Pumping brightness

[rgr]

Any ideas on how to combat this?
I tried AutoLevels, but the overall effect was poor.
I don't know if histogram-based algorithms would work here...

Online player: https://files.fm/f/yd4kq75mxs

[ozymango]

I dunno, looks okay to my eyes as-is. Maybe the colors aren't jumping off the screen, but relatively speaking looks pretty good. Is this a copy, or the original? If it's a copy, can you share the original so we can compare? If it's the original, I got nuthin' to offer besides running it through whatever editor you've got and play around with brightness, contrast, hue, etc and see if anything looks better or worse.

[Sharc]

Any ideas on how to combat this?

You could try using keyframes in an NLE to adjust brightness smoothly.

[johnmeyer]

I didn't see any obvious problem.

[Sharc]

I didn't see any obvious problem.

It is not immediately obvious when viewing the video. However one can see the luma pumping in the waveform monitor or histogram. It calms down towards the end of the clip though. It looks to me like an AGC issue happening somewhere along the processing chain. I don't think there is an easy auto-correction for this - if one wants to correct it at all.

[johnmeyer]

For more obvious flicker, I use the DeFlicker() function. You can also use MDegrain2() with DCT=1. This is queued up to show a "before/after" of what this can do:

Deflicker() with MDegreain2(DCT=1)

[Selur]

I doubt DeFlicker will do anything with the above clip. (MDegrain or SMDegrain or TemoralDegrain2 with DCT=1 might)
Can you share an unfiltered sample?

Applying tonemap shows where the flickering is.

Cu Selur

[Sharc]

I don't think it is the usual frame/field flicker which is the OP's concern. It is rather the low speed brightness (luma) pumping (~500ms cycle).