Under-saturated video? And how does one go about fixing it?
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So, I recently got 3 DVD-R's with some old school MTV ca. 1991/1992, and the picture quality is pretty nice (considering it's VHS EP), although I can't help but think it looks a bit...under-saturated, if you know what I mean. My Mac's screen is *supposedly* calibrated to Apple standards, but it also looks pretty dull on the 70-inch Panasonic in the media room (which my brother, a certified Sony projector tech, calibrated himself). Since these are assorted music videos, I can't be certain if it's just intentionally drab (obviously the grunge and metal videos are going to be less vibrantly-colored than the dance videos), or there was a cable problem, or the tape's just faded. I know that you can use a histogram to verify and correct the white/black levels (and it certainly looks like the levels are low), but I'm wondering if there's a similar trick for saturation. Is there a reliable way to do this, or is it just a shot in the dark?
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I increased saturation to 136% and took out some of the chroma noise.
I did this on a Mac too. Looks better on my screen, but I learned a long time ago that this stuff is an art, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder :P |
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I didn't try touching the mpg's, they're too messed up: bad levels, gamma too low, bad DCT ringing, halos, edge ghosts, crushed darks, line sync errors, vertical jitter, etc., etc. None of that can be fixed after encoding, so I didn't try. A line tbc is needed here in the worst way. I guess everyone realizes that the original video source was telecined.
From the 1992 mpg, before and after: frame 21: Attachment 3914 frame 373: Attachment 3915 Did these in Avisynth with ColorYUV and some some deblocking filters. Then VirtualDub, NeatVideo (not that it helped much on hard-telecined media but it calmed things down a bit), then gradation curves and ColorMill. Every scene in all the videos has different color balance and levels problems -- typical for VHS. Low gamma, and midtones were suppressed, those being the biggest problems. A lot of it is oversaturated to begin with. And whites, blacks, and grays are off-color everywhere. |
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I'm not sure what you mean by the source being telecine'd, since I would think that most, if not all, videos were shot and edited on tape at 30fps interlaced. Strangely, these actually look better when they're bob'd to 60fps (I'm kind of a sucker for the cheesy soap-opera effect :P). If it's not too much trouble, would you mind sharing the Vdub filter chain? |
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VHS can be such a nightmare to fixup. Constant changes in levels/color make you pretty tired, pretty fast. Been doing a lot of them, but I have to confess that every time I tackle a new VHS I don't look forward to that part of it. It's even worse than denoising. :smack: Back a little later. The wife is screaming for me to help with dinner. Wives just don't understand priorities when it comes to video work! |
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MPEG2Source("Drive:\path\to\source\1992.d2v") Code:
HQdering() There are settings based on frame 21 of your sample and other settings based on frame 373. Some #21 settings can be used on several segments of that clip, but many will look better with the vcf for frame 373, with a few adjustments in saturation. Who knows, you might find the frame 21 settings good enough for the whole clip. But that clip does have wild level changes all over the place. If you don't like the settings, they're still useful for looking over the two filters to see how they were used in more detail. The main idea was to make whites look white, grays look gray, and blacks look black. The "hue" isn't the same thing as brightness: an RGB 225 white is still white, it's just not super-white. RGB 20 black is still black, even if it's not zero-black. Next, I tried heightening the suppressed midrange by increasing output in that range (mainly with ColorMill), then handling saturation. Exact color balance is usually a personal thing anyway. In my experience, just raising/lowering saturation by itself can sometimes work OK, but often with bad levels and poor color balance it looks worse. Most photogs and advanced users would fix levels/contrast first, then go farthrr. But, as usual, it depends.... |
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Whew! So, attached is an effort with VHS1991. Source sure looks like a DVD/VCR combo job to me. Garbage in, garbage out. Got it down to broadcast levels, at least. Take out any more noise, nothing would be left. Did this scene by scene, one shot at a time. Interesting exercise, but I'd hate to do this with a 90-minute movie. It would take months. A bunch of Avisynth plugins plus VirtualDub, with 3 VDub filters: NeatVideo, gradation curves, ColorMill. Sometimes it hardly seems worth it. Another learning experience. It does lack a little of what you'd call its original "grit" (some people don't like grits), so one might almost be tempted to throw some noise back in. Almost, I said.
