VHS restore/conversion, case study for JTF

[kpmedia]

Sharing notes on one-tape restore job. Record for client, help for the world.

NOTE: No personally-identifiable information is being given, it is generic descriptions only, with some details about the video hardware/software/methods only.

First 30-45 seconds start out rough, stabilizes after that so far. Few tracking errors, caused by camera/VCR misalignment on the recording. SLP mode recording was most damaging aspect, very grainy with loss of details.

Through consumer VCR, tape is quite bad: too bright, yellow, no contrast, too much color, blurry, wiggly unstable signal. This will vary from VCR to VCR. Only tested in one average VCR.

Run through pro deck (AG-1980P), signal appear mostly clean. Sharpening sliders pushed to max, which does pull out some detail at cost of edge grains (should be suppressed by the MPEG encoder).

Color reduced, luma gain turned down, IRE dropped to re-gain blacks, color saturation reduced, chroma shifted along axis -150 degrees to tilt back to red/magentas for skin tones.

Excess chroma noise still present, run through LSI Logic based encoder to further suppress via hardware. Done at some costs to quality, but is lesser of evils overall.

Still some surviving yellow/green tints. Could possible be removed either in an NLE, or hobby VirtualDub software via ColorMill plugin. Further noise maybe removed using commercial too NeatVideo, but at cost of time and possible re-lose facial details.

Audio is "shouty" but clean from source. Hiss present, but mostly detectable at levels that are too loud to hear enjoyably anyway, kids shouting gets too shrill at those volumes.

@ 15 minutes in, video still looking good.

Being encoded at DVD-Video max specs, about 65-70 minutes per disc max. I forget length, will split to multi discs if longer.

Overscan noise will be present in video, as viewed from computer. Not seen on TV. When editing in iDVD, iMovie or Final Cut, remember to mask this -- not crop it. Cover it over with black.

This video honestly may not like much more re-encoding, being as marginal as it is. MPEG cutting/splicing work is suggested. If more content needs to be added, consider self-contained intro/credit/transition screens, and simply insert between clips.

MPEG Streamclip will possibly help. other options include installing VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop, and using software created for Windows, namely Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD.

@ 20 minutes, source changes

Outdoor scenes lack a chroma channel, pure shade of blue video, no reds exist. Segment cannot be restored, but is short anyway.

Few minutes later, reverts to indoor scenes, proc amp changed to match. Indoor much darker, colors more correct.

Color issues are classic problem of VHS and poor white balance on home cameras. We have many of these in our family too, from 80s and some early 90s before switching to S-VHS, then DV.

Video much more blurry indoors, sharpening on proc amp added to compensate. Again, at cost of noise, but high bitrate MPEG encode should be able to compensate.

This project probably could have been done better as uncompressed AVI, but would require a hard drive, and further client editing would be far more difficult than probably desired.

Audio still fine. Gain of microphone tends to overwhelm hiss/hum that is found at higher volumes.

Having to monitor this one more carefully than I usually care to do. Somewhat variable and volatile tape here.

@31 minutes, signal mostly okay still. Some rough cuts between filmings, appears to be some re-use of the tape (tell-tale recording/erase head noise). Still some blue-heavy red-less recordings, but mostly decent color and chroma.

/ End case.

[tomswift]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kpmedia

@ 20 minutes, source changes

Outdoor scenes lack a chroma channel, pure shade of blue video, no reds exist. Segment cannot be restored, but is short anyway.

Few minutes later, reverts to indoor scenes, proc amp changed to match. Indoor much darker, colors more correct.

Color issues are classic problem of VHS and poor white balance on home cameras. We have many of these in our family too, from 80s and some early 90s before switching to S-VHS, then DV.

Video much more blurry indoors, sharpening on proc amp added to compensate. Again, at cost of noise, but high bitrate MPEG encode should be able to compensate.

This project probably could have been done better as uncompressed AVI, but would require a hard drive, and further client editing would be far more difficult than probably desired.

Just had a wedding VHS tape that was similar to this a few days ago. One short section was pure blue (clearly the videographer had forgot to white balance after going outside the church), however, while it was still pretty blue, I managed to get a tiny bit of green for the grass, light pink skin tone and even some pink into the bridesmaids dresses in Premiere Pro. However (and I can't blame the videographer for this one), when the bride was coming down the aisle, just the way the church was the outside light just poured down the center aisle, so while the videographer had white balanced inside the church with the door closed, when the bride was coming down everything was a bit green, but I even managed to tone down the green. I won't give the date, but the videographer was using either U-Matic (I highly doubt Betacam SP) or S-VHS (and even that is on the outside, because the wedding was shot within months of S-VHS coming out, so whether the videographer was using a S-VHS camera, I'm not sure), and at most they were an advanced hobbyist.

[lordsmurf]

It's odd how wedding videos tend to be the worst ones -- even worse than home movies of holidays. I;ve got one here that just came in, and I've not yet put it in the VCR. Crossing my fingers, and hoping it doesn't have horrible color issues.

When it does, like you, it's time for Premiere Pro (CS4 here). That really does have the best color correction, outside of Blackmagic DaVinci and other specialty color tools.

Not transferring U-matic and Betamax was one of the better choice I made. After a while, you get tired of that format. The equipment is such a nuisance to repair. I got tired of it. Good riddance! Even with all it's flaws, VHS is much better in terms of the hardware repair, and even the existence of corrective hardware (Panasonic and JVC decks from late 1990s and 2000s).