Archive format and Avisynth basis script
 

Hello,

I searched and made some decision two years ago regarding:
- what format to capture
- what format to encode
as I already had some tapes digitalized and I read a lot around this forum or in general on internet.
Now I am pretty much ready to encode and compress all my video files I captured but I want to be sure I am not doing any big mistakes on that decision from two years ago.

I captured like this:
Video
ID : 0
Format : HuffYUV
Format version : Version 2
Codec ID : HFYU
Duration : 59 min 57 s
Bit rate : 63.3 Mb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 5:4
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:2
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 6.102
Stream size : 26.5 GiB (94%)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : 1
Duration : 59 min 57 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 411.2 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 kHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 605 MiB (2%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves

Then I have a basis script that I tune for each of my file (here one example).
Due to the original SECAM signal converted on most time to PAL, and somehow having high brightness and some blue noise (or yellow) I activate some "mask" and it gives pretty much good results. I attached the master script so you can read the details.

#Increase Avisynth memory
SetMemoryMax(768)
#Load source
source=AVISource(sourcepath)
output=source
#Load all plugins
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth\plugins\warpsharp.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth\plugins\ChromaShift.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth\plugins\convolution3d.dll")
Loadplugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth\plugins\mvtools2.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth\plugins\Cnr2.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth\plugins\unsharpHQ_v05_x86.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth\plugins\GScript.dll")
LoadVirtualDubPlugin("D:\VHS\60_Encoding\Masterscr ipt\Camcorder_Color_Denoise_sse2.vdf", "CCD", 0)
#Load functions
Import("D:\VHS\60_Encoding\Masterscript\Script_All Functions.avs")

#Initial YUV and TFF
output=AssumeTFF(output)
output=ConvertToYUY2(output)
output=ColorYUV(output,off_y=0,off_u=-15,off_v=8,gain_y=0,gain_u=0,gain_v=0,gamma_y=-50)
#############
#Beginning of script
#############
output=IncreaseColorYUY32(output,1.3)
output=ApplyCcdRGB32(output,10,true)
#output=ApplyBlueMaskLeftRightYV24(output,0.5,1,1, true,false)
output=ApplyBlueMaskYV24(output,0.5,1,1,true)
#output=ApplyYellowMaskYV24(output,0.5,1,1,true)
#output=ApplyGreenMaskYV24(output,0.5,1,1,true,fal se)
output=DeinterlaceYV12(output)
#############
#End of script
#############
output=CropForDvd(output,18,14)
#output=ShowColorLevels(output)
#output=ShowRework(output,source)
return output

And then I encode with VirtualDub 1.10.4 and with following specifications:
Video
ID : 0
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High 4:4:4 Predictive@L3.1
Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 4 frames
Codec ID : H264
Duration : 2 min 54 s
Bit rate : 9 906 kb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 540 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 50.000 FPS
Color space : RGB
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.510
Stream size : 206 MiB (98%)
Writing library : x264 core 152 r2851bm ba24899
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:-2:-2 / analyse=0x1:0x111 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.25 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=6,6 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-4 / threads=6 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=0 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=23.0 / qcomp=0.80 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.10 / aq=1:0.50
Color range : Full
Matrix coefficients : Identity

Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Format settings : Joint stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 2 min 54 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 kHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 3.99 MiB (2%)
Alignment : Split across interleaves
Interleave, duration : 20 ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 500 ms

Now comes the questions:
1. In which format shall I store the videos on HDD/SSD?
Shall I keep them in huffyuv?
I am not really planning to recode them later on but who knows... It is just a lot of data to backup especially considering how often an external harddrive just died out of nowwhere, even if drives are becoming cheaper.

2. Somehow I chose x264 because I recall it is one of the most used codec and I made different checks of quality and it looks to me as I want it. In general, I am sure I will use some of these files to make another video with Adobe Premiere and maybe rework them a little in terms of color/noise but only on very specific selected parts (not all of them, that's too much and not interesting).
Is that a mistake to code them like this?

3. I recall it was good to use 720x540 instead of the original format 720x576 for storage. Is that true? I cut the lines below and on top (tracking as I remember) but I do not resize to avoid loosing quality. I think I wanted to make it DVD compatible, even if I am always getting confused with the DAR/SAR stuff.

4. I get 50fps instead of 25fps. The video looks very smooth. Im fine with it. Is that a problem (eg. for compatibility in future or something like that)?

Thank you.