I have a LaserDisc collection of about 75 titles and have been capturing a number of them in OBS Studio via the Hauppauge 610 Video Capture Device connected to my Pioneer CLD-V2800 player and ASUS ProArt P16 laptop. It took me a year of experimenting with various settings in OBS after recording lots of discs, but I finally settled on a group of core settings that yield me a completed capture I am pleased with. All my discs are NTSC and live action, although I plan to add several animated and anime titles as well. I’ve been capturing them at a resolution of 640x480 and with a color space of Rec. 601 (limited range of colors). While the preset fps in my Hauppauge settings is 29.97, I set the Common FPS Values for the output in OBS’ settings to 59.94 fps after reading posts that frames actually get dropped or deleted if captured at lower frame rates. I would rather continue capturing at 59.94 or 60 for the output because I don’t want to lose any frames. OBS automatically converts all interlaced content to progressive. I’ve been recording both the analog and stereo mixes in PCM. The majority of them sound excellent.
Throughout the second half of this year, I’ve been researching and learning about many filters and scripts in AviSynth, which I want to use for much of my post-processing work. I have StaxRip (version 2.50.2-x64) and many plugins/filters from the archived package, which also include those for VapourSynth that I downloaded from GitHub. I’ve been assembling a tentative plan for my workflow and would especially welcome your suggestions to tweak or perhaps add different filters. Feedback on parameters and preset values is also much appreciated.
I have watched at least 60 of my LDs and want the filters to take care of the most common global issues associated with this analog format: chroma noise, jagged edges/shimmering, dot crawl, rainbow patterns, and random video artifacts that pop up. (I may engage in more extensive frame-by-frame restorations for certain titles.) While I would like to clean up those anomalies to a considerable degree, I want to preserve the original texture and detail of the image as much as possible. I have envisioned my restoration project in three parts:
(1) Since nearly every one of my titles was originally shot on film before transfer to LD, I will perform an inverse telecine for each. Since there may have been duplicate frames created during capture, I will make sure TDecimate is part of my script. All of this goes towards converting 59.94 to 23.976.
(2) Anti-aliasing, very moderate noise reduction, and restoration cleanup.
(3) I will be eventually transferring the finished file to a BD-R (720p), which I’ll watch on my QLED TV. I have a region-free Sony Blu-ray player that has an option to output precisely at 720p. At this stage, I will want to convert YUV to RGB and Rec. 601 to Rec. 709. I will be upscaling/resizing the captured SD files to 960x720.
Here are my scripts and projected order for each job’s workflow:
Part 1
Field:
TIVTC
TFM().TDecimate()
cthresh=255
Frame Rate:
ChangeFPS(24000, 1001)
Part 2
Line:
DAA
daa3mod()
Noise:
mClean(thSAD=400, chroma=true, sharp=10, rn=14, deband=4, depth=0, strength=20)
Restoration:
ChubbyRain2(th=10, radius=10, sft=10) # progressive sources only
DOTKILLS(ITERATIONS=1)
Note: I also will probably use DeScratch to minimize and/or remove scratches/tramlines from B&W movies and older films shot in color.
Part 3
Color: YUV / RGB
YUV to RGB
Dither_convert_yuv_to_rgb()
ColorMatrix(mode="rec.601->rec.709")
I will be using ffmpeg - ProRes as my encoder.
Encoder command line:
Custom: --colorprim bt709 --transfer bt709 --colormatrix bt709
MOV is my container.
Spline64Resize(960, 720, 0, 0.5)
+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 6 of 6
-
-
If you're doing that much restoration, the strong recommendation from most of us would be to not capture with OBS. QTGMC will do a much better job than OBS at deinterlacing your captures. A lossless capture with the Live2 (using AmarecTV or VDub) should not result in dropped frames and not require capturing at 59.94.
OBS is OK if you just want a one-and-done capture in reasonable quality, but in your case it seems you're going to do much more.
Regarding playing them on your TV, a portable USB drive would be more convenient than having to burn BDs.
Out of interest, what video codec are you capturing into? -
Since you are also dealing with LaserDisc, if you want the best quality possible then you might want to look using a Domesday Duplicator+LasterDisc Decode method, unlike it's younger offspring VHS-Decode, this method is 100% the best and proper way to archive LaserDiscs at their highest possible quality.
Since it bypasses the crappy composite connection used in LD players altogether.
There is however a massive learning curve, so be warned.. -
Thanks for all that feedback! I capture into AMD HW H.264 (AVC). My container is MKV.
I've actually never used AmarecTV. Have you and how well does it work? Had good results?
I have used QTGMC in StaxRip and it's been great for my interlaced videos. -
I capture into AMD HW H.264 (AVC). My container is MKV.
I've actually never used AmarecTV. Have you and how well does it work? Had good results?
This topic will probably get some pushback re AmarecTV, but in my experience, it just works. The other option is VDub. The VDub fanboys can guide you on that.
Both proggies produce 29.97 interlaced, lossless AVI files which deinterlace with QTGMC really well, and of course lend themselves to other (your) restoration techniques, including IVTC. A recommended free AVI codec is UTVideo (4cc ULY2).Last edited by Alwyn; 3rd Oct 2025 at 00:33.
-
This topic will probably get some pushback re AmarecTV
To OP:
- Hauppauge USB-Live 2 is not the best for capturing from a composite source, because its poor comb filter. Introduce a Y/C generated signal in the path or change card for better quality
- Use AmarecTV, not OBS
- Capture 720x480 YUY2 4:2:2 lossless
- Your sources are probably not interlaced but telecined, so no QTGMC should be needed
- No RGB conversion is needed
- Staxrip is just a GUI, go to direct AviSynth processing
- Domesday Duplicator is the best method for LDs archiving
Similar Threads
-
DV restoration workflow: critique requested
By taigi in forum RestorationReplies: 11Last Post: 14th Jul 2025, 12:11 -
how to optimize transcoding from drone files?
By marcorocchini in forum Newbie / General discussionsReplies: 1Last Post: 6th Oct 2024, 08:32 -
Avidemux Optimize for Streaming
By Rinka_CA in forum Newbie / General discussionsReplies: 4Last Post: 4th Jul 2024, 14:18 -
can anybody optimize the accident video and find the guilty party ?
By curieux in forum Newbie / General discussionsReplies: 7Last Post: 7th Dec 2022, 01:23 -
Optimize bad source material ripped from MakeMKV
By marco000 in forum Video ConversionReplies: 11Last Post: 21st Jun 2021, 10:18