How can I mask noise on a DVD dubbed from VHS?

[bkshir]

Hello. I have a question. I have searched the forum and found answers that fit to some degree or several answers and processes that may render the results I want if I go through multiple conversions and processes etc. However, I am looking for the most effective way to do this without (or with minimal) quality loss.
What I have is a DVD that was dubbed from VHS tape on a DVD-R/VHS combo unit. I have the IFO, BUP, and VOB files ripped to my computer’s hard drive. I am trying to find the best way to remove the noise, or “running ants” as I’ve seen them called, at the bottom of the video. I would prefer to mask them rather than clip them since that area of the screen is not shown on most televisions due to overscan. I would just like to clean up the video a little and make it appear cleaner when played on a computer. So, my question is: What is the simplest solution for this problem with the best output quality?

Thanks in advance,
Bill

[olyteddy]

You can crop or mask and clean in Virtual Dub Mod or VDub MPEG, then save the output to something a bit smaller like Xvid. VDub won't output to MPEG, however, but you've already got the DVD version for your stand alone player.

[bb]

Welcome to the forum bkshir,

you cannot strip the "ants" without reencoding the video. That means you will lose quality; the more compressed the video is, the more visible artifacts you'll get.

A more or less easy way to do that is to write a tiny AviSynth script to read the VOBs, crop and resize it (or mask the fuzzy area), then feed it into your favourite MPEG-2 encoder and author the resulting video to get a DVD structure again.

[...]What is the simplest solution for this problem with the best output quality?[...]

The simplest solution I can imagine is to glue a tape on the viewing device where the "running ants" are. Very quick, and no quality loss either ;)

bb

[bkshir]

Thanks for the replies. That is the answer I expected to get since I searched all over for a solution before posting and had not found anything (other than reencoding). But, it appears fine on most TVs anyway so it's no big deal. I may attempt to reeencode it and mask it just for the hell of it and see how it turns out. Thanks again.

Bill

[pluto32]

Just for future reference, there's a handy FAQ describing how to mask the overscan noise using VirtualDub.

Check out section "7.1.5 Removing garbage at the bottom of the clip" http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/capture/postprocessing_vdub.html