What is this and how do I fix it? (VHS tape ghosting?)
 

Noticed this on a few VHS tapes I have. Would love to know what filters to use to either remove the ghosting or align the layers correctly.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/imag.../3d60sBX-1.jpg

Any help is appreciated. Thank you!

This looks like severe ghosting (and good luck to fix that!), generally ghosting is only a few pixels away of the object.
If you have this throughout your tape, just give up

themaster1 is correct, but there are other problems. No one would be able to determine very much from a compressed jpg still image. There is macroblocking, mosquito noise, and so on -- how much of that came from jpg compression and how much is actually on the tape can't be determined. One could say little about frame structure or anything else -- a still image (capture method unknown) and a moving. unprocessed video sample are two different things, especially since a jpg has no "fields". We know nothing about the video source or how it was played or captured or originally recorded, etc.

It's ghosting, and I've had some success with removal methods in the past. I'd like to try my methods on this clip. Upload a sample, and I'll see what can be done. I've fixed clips that ugly before!

If you need help uploading: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/news...ly-upload.html
Or use Dropbox.
Do NOT use anything else.

i love it when lordsmurf is over optimistic :D

Thanks for the input and insight into what this is.

Here's some footage to experiment on (via Dropbox):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8eye32791pxm9tm/EXAMPLE.avi

I greatly appreciate any advice on how to fix this effect or make it less noticeable. I have 8 tapes affected by this and I'd love to be able to clean them up.

Thank you!

Well it's like i said, hopeless
If you got a lighter you can burn those tapes, sometimes that's what it takes for the peace of mind

It'll be fun proving you wrong. :P

I've already got the hard part done. Most of the ghosting is gone.

But instead of using Premiere/Photohop, I want to use Avisynth for that part too. I have a post at both VH and Doom9:
- http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.ph...21#post1681621
- http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/3...85#post2323385

I know you know Avisynth, so is this something you've ever come across? It's be a heck of a lot easier than the Premiere/Photoshop method. That's really the only outstanding issue. I did this quick samples with VirtualDub for the screen cap, Photoshop, and the Avisynth overlay. But it's rough, I know it can be done better.

I think this video may benefit from a 2-pass removal, but it's processing right now. I'm stepping away for several hours. Back soon.

This is fun. :)

Alright, here's the sample.

The ghosting is not 100% gone, but anywhere from 50-90% (depending on the scene) is now gone. I'll create a guide tomorrow, as well as give more details on how it's done.

Several tools were required:
- TMPGEnc 2.5 for the first-pass removal
- VirtualDub for the sample screen shots
- Photoshop for the matte (PSD editing, save as PNG)
- Avisynth for the second-pass removal (mostly NR and applying the matte)
- VirtualDub for the final pass, including standard VHS fixes

It's not too hard, but you can get as detailed as you want -- and therefore as time consuming as you want.

We've done quite a few ghosting tapes for clients, as it's a common problem. For example, local cable channels were infamous for showing homebrew (public access) videos on ghost-prone channels. So many times, the recordings of your kids doing something looks terrible. We can fix it. At worst, we've always been able to reduce it by at least half.

Pathetic cable broadcasting standards is one of the reason I got into video 20+ years ago. :2cents:

More later...

(And you said it couldn't be done. :cool: )

Note: View the sample clip in VLC. For some reason, MPC does not like it.

Definitely impressed. I appreciate any insight on the steps to take.

This will surely help improve the handful of tapes I have with this effect.

Hmm yeah from worse to bad there is improvement i must say, i wouldn't watch this video on a big screen though.

In the mean time, the technique used is of interest to me as i have a couple of videos with some ghosting (not as prominent as here)

Hi lordsmurf,

I have files here that can use your method as there are some ghosting on them (although not as bad as this one). Did you ever posted the method you used for this?

No, I did not. But I should still have the setup and sample files somewhere.

But I'll be honest with you -- it's not going to be fast. I'm hoping to upload quite a few things later this year. And this would be one of them. A full guide is needed.

This isn't my first or only ghosting sample, as I have many more to make a guide with. Each video is different, and there's no easy button method. It's not hard, but not a simple "remove ghosting" switch in freeware.

If you want to upload a sample, I'll take look at it. :)

Thank you for you reply!! Let me ask you then the following question. Is there an easier way to do this with paid software like Final Cut Pro or Sony Vegas?

No. Those lack the needed functions.

Ah too bad. Ok. I'll wait for your full guide :). I'm an video editor and get once in awhile video files with ghosting on them. Thank you for your help!!

Jacques

@lordsmurf Can you help to reduce or remove the ghosting in this video file? And how to do it? Thank you.

seems more like halos,..

Here what happens when one uses LGhost+YAHR on the source https://imgsli.com/MTUyNTU4