Cowboy Bebox DVD Box (NTSC) to x264

[=mikk=]

Hello!

First of all: i´m really new to this and it looks like i have chosen an hard first project :o
So, i´m trying to convert the Cowboy Bebop DVD Box (NTSC) to x264/ac3 (mkv) and have started searching on the net (mainly here ;)) on how to do it correctly!
There are quite a few posts on this forum which mention Cowboy Bebop already BUT: most of them are 3-5 years old!
So i think the tips/filters recommended there are not really up to date and there might be better ways of doing it now. So thats why the new post!

What i want to do:

deinterlacing/TIVTC: my main problem - have not much clues here
some light visual enhancement if possible without harming the overall quality
converting to