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09-08-2015, 06:52 AM
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Preface

This post will receive many updates in time. But essentially it will provide many samples that showcase the abilities of Avisynth -- as well as my skills (and thus The Digital FAQ's video services).

Each video shown here is a before/after. It's either a side-by-side 4x3, or a stacked 16x9. Each 4x3 is 640x480 doubled to 1280x480; note that the forum downsizes this to 900x340. Each 16x9 is 720x404 doubled to 720x808; the forum does not downsize these. After each video as a link to download (right-click, save as) the full-sized video.

The bitrate on these videos is a bit higher than average (example: x264 quality 15), so as to show the true nature of the "before". Remember that H.264 has built-in filtering, which can soften errors. You may need a few moments to allow it to fully load, if on a slower internet connection.


Example 1



Download link: http://www.digitalfaq.com/downloads/...eAfter-Q15.mp4

Problems solved:
- tracking lines 100% removed
- film scratches 50%+ reduced
- film dirt 99%+ removed
- unstable jittery video 99%+ stabilized
- color/chroma noise 95%+ removed

Minor color corrections were performed in VirtualDub (mostly ColorMll). The CCD filter was applied to further reduce chroma edge noise after the ChromaShift in Avisynth. Audio was left untouched, though some crackles and imperfections would be trivial to remove.

This is a typical 8mm to 16mm film-to-VHS print. The sample is from a professional retail video, to illustrate that the idea of non-homemade sources being perfect is ridiculous. Studio-shot sources have many warts as well. The original film was obviously atrocious, and the subsequent VHS tape only compounded the issue.

This wasn't a one-click/one-pass-filtering project. Sometimes a scene would not filter well with one method, so the scene had to be extracted in VirtualDub, and filtered again. The final video was reassembled in an NLE (with Adobe Premiere CS4 being my tool of choice). Overall, for a 90-minute video, the entire process (both man hours and machine hours) would have taken about 90 hours.

Note: This clip may have a few small errors, as the project was not 100% completed when this sample was extracted.


Example 2

Coming soon! Many more to come!


Notes

This forum thread is a work in progress.

Understand that what you'll see here is not 'more of the same', as you may find on other sites or forums. It's not just a regurgitation of other scripts. I felt this important to point out. For example:
  • I'm not using anything from videofred or johnmeyer. Their work is certainly admirable, especially for 8mm film work, but I prefer my methods -- especially for the VHS sources I deal with a regular basis.
  • Although some of my scrips have been adapted from the work of others, especially manono and jagabo from the VideoHelp forums, other scripts are my own creations. For example, when it comes to stabilization, I leverage 'stab.avsi' in original ways not seen before anywhere online.
I've been using Avisynth for 10+ years now (early 2000s), and for the first 5+ years I was not at all a fan. The documentation for most filters was terrible or non-existent. However, in time, plugin authors have gotten better. If you follow me on other sites like Videohelp, you may see me griping as such!

Quite a few excellent plugins surfaced in the late 00s and early 2010s.

A lot of die-hard amateur purists like to claim that Avisynth is the end-all/be-all of video restoration, but in reality it's simply one tool of several.

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