Improve quality of digital 8 video

[klassal]

Hey

I signed up as a premium member, and uploaded a small clip o a media fire account

Would you be able to take a look at it and see if you can improve it? Its from a karaoke party I had, outside at night...looks ok on the computer but on the HDTV it has noise which makes it hard to see peoples faces clearly

I have been encoding it left as interlaced using a very high video bit rate of 8.5, lower fields, and still looks kinda poo on the HDTV

I am using Adobe Premiere so if possible filters from that, or any free software /plugins that are straightforward to use

Thanks!

[admin]

Do you have a lot of hard drive space available? I mean like 1TB+ not just a few hundred GB's of space.

Can you describe the noise you see, in what words possible (tech terms no required)? I'm honestly not seeing anything wrong in the video. It appears to be standard DV quality video, shot at night. The resolution/clarity is pretty much the max available for that format, at 720x480. The image actually looks pretty decent.

The only thing I can see in need of possible fixing is the low-light sensor noise. In the case of video, chroma noise. Premiere has nothing to help with this that I'm aware of. Even VirtualDub is weak in this area. I ran your video clip through the very-good but very-slow NeatVideo (as VirtualDub plugin), and was able to remove the chroma noise with some custom settings.

See images: (must be logged in!)

These are 200% enlargements from a portion of the video. Notice the red/blue noise in the video. This is low-light sensor noise. In still cameras, this is caused at a high ISO.

HDchroma-noise.jpg

And after some custom settings in NeatVideo:

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The presets had a bad habit of reducing the clarity, making the image softer. I also wanted to remove more chroma noise than default choices showed.

These were the settings:

HDchroma-neatvideo.jpg

I want to be sure you're not confusing interlacing lines with noise. Are you familiar with interlacing?

Hope that helps.

[klassal]

yes i have 1.5 TB free
is NeatVideo available for Premiere? Is there a cost?

did you burn it to dvd and try on a plasma HDTV? I have pretty good Samsung 58" model only a year old

what I notice is lack of clarity in peoples faces, almost like a pixelated effect. Since its a karaoke DVD the comedy ensues based partly on peoples facial expressions, so I would like to improve that clarity a bit if possible You can also see it in the background which isnt as big of a deal. I just called it noise, I'm not sure if thats what it is or if its interlacing lines...i would say noise but am no expert

Again this is much more pronounced on the HDTV...on the computer it looks pretty good. Hooked to the DVD player with decent component cables

[admin]

NeatVideo is $50 for the standard definition version, and does come in a plugin version available for both the professional Premiere Pro and the home/consumer Premiere Elements. I use the VirtualDub version. The HD version is $100. More information and buying options at the official site: http://www.neatvideo.com/purchase.html

In terms of clarity, there's nothing more you can do with this video footage. Get an HD resolution camera for next time, and/or move closer to the people's faces to see them closer.

A large TV set will make standard definition video look softer. Some HDTV sets work better than others.

Interlacing is further discussed at http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/vid...nd-sources.htm on the bottom third of the page. Look for the Thundercats images.

SIDE NOTE: At first I thought your video was HD camera work, since the uploaded footage was 16:9. That's why I asked at first about the 1.5TB of space -- you would need it to restore HD video. However, later in the reply, I realized it was just SD DV video, so nevermind on the HDD space question.