Aren't there any Avisynth filter guide for newbies(dummies)?

[numbaz]

I feel terrible bugging some of you for past few days, but I've got nowhere else to turn to. So please understand..

There are hundreds of filters available and yet,
It is way too difficult to nail down the THE RIGHT FILTERS (or filters).

For a newbies like myself, trying through one filter after another It is extremely agonizing process.
And still, I can't diagnose whether my video needs to be uncombed, Degrained, Smoothed,
Sharpened, Undotted or Tweaked in some kind of way, simply because, I can't tell
Ganja plant from coca plant.

(However, I saw a lot of references regarding Interlaced issues though.)


It'll be really helpful, if "before-and-after screenshots of filter usage" were available somewhere.
(I believe I did fair amount of googling but came down without much success.)

I'm really exhausted, could anyone point a direction where to go to?

Thank you.

[neuron2]

I think you are taking the wrong approach. Instead of going through every filter known to man and asking "should I use this?", you should be driven by your video itself: ask yourself "Is there a problem with this video that bothers me and which there might be filter that could help?". Then research what filters exist for addressing that problem.

So, what video problem are you trying to fix?

After you've done this for a while you'll build up a good general knowledge of Avisynth filtering.

[jggimi]

Many of us began our AviSynth usage through using Gordian Knot. It offers both automated script generation and a collection of filters which make an ideal starting place. It accepts DVD (.d2v) or .avi input.

[trolltuning]

The info at Avisynth.org is layed out in a way to help you get started. As far as interlacing:if your final watching will be done on a TV leave it interlaced. If your final watching will be done on a computer screen you might want to deinterlace but for now it's usually not stricltly necessary as most software players can do this on playback.

[Anonymouses]

As far as interlacing:if your final watching will be done on a TV leave it interlaced.

That really depends on the material. If its pure interlaced content yes, but if its telecined material it would be best to IVTC and encode it progressively (assuming the material hasn't undergone some horrible telecine).

If your final watching will be done on a computer screen you might want to deinterlace but for now it's usually not stricltly necessary as most software players can do this on playback.

Eh, I'd recommend if one really does need to deinterlace the content that it would be better to use an avisynth deinterlacer because most software players have horrible built-in deinterlacing options.

[Anonymouses]

It'll be really helpful, if "before-and-after screenshots of filter usage" were available somewhere. (I believe I did fair amount of googling but came down without much success.)

Did you look in the Avisynth forums? There are tons of screenshots or sample clips to look at comparing filters and their effects.

[unskinnyboy]

@numbaz, Like neuron2 said, the first thing to do is to identify the problem you have. You need to find out the "technical" term for that problem and then go looking for a filter (or filters) to address it. For example, you might find a "weird" issue with your video and won't know what to call it. That's when you could open a thread here and ask about it. I have found that people here are much open to help you identify the issue as opposed to if you just open a thread and ask "which is the best way to clean up this video". Now, lets say if we have helped you identify the issue (e.g: DotCrawl), you can go searching for which filters are available to fix it. Now the number of filters you have to deal with would come down to 3 or 4.

Cut a small portion of the video file and apply the above 3-4 filters to it one after the other (with different settings) - make sample files, compare. Go with the one which looks best to you. Repeat same process with weird issue #2. After a while, you will get the hang of it.

[numbaz]

Never thought of cutting a portion out to trying on th filters. OTL.. Gosh.. I've been applying filters to 2 full hour video, and waiting for the results all along. I feel crappy... but I'm relieved there's an easier way to do this.

Thank you!

[Anonymouses]

Never thought of cutting a portion out to trying on th filters. OTL.. Gosh.. I've been applying filters to 2 full hour video, and waiting for the results all along. I feel crappy... but I'm relieved there's an easier way to do this.

You don't even need to encode the video to see the effects of the filters as you can see the results in VirtualDub and just scroll through.

[numbaz]

you mean.. you could load an avs files in Virtualdub?
I'll try that right away.

[neuron2]

Yes, of course you can. Try it!

[numbaz]

http://img494.imageshack.us/img494/3663/square7ho.th.jpg (http://img494.imageshack.us/my.php?image=square7ho.jpg)

The pixels form bunch of squares, which then form a group looking "tree-ring-alike" or "ripply-wave-alike" as whole. It also gives glittering effect, especially on skins and light colored objects.

I've been trying hard, but I can't seem to get rid of it that easily. (Still working on it..)

Does anyone have recommendations for specific filters?

[unskinnyboy]

@numbaz, Is that the unprocessed VOB or some filtered output? If the former, please post a sample here so we can take a look too. If the latter, please post sample + your script.

P.S: To decide if you like the filtered output, load the avs into VirtualDubMoD and scroll thru it (like Anonymouses said), but still before going for a full-length encode with those settings, I'd still recommend you first try it out on samples, to compare the encoding times (sometimes the filter output would look quite nice, but the encoding times would be insanely slow, e.g: iip function) and filesizes (filters which enhance image details by sharpening etc would need more bitrate and hence would result in higher filesizes than without it).

[numbaz]

I'll try everything I can, for now. I've still got much to learn about avisynth and encoding in general...

Thank you for the advices~!