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First video capture, advice welcomed!

Hi, I've just done my first video capture with virtualdub to my Dell M6800 laptop (windows 7) and I would be grateful for any advice. These are video8 camcorder tapes.

My set up is Sony TRV120E camcorder> tbc-1000> pinnacle 710 all s-video leads. I'm also using a cyberpower BR850 AVR

Thank you, Darren.

Keep the master files and follow up with de-interlace, crop, resize to 1440x1080 and encode to h.264, Here is a sample:

Thank you latreche34. Were the clips I posted ok? If i'm honest I don't really know what to look out for. I got your download I have audio but no video. I assume my media player isn't mp4 I will get the VLC player and watch it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DG1965 (Post 85062)

Hi, I've just done my first video capture with virtualdub to my Dell M6800 laptop (windows 7) and I would be grateful for any advice. These are video8 camcorder tapes.
My set up is Sony TRV120E camcorder> tbc-1000> pinnacle 710 all s-video leads. I'm also using a cyberpower BR850 AVR
Thank you, Darren.

I downloaded the 1st clip, looks good to me. :congrats:

I can look at others later, if needed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by latreche34 (Post 85064)

Keep the master files and follow up with de-interlace, crop, resize to 1440x1080 and encode to h.264, Here is a sample:

There's really no reason for this. I doubt he's posting these to Youtube for the world to see.

Thank you Lordsmurf Yes I would be grateful if you could look at the other two clips if possible, just in case I'm doing something wrong.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf (Post 85067)

There's really no reason for this. I doubt he's posting these to Youtube for the world to see.

That's not for youtube, It's for sharing with other people without going youtube route, It's as ready as it can be to be displayed on modern flat panels especially the ones that lack good de-interlacing and upscaling qualities, Unless he can share $100GB files and can be played the way they are.

I see no reason to upscale "watching copies to share" to 1440x1080.

H.264 is about more than just resolution. If you make 1080p files, and select the wrong settings (too long a GOP, etc), then the playback device will choke and stutter. At least with lower resolutions, hence lower data rates, chokes and sputters are far less common. It's also harder to easily share huge files in private, unless you want to mail thumb drives or hard drives.

HDTVs almost all scale decently, the issue has always been the deinterlacer. Even then, the deinterlacer can be fine, depends on the exact HDTV. Given how many people are "fine" with average Youtube quality, the deinterlacer in an HDTV is "fine" as well.

For local watching, high bitrate (15bps+) interlaced MPEG-2 is far preferable. Ideally, 4:2:2, but 4:2:0 is passably decent, not any different from DVDs.

Quote:

... and I would be grateful for any advice

Quite nice captures. The black are a little bit crushed and the whites a little bit blown out. Try to play with Pinnacle procamp to reduce this problem.

Attachment 15269

With some basic restoration you can improve a little bit the overall look: https://imgsli.com/MTEwNzA3

Filtering used:

Code:

video_org=AviSource("family holiday 2004 3.avi")



# cropping 

        crop_left=10

        crop_top=8

        crop_right=16

        crop_bottom=10

video_org_crop=video_org.crop(crop_left,crop_top,-crop_right,-crop_bottom)



# plugins directory

plugins_dir="<AviSynth plugin directory>"



        # QTGMC

Import(plugins_dir + "QTGMC.avsi")

        # Zs_RF_Shared

Import(plugins_dir + "Zs_RF_Shared.avsi")

        # Nnedi3

loadPlugin(plugins_dir + "NNEDI3_v0_9_4_55\x86\Release_W7\nnedi3.dll")



        # TemporalDegrain2

Import(plugins_dir + "TemporalDegrain-v2.2.1_modGMa.avsi")

        # RgTools

loadPlugin(plugins_dir + "RgTools-v1.0\x86\RgTools.dll")

        # MaskTools2

loadPlugin(plugins_dir + "masktools2-v2.2.23\x86\masktools2.dll")

        # MVTools

loadPlugin(plugins_dir + "mvtools-2.7.41-with-depans20200430\x86\mvtools2.dll")

        # FFT3DFilter

loadPlugin(plugins_dir + "FFT3dFilter-v2.6\x86\fft3dfilter.dll")

        # FFTW

loadPlugin(plugins_dir + "LoadDll\LoadDll.dll")

loadDll(plugins_dir + "fftw-3.3.5-dll32\libfftw3f-3.dll")



        # LSFmod

Import(plugins_dir + "LSFmod.v1.9.avsi")



### de-interlacing

deinterlaced=video_org_crop.AssumeTFF().QTGMC(preset="slow", matchpreset="slow", matchpreset2="slow", sourcematch=3, tr1=2, tr2=1, NoiseTR=2, sharpness=0.1)



### convert to YV16

deinterlaced_yv16=deinterlaced.convertToYV16()



### denoising

denoised_yv16=deinterlaced_yv16.TemporalDegrain2(degrainTR=3)



### convert to YUY2

denoised=denoised_yv16.convertToYUY2()



### convert to YV12

denoised_yv12=denoised.convertToYV12()