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Try this script (i haven't bother much with the colors):
http://uptobox.com/73gbc2mp1kq0 Result here http://uptobox.com/73gbc2mp1kq0 |
Looks better, but both links are to the AVI. No Script.
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My fault, here: http://www.mediafire.com/view/h5210i...VHS1991-02.avs
and if you lack some avisynth filters download my plugins folder here (148 MB): http://www.mediafire.com/download/v0...s-18-04-14.rar ccd (vdub) filter here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/0o...noise_sse2.vdf |
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(1) we allow forum attachments (2) we offer FTP access to Premium Members (3) we will use Dropbox Sites that insist on Javascript, countdown timers, etc, are ridiculous. Even Mediafire is terrible, as it requires JS to function. I'm not doing that. If you want me to look at something, attach it to a post. Furthermore, anything I cannot view is automatically something I don't agree with. :noworry: Quote:
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Do what I do -- adjust the TV when needed. I have a Sony HDTV and can filter the artifacts, the gamma, the black level (IRE), and multiple color channels. It's a lot easier that adjusting the video! Want my advice? Leave well enough alone. :cool: Note: I also see some tracking and jitter errors. But you didn't ask about those, so I'm not addressing them. Ask in another thread if you need help with that. Quote:
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If you have downloaded the script, remove lsfmod (line 125), it's causing artefacts on the fields (frame 159 for example) i didn't realise. Actually remove the whole sharpening stage (line 121-130) or use separatefields + sharpening filter + weave
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It's fixed about as best as can be done, as far as stability goes. The video is too damaged to ever be perfect, but this will make it much more enjoyable. And that's always the goal of restoring! Make it better, not perfect. I'm tired now, and going to sleep. I'll post this within the next few days. I did a lot for the site this weekend! Quote:
After that mess, we instilled a policy to A - use Dropbox .. maybe a few Dropbox-like sites; Skydrive looks good. B - attach here C - Premium Members can use FTP, or D - we're going to ignore it It just not worth the risk. I really do want to see your scripts and samples, but it's not happening if you're using the JS sites. |
Well, glad to be of assistance in a small fashion! If you want, I have some more clips with more persistent/serious errors.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kqwqwjjsukhnw8k/DtBM.mpeg https://www.dropbox.com/s/d89o8k0vgw6bu8m/Krystal.mpeg https://www.dropbox.com/s/mz3b2aqjf0...Metallica.mpeg __________ Site Staff edit: Files now mirrored at: - http://cdn4.digitalfaq.com/themaster...Metallica.mpeg - http://cdn4.digitalfaq.com/themaster1/Krystal.mpeg - http://cdn4.digitalfaq.com/themaster1/DtBM.mpeg Right-click and SAVE AS -- do not try to watch in your browser. ;) |
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I don't see why that's an issue, as it's simple to do. Probably easier, in fact, than messing with the so-called "file sharing" sites that make you jump through hoops. If you need help, PM a site staffer. We allow attachments here to make it easier on everyone. |
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I didn't even try working with levels and color, the jitter and other problems wore me out. I used 5 separate scripts to stop all the crashing and memory swapping in avisynth, and to try to tweak each step separately. Went through 2 rounds of anti-alias, 2 rounds of stablizers, a couple of bad frame repairs, and other stuff. It could use more work (LOL!) and more bitrate, but life is too short already. The 23.976 progressive version attached seems to play tolerably well in most players, but with pulldown applied all the players went nutty in different ways. The original seems to have gone around the block a few times, with somebody screwing up field priority at one point. For what it's worth, attached is a text file of the scripts. |
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