80s VHS Cleanup Green Lights, Horizontal Striping

[SupraGSX]

I am currently in the process of trying to cleanup my parents wedding tape for my mom. I have had several cracks at tidying this up. Originally I transferred it using a JVC HR-S 9911U, but it always had tracking issues. Since the purchase of a Panasonic 1980p I finally have a mostly clean transfer. The VHS while only being 50 minutes long is in EP format for God knows what reason. I really enjoy playing around with different plugins in avisynth but I am not an expert at video restoration by any means and could use some advice. I have almost no knowledge of how to fix color issues, I believe the problems I'm seeing could be tape decay? It is noticeable in the lighting such as a flame being green instead of white. Also, my biggest issue is even after using QTGMC to deinterlace the video there are faint horizontal black lines every other line all the way down the image. Wherever these lines are when they get to the edge of whatever they passthrough they seems to give an aliased look to the edge of the object. I can dehalo these out of the picture but it destroys the image it just becomes a blurry mess. I have never found a way to get rid of them and keep any clarity. I use Topaz Video Enhance AI as a resolution bump not crazy but 720x480 to 1280x720. I've had it work really well but it locks onto the horizontal lines and makes way worse the algorithms they are using don't handle it well at all. I've attached a completely untouched clip and one after QTGMC Slow preset. Any help with color and those lines or even just what exactly I'm seeing terminology wise would be great. That's why some stuff is hard I don't know how to properly name what I'm seeing to even search for a plugin to help.

[jagabo]

This, before QTGMC, will get rid of the horizontal lines:

SeparateFields().vInverse().Weave()

Colors are tougher...

[Selur]

"ColorYUV(autowhite=true)" helps somewhat with the colors and "SpotLess(RadT=3)" and "SMDegrain()" helps with the noise a bit, but the colors are still problematic,... In case than Avisynth 32bit is used, using HDRAGC() oculd be used to improve the colors somewhat more. (sadly there is no HDRAGC for 64bit afaik.)

[themaster1]

vdub filters can help you

Below: vdub only (collomill and RGB Equalizer), rough work

[jagabo]

A simple RGB white balance, luma gain/offset, saturation. Followed by deinterlace and noise reduction:

LWLibavVideoSource("Untouched.avi") 
AssumeTFF()

ConvertToRGB(interlaced=true, matrix="rec601")
RGBAdjust(r=144.0/95.0, b=144.0/134.0)
ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true, matrix="rec601")
ColorYUV(gain_y=100, off_y=-8, cont_u=100, cont_v=100)

SeparateFields().vInverse().Weave()
QTGMC(preset="slow")
SMDegrain (tr=3, thSAD=1000, refinemotion=true, contrasharp=false, PreFilter=4, mode=0, truemotion=true, plane=4, chroma=false)

[Attachment 67510 - Click to enlarge]

Not great but not too bad.

[SupraGSX]

Thanks so much for the advice it's helped a ton. The picture is great and color much improved. I can't thank you all enough for taking the time.

[johnmeyer]

Jagabo, you always do such nice work.

[Selur]

Just for comparision, here's what the colors look like with

ColorYUV(autowhite=true)
ConvertToYUY2(interlaced=false)
HDRAGC()

Cu Selur

[jagabo]

Jagabo, you always do such nice work.

Thanks for that. You post lots of good stuff here too.

I was assuming the dress was white. That might be wrong, or the lighting may have been colored. And the result may be over saturated -- the skin tones are too saturated. Some other shots for comparison would help.

[SupraGSX]

Some other shots for comparison would help.

Jagabo here are some additional clips if you have some spare time to mess around with them.

[johnmeyer]

Some other shots for comparison would help.

Jagabo here are some additional clips if you have some spare time to mess around with them.

<no good deed goes unpunished>

Have fun!!

[SupraGSX]

I'm having an issue with HDRAGC I have the latest agc.dll but I can't find the script. So when I go to use it, it just say there's no function named HDRAGC. How do I aquire an avs or avsi file for it? I'm using a dedicated 32 bit windows XP machine so x86 XP compatibility. Also using avisynth plus 3.7.0 XP.

[Selur]

Assuming:
a. HDRAC is 32bit Windows XP compatible (no clue)
b. you put the dll into your Avisynth autoloading-folder (and autoloading works as it should)
Avisynth should find the dll and allow you to use it.

[jagabo]

The white balance fix (RGB correction) works moderately well for all the clips. But the levels vary a bit. You could adjust each shot individually. Or maybe use a compromise setting:

ColorYUV(gain_y=50, off_y=-6, cont_u=75, cont_v=75)

instead of the earlier:

ColorYUV(gain_y=100, off_y=-8, cont_u=100, cont_v=100)