### sharpening

sharpened_yv12=denoised_yv12.LSFmod(defaults="slow")



### convert to YUY2 with chroma from YUY2 color space

sharpened=sharpened_yv12.convertToYUY2().MergeChroma(denoised)



### add borders

video_restored=sharpened.addborders(crop_left,crop_top,crop_right,crop_bottom)



return(video_restored)



/*

stackhorizontal(\

subtitle(video_org.SelectEvery(1,0,0),"video_org",size=20,align=2),\

subtitle(video_restored,"video_restored",size=20,align=2)\

)

*/

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf (Post 85071)

For local watching, high bitrate (15bps+) interlaced MPEG-2 is far preferable. Ideally, 4:2:2, but 4:2:0 is passably decent, not any different from DVDs.

LS I must ask, why do you prefer MPEG-2 over AVC based encoding? A Standard Definition Blu-Ray looks better than a DVD (if the source is the same) because you aren't dealing with the blocky compression MPEG-2 provides.

Is this the expected quality of captures from video8 tapes? I can tell they are better than the poor quality dvds I made about 18 years ago. As a novice I don't have a benchmark. Just getting to this point has been daunting, those scripts strike the fear of god into me!

Why daunting? Be happy, your captures are not bad!

AviSynth restoration is not that difficult. Install it, download the dlls that are in the script, load the script in VirtualDub and voilà! If any doubt, just ask ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by thestarswitcher (Post 85073)

LS is still living the dream of DVD.

What should I do with the pinnacle procamp settings to offset the crushed blacks and blown whites. Is there a histogram graph that I should use in the pinnacle settings? I'm guessing it's always better to do this before the capture with the pinnacle settings rather than post capture with avisynth. I will download avisynth today. Thank you Lollo2 for the restoration photo, I must have missed it yesterday it looks much improved.

Quote:

What should I do with the pinnacle procamp settings to offset the crushed blacks and blown whites.

There are several guides and posts in the forum. Search for them, here one from Hushpower (I did not check it, but I trust him) http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...html#post84742

Quote:

I will download avisynth today.

All for 32-bit version

download AviSynth_2.60.exe from https://sourceforge.net/projects/avisynth2/ and install it
create AviSynth_plugin_dir directory
download QTGMC from http://avisynth.nl/index.php/QTGMC saving the file QTGMC.avsi inside AviSynth_plugin_dir
download Zs RF Shared from http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Zs_RF_Shared saving the file Zs_RF_Shared.avsi inside AviSynth_plugin_dir
download Nnedi3 from http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Nnedi3 unpacking the file NNEDI3_v0_9_4_60.7z in directory NNEDI3_v0_9_4_60 inside AviSynth_plugin_dir
download TemporalDegrain2 from the attechement to this post saving the file TemporalDegrain-v2.2.1_modGMa.avsi inside AviSynth_plugin_dir (it is my customization of TD2)
download RgTools from http://avisynth.nl/index.php/RgTools unpacking the file RgTools-v1.2.7z in directory RgTools-v1.2 inside AviSynth_plugin_dir
download MaskTools2 from http://avisynth.nl/index.php/MaskTools2 unpacking the file masktools2_v2.2.30.7z in directory masktools2_v2.2.30 inside AviSynth_plugin_dir
download MVTools from https://github.com/pinterf/mvtools unpacking the file mvtools-2.7.45-with-depans20210608.7z in directory mvtools-2.7.45-with-depans20210608 inside AviSynth_plugin_dir
donwload FFT3DFilter from https://github.com/pinterf/fft3dfilter/releases unpacking the file FFT3dFilter-v2.10.7z in directory FFT3dFilter-v2.10 inside AviSynth_plugin_dir
download LoadDLL from http://avisynth.nl/index.php/LoadDLL unpacking the file LoadDLL10.7z in directory LoadDLL10 inside AviSynth_plugin_dir
download FFTW 3.3.5 from http://www.fftw.org/install/windows.html unpacking the file fftw-3.3.5-dll32.zip in directory fftw-3.3.5-dll32 inside AviSynth_plugin_dir
download LSFmod from http://avisynth.nl/index.php/LSFmod saving the file LSFmod.v1.9.avsi inside AviSynth_plugin_dir

create this script with a text editor:

Code:

video_org=AviSource("family holiday 2004 3.avi")



# cropping 

        crop_left=10

        crop_top=8

        crop_right=16

        crop_bottom=10

video_org_crop=video_org.crop(crop_left,crop_top,-crop_right,-crop_bottom)



# plugins directory

plugins_dir="AviSynth_plugin_dir\"



        # QTGMC

Import(plugins_dir + "QTGMC.avsi")

        # Zs_RF_Shared

Import(plugins_dir + "Zs_RF_Shared.avsi")

        # Nnedi3

loadPlugin(plugins_dir + "NNEDI3_v0_9_4_60\x86\Release_W7\nnedi3.dll")



        # TemporalDegrain2

Import(plugins_dir + "TemporalDegrain-v2.2.1_modGMa.avsi")

        # RgTools

loadPlugin(plugins_dir + "RgTools-v1.2\x86\RgTools.dll")

        # MaskTools2

loadPlugin(plugins_dir + "masktools2_v2.2.30\x86\masktools2.dll")

        # MVTools

loadPlugin(plugins_dir + "mvtools-2.7.45-with-depans20210608\x86\mvtools2.dll")

        # FFT3DFilter

loadPlugin(plugins_dir + "FFT3dFilter-v2.10\x86\fft3dfilter.dll")

        # FFTW

loadPlugin(plugins_dir + "LoadDLL10\LoadDLL\LoadDLL32.dll")

loadDll(plugins_dir + "fftw-3.3.5-dll32\libfftw3f-3.dll")



        # LSFmod

Import(plugins_dir + "LSFmod.v1.9.avsi")



### de-interlacing

deinterlaced=video_org_crop.AssumeTFF().QTGMC(preset="slow", matchpreset="slow", matchpreset2="slow", sourcematch=3, tr1=2, tr2=1, NoiseTR=2, sharpness=0.1)



### convert to YV16

deinterlaced_yv16=deinterlaced.convertToYV16()



### denoising

denoised_yv16=deinterlaced_yv16.TemporalDegrain2(degrainTR=3)



### convert to YUY2

denoised=denoised_yv16.convertToYUY2()



### convert to YV12

denoised_yv12=denoised.convertToYV12()



### sharpening

sharpened_yv12=denoised_yv12.LSFmod(defaults="slow")



### convert to YUY2 with chroma from YUY2 color space

sharpened=sharpened_yv12.convertToYUY2().MergeChroma(denoised)



### add borders

video_restored=sharpened.addborders(crop_left,crop_top,crop_right,crop_bottom)



return(video_restored)



/*

stackhorizontal(\

subtitle(video_org.SelectEvery(1,0,0),"video_org",size=20,align=2),\

subtitle(video_restored,"video_restored",size=20,align=2)\

)

*/

Open the script in VirtualDub and save it with "Fast compress" HufYUV, or feed ffmpeg with the avs script to create a h264/aac compressed file in a mp4 container:

Code:

ffmpeg.exe -i input.avs -c:v libx264 -crf 17 -preset slow -aspect 4:3 -c:a aac -b:a 128k output.mp4

The plugins will evolve during time, so if needed upgrade to last version of them once available

Of course this is just a basic/quick restoration, playing with the filters and their parameters the result can be improved a lot!

Enjoy!

Edit: if it helps, here you can find the complete AviSynth_plugin_dir, but is better if you download and get familiar with the plugins by downloading them yourself: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vB2...ew?usp=sharing

Thank you for the detailed downloads. I've just downloaded the Avisynth 2.60.exe. and will do the plugins now. Once this script is added in virtualdub will it be activated on all subsequent captures I do, or is this script specific to just this capture.

It is just a generic and basic deinterlacing/denoising/sharpening script. Does not take into account the input/output levels, color correction, specific defects related to each segment, personal taste for the outcomes and so on. Theoretically every video and every shot needs its own filtering.

If you enter in AviSynth/VapourSynth world you'll find many many options.

Ok thank you. I noticed the cropping part in the script. This script is post capture I'm guessing? Is there a avisynth filter that deals with the crushed blacks blown whites during the capture. I couldn't find a way to adjust the Pinnacle 710 procamp how would I access that? Sorry for all the questions I know I've got a lot more reading to do. Thanks.

What software are you using for capturing? For VirtualDub look here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...-settings.html or here https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/...pture-from-VHS

Procamp "tab" is specific to your capture card

Thank you. I'm using virtualdub. I've looked at video levels on sanlyn's guide so many times and didn't realise that it's for the proc amp settings even though it's so very clearly states "proc amp settings" I'm so sorry for asking you so many times. Thank you for your patience.
I've also been looking at sanlyn's cropping "set capture clipping" to temporarily remove black borders. I assume what figure is removed from the side has to removed on the top to maintain the aspect ratio but I need to read more about this.

Quote:

I assume what figure is removed from the side has to removed on the top to maintain the aspect ratio but I need to read more about this.

While configuring the procamp all black borders must be removed to do not alter the Histogram, without taking care of the aspect ratio.

When you capture, you do not crop anything, and capture the whole 720x756 frame.

When you post-process, you remove all black borders and head switching noise for proper filtering operations.
Once done you add the black borders of the same quantity you removed, or, better, to fill the frame to a 704x576 frame rather than a 720x576 frame, to respect the aspect ratio with higher accuracy. Example:

Code:

# cropping 

        crop_left=8

        crop_top=2        # | 720-(8+20)x576-(2+10)=692x564

        crop_right=20

        crop_bottom=10



crop(crop_left,crop_top,-crop_right,-crop_bottom)\

addborders((crop_left+crop_right)/2-8,(crop_top+crop_bottom)/2,(crop_left+crop_right)/2-8,(crop_top+crop_bottom)/2)

edit: the addborders() command above in addition also centers the active area

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