Suggestions requested to optimize restoration of my LaserDiscs in StaxRip

[SteveLarson]

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)

[Alwyn]

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?

[The 14th Doctor]

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..

[SteveLarson]

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?

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.

[Alwyn]

I capture into AMD HW H.264 (AVC). My container is MKV.

OK, AVC isn't recommended for extensive restoration work.

I've actually never used AmarecTV. Have you and how well does it work? Had good results?

Yes. Here are my instructions.

This topic will probably get some pushback re AmarecTV, but in my experience, it just works. The other option is VDub. I'll let the VDub fanboys 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).