Before/After .AVI capture, MP4 conversion - Critiques?
 

One of my favorite self-filmed VHS videos of Union Pacific Steam, Chased from 1989 to 1993. This one is from 1993. Captured using Mitsubishi HS200U,with TBC, AVToolbox 8710, to Win XP PC with ATI 9600XT,and ATI Multimedia TV Capture... First file is .avi Cap, 2nd file is converted from that, to .Mp4 using VLC Media Player conversion function, tweaked to: Video Codec H-264 @ 4992 kb/s. .Mp4 sample is much longer play time than .avi sample, but contains same footage as .avi near middle. .Mp4 is example of quality I have been uploading to my favorite Train Website. Any Comments/Critique would be Greatly Appreciated!

It seems a tad soft, but many reasons exist for that, and the reasoning may be valid.

Audio looks good.

Are you uploading the MP4 for web viewing? If so, mask overscan, deinterlace, fix aspect ratio to 4x3.

Contrast seems high, but many reason for that as well. Hot clouds, dark train.

Rich blue sky seems almost fake, some signs of boosting green as well (left side smoke, train, in AVI sample). Again, may be the source, nothing you can do here. Maybe it's already fixed as best as possible.?

Mostly nitpicks. Video enjoyable -- that's what matters! Overall clean and stable, free of artifacts. :)

Yes and thanks, lordsmurf posting mostly to special train website and a few to facebook. Was filmed using 1990's standard consumer grade Video cam, using s-VHS tape. Struggled "auto Iris" with that cam back then. And the blue sky in Idaho was so blue, it looked fake even to the naked eye!:laugh:.

I guess it's an example of several factors that amateurs almost always overlook, or don't get an opportunity on-the-scene to make obvious corrections. Yes, the camera's autogain managed to degrade the video with all its contrast pumping, so there's not much you can do about it except try to compensate in some way with auto-level filters and manual means.

Looks as if it was shot at mid-day, probably some of the harshest and least desirable lighting conditions one could aim for, and the main object looks backlit to boot. The sky doesn't look fake to me, although a polarizer could have helped even things up a bit. Turning off AGC would have been a good idea in most circumstances, but not with the lighting involved here unless one just wanted to let the sky wash out completely. Of course all this is moot, as it likely can't be shot over again. But it would have been a good idea to try to control contrast levels during capture, because contrast most of the time is beyond the capabilities of digital video, and perhaps some sprucing up could occur later in post processing. As it is, the last shot of the mp4 has permanently blown out highlights. There are also some color problems: at the start of that last shot, the locomotive and other black objects are dark olive green, but after the light explodes the same objects are turning purple and the white cloud in the background gets clipped to the point of turning orange. There are also some aging effects: the left quarter of the images is more green than the rest of the picture. This is evident in the original .avi, where the train turns green as it approaches the left-hand part of the screen. Shadow details in this shot are crushed.

Definitely a problem video, one that would require shot-by-shot corrections in shots where corrections might be possible.

Howdy ya all! have been away for a bit....Can I use Virtual Dub to Mask Overscan? and if so, then how? I HAVE been uploading my videos without masking, but that jiggling line across bottom of video can be annoying to some viewers, I thought that masking would take away or change the pixel or aspect ratio/resolution?....Plus I thought that de-interlace kills quality?...Plus how to fix aspect ratio, (Virtual Dub?) I thought my capped files were already 4x3? will have to go back and check that one..Thanks, Happy belated 4th of July too!

Yes, VirtualDub masks.

- Add the Resize filter.
- Letterbox/crop to size to match the source resolution. OK.
- Now do Cropping by 2 pixels per side. OK, OK.
- VirtualDub output preview should show centered masked video.

Deinterlace is a necessary evil for streaming/progressive viewing. Leave interlaced for TV or disc formats.

Thanks Lordsmurf, I also simply googled the subject, many search results right back to DFAQ answers of course!...but your reply here makes it even more clear!:tiphat::tiphat:

My Mitsubishi HS-HD2000U VCR (New out of box a few years ago) has a Soft/Normal/Sharp playback setting, have been using the Normal setting to keep cap video as close to master tape as possible, could try the Sharp setting, but might add un-wanted artifacts?...Plus glad to see Audio looks good, because sometimes when I run the ATI self diagnosis/installation check, it usually shows everything is ok Exept a (!) for sound card timing +/- may be off a tad. Is a Sound Blaster SB Value, but can't afford to change anything right now.😂