Black streaks & interlacing effects on old tape

[DarkWave]

Hi,

i just captured some old tape-material from my girlfriend. As you can see in the two samples, there is lot to do :D

problem is, how can i filter the streaks and the interlacing effect. the interlacing effect is just showing up, when the camera moves, the streaks are shown on all high contrast differences...

can someone help me?

here are the samples:
http://members.lycos.co.uk/emulexikon/miscpics/pic1_1.jpg
http://members.lycos.co.uk/emulexikon/miscpics/pic1_2.jpg

greetz
DW

[Mug Funky]

weird that frame on the outside being there. i've seen stuff like that before on some bootlegged VHS's (which we had the rights to of course). must be a similar camcorder.

my suggestion is fire, and lots of it :)

maybe you'd like to post a sample of the video. 100 frames or so, straight from the capture (no processing). it'll be easier to see what can be done with it, though i fear it's going to look pretty fugly no matter what we throw at it.

you might be able to scrape some extra quality by getting the tape captured by a place with relevant equipment. i suppose it depends how much you're willing to spend :)

[DarkWave]

Sorry for the late reply, was in another town for about two weeks :D

Here's a sample: Sample (http://www.savefile.com/files/190081)

DW

[DarkWave]

...any ideas?

DW

[Fizick]

May be you can try my Descratch plugin after SeparateFields and Turnleft.
But really more special plugin must be created.
Learn C++ and create it! :)

[2Bdecided]

This looks like it's copied from an old film - maybe an 8mm home movie? It also looks like it's been through a couple of generations of VHS.

If you still have the original 8mm film, go back to that! Dramatically better results can be achieved than what you have now, e.g. see:

http://www.moviestuff.tv/8mm_telecine.html

http://dvisionvideo.com/transfers.htm#videos


If you don't have access to the source (or even an earlier generation VHS) then I'd be very upset if it was my film.

As for the "interlacing" effect - there are two things happening here. There are the nasty black lines (random, on everything, especially very dark/light edges) from the bad VHS dub, and there are the interlacing artefacts (on movement only) that look like it's already been resized without being deinterlaced. (Has it been standards converted as well as everything else?!)

EDIT: I could be wrong about that weird interlacing - something weird may be happening here!

To state the obvious: even adjusting the tracking by hand may help a little, but the damage was probably inflicted in an earlier generation copy.

Cheers,
David.

[G_M_C]

One question: In the left uppercorner I notice "PLAY" having the same kind of artifacts as the movie. Is that the "PLAY" printed by the VCR, or is that on the tape too ?

If it isn't on the tape, you might be lucky, because it then looks as if the VCR is a bit borked (of you might have to tune it in again or so). If is is on the tap though, then it is proof that it is a copy of an older VHS tape.

[2Bdecided]

Another thought: if it's from an ~18fps film, there's lots of redundancy in there, which might just help.

Cheers,
David.

[DarkWave]

One question: In the left uppercorner I notice "PLAY" having the same kind of artifacts as the movie. Is that the "PLAY" printed by the VCR, or is that on the tape too ?

If it isn't on the tape, you might be lucky, because it then looks as if the VCR is a bit borked (of you might have to tune it in again or so). If is is on the tap though, then it is proof that it is a copy of an older VHS tape.

hi,

it's on the tape, too...

the film was recorded in russia with an old 8mm camera (in the seventies). Then it has been brought back to germany where someone out of the family has projected it and filmed it directly from the wall to a vhs-tape. this was some years ago, too (around 1989). The old 8mm-tape has gone and there is just this copy of that film :(

Darkwave

[2Bdecided]

OK, that's sad, but you can still improve it some.

I've looked properly, and it has been resized without being deinterlaced. That means the interlacing is broken - you'll see interlaced artefacts even when watching on an interlaced display. If you just bob() it you can see what a mess it is.

If you look at, say, frame 20 (without bobing) you can see the pattern - It looks like every fifth line is duplicated. If the pattern remains consistent, it might be possible to remove it.

As for the black lines, if you use a maximum filter (like a median filter, but it takes the maximum of several pixels), apply it in the vertical plane only, and apply the result with a mask which only lets it change the black areas (black stripes would be even better) then you'll get some improvement. I've tried it (without the mask, so all areas have been processed) in an image editor, and attached the result. When the black lines get really thick, this doesn't work (unless you use a larger filter radius, which kills even the rough details on this clip).


If avisynth.org was up and I was a little bit better at scripting, I could suggest a script to do the same thing, but I'll have to leave that to the gurus around here, because I can't find a "maxfilter", and don't know how to make one (though it's probably quite easy - vertical image shift, compare pixels, keep brightest etc).

Cheers,
David.