Technical improvements in Hi8 capture

[Kajaboss]

Hi all, I captured all my Hi8 tapes about 10 years ago, using an ezcape.tv product called EzGrabber. A USB 2. capture device. My question is this. Is there anything available for said Hi8 tapes, that would improve the quality of the capture. We've been so spoiled by 4K, HD, UHd etc, that I wondering if I could improve what I have? That is to say, go through the whole process again, but with higher quality results. I am not that knowledgeable on the technicalities. I have attached a couple of very short clips of movies that were made back in the 1990s, using a Sony Handicam ccd TR820E in PAL. Looking at a lot of the movies there are quite a lot of artifacts and I wonder if these can be improved upon.


Any info would be gratefully received.

[Alwyn]

Your attachments didn't come through; if they're videos, use the "Upload Files/Manage Attachments button. If they're still images, easiest to use the "Upload image" button.

Sample videos would be better.

[Kajaboss]

Many thanks Alwyn. I've uploaded a couple of short clips

[Alwyn]

Got them now, Kajaboss. You should get some feedback soon.

Are you on a Mac system and do you have access to a Windows system?

[Alwyn]

Also, could you put up a clip that has a good amount of movement in it eg a person moving about, a car or a faster panning shot. Movement helps to work out the frame pattern; yours currently look like there are a fair few duplicated frames which will make it a bit jerkier than necessary.

At those bitrates, you can make your samples a bit longer eg 15 seconds.

[Sharc]

Try

ffms2("Nepal short.mov")
TDecimate(mode=7,rate=24.00)

Seems to remove the duplicates reasonably well (size reduced in the attachment 'fix.mp4'). Adjust the 'rate' for best results (use a longer sequence), or determine it by counting the unique frames and set in in relation to the total number of frames

Or you could use DeDup (2 passes) to find and remove repeated frames.
Eventually one may have to resample the audio to keep the A/V sync intact.

Edit:
If you still have the tapes and the Handicam (or a Hi8 player) I would strongly suggest to recapture these properly (as interlaced 4:2:2, 720x576 (PAL)), rather than trying to fix these poor and badly post-processed EZgrabber captures (screen grabs). Your original Hi8 videos promise much better results.....

[timtape]

After 10 years your camcorder may well need to be checked/serviced by a good technician. These devices can deteriorate even in good storage. A good camera or deck does not damage tapes and of course those tapes carry the best quality image and sound you have.

[Alwyn]

Technically, the files are a bit wonky: duplicated frames as well as the frame rates; Nepal is 54.855 and Thailand is 55.046. I don't know if they would play properly on a TV. Also, look at the sky; quite blocky/noisy. Also, are they supposed to be 16:9?

Whether the actual image/video quality is off because of the way they were processed is hard to tell. IMO the bitrate's a bit low for good quality.

As Sharc suggests, a recapture would be the best. If you're on a Mac with a Firewire port, a digital 8 camcorder that can play Hi8 tapes would be the simplest and give great results using a Firewire capture process.

Otherwise, an option is to use a USB digitiser (similar process to your ezicap); I'm not sure many of the common/recommended ones work with Mac.