a later re-incarnation called "Armchair Cinema" and I might dig that out to see what audio options existed then.


    What, however, I do see that this series has three programs on each disc. Assuming that each each program was 51 minutes (the other 9 being taken up per hour for commercials) we have 153 minutes per disk. I would be interested in a mediainfo report of the said disk just to see the actual video compression.


    Not sure what media this would have been 'recorded' on (1959 is many years before the BBC - this is commercial ITV before anyone picks me up on it - would regularly wipe video-tape recordings to re-use the media.

    media Info of the episode in question attached. The Armchair Cinema I also have and is much more modern in production and dvd presentation, I am not sure how much enhancement network do, as their resources might restrict that. I attach a mediainfo sample vob file if that should be interesting.
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    Interestingly, Armchair Theatre was a live telecast from 1956 to 1958, when the (dare I say) unexpected death of a cast member between scenes brought that era to a close. It moved to a new studio in the summer of 1959 and was subsequently recorded on quadruplex videotape. This episode is from 13 September 1959, so I assume it was recorded on videotape. The mushy audio sounds like misadjusted azimuth in the analog playback. Who knows how many dubs this went through on the way to digital? The mistake could have been made at any step and unrecoverable thereafter.
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  11. Here's the result of ffmpeg's crystalizer and deesser. I don't know how to use deesser so I left it at default settings (which didn't seem to do much). The crystalizer has made the dialog more understandable but it has increased the background hiss too. Some noise reduction may be called for. You'll want to disable the filters during the opening music (I didn't here as it's just an example). Also, I went pretty heavy with the crystalizer so the effect wouldn't be subtle.

    Code:
    ffmpeg -y -i "scent of fear.ac3" -af crystalizer=5.0,deesser=i=0.0:m=0.5:f=0.5 -c:a ac3 crystalized.ac3
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  12. Originally Posted by jagabo View Post
    Here's the result of ffmpeg's crystalizer and deesser. I don't know how to use deesser so I left it at default settings (which didn't seem to do much). The crystalizer has made the dialog more understandable but it has increased the background hiss too. Some noise reduction may be called for. You'll want to disable the filters during the opening music (I didn't here as it's just an example). Also, I went pretty heavy with the crystalizer so the effect wouldn't be subtle.

    Code:
    ffmpeg -y -i "scent of fear.ac3" -af crystalizer=5.0,deesser=i=0.0:m=0.5:f=0.5 -c:a ac3 crystalized.ac3

    That's fantastic of you-thanks so much, its is definitely clearer and using the goldwave low rumble/hiss removal made it even clearer. Amazing.
    Last edited by victoriabears; 28th May 2022 at 20:19.
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