Best time in chain to use filters?

[JPHenry]

I'm capturing DV with ADVC-100 (Canopus) 720x480 Interlaced.l I then edit the clips in Premiere 6 and then frameserve out to TMPGenc.

My question is this: I've recently discovered filters (and how much better the picture can look) but I'm wondering where I should use them?

Some say to use VirtualDub because the TMPGEnc ones are too slow - so do I load up my .AVIs in VDub, frameserve those into Premier and then frameserve them again out to TMPGenc? (since I need to cut them here and there)

Or should I just use the TMPGenc ones?

Thanks for any help.

[Poplar]

If you think TMPG is too slow, try Premiere's rendering engine plus TMPG If your editing is just simple cut and merge, there is no need to use Premiere at all. If you want to add transitions and effects, then you have no choice but to use Premiere.

As for filters, don't use filters for very clean sources. If you have to, I recommend using outside filters. There are all kinds of excellent filters available that are better than TMPG's built-in filters. To this day, I don't know what kind of resize filter TMPG uses Bicubic? Bilinear? Don't have a clue. So use outside filters that you know how they work.

[JPHenry]

Yeah - I am adding transitions and cutting different scenes together.

By clean sources I'm figuring you mean digital video - I'm actually capturing VHS and I found some post on this site that suggested using the Noise filter (maxed out) and the Sharpen video filter (80) in TMPGenc - I've done it and I like the results a lot - but it takes 4 times as long!!

By outside filter you mean AVISynth or VDb, right?

[WarpEnterprises]

If you take the effort to learn AviSynth this method has the advantage that you don't need the "setup steps" of the VD frameserver, it's quite fast and your settings can be recalled because they are written in the avs-scripts. Nearly all useful filters are available as native avisynth, and if necessary you can use VD filter, too.
There is only the hurdle of understanding the way avisynth works - but it's not really difficult (just a special programming language for videos)

[vcdfreak]

I found if I use the Gamma filter in Premiere/TMPGEnc (To Brighter), I get sharper and clearer VCD output quality after frameserving to TMPGEnc. Due to compression algorithm, JPEG/MPEG compression produce better picture with bright & low noise pictures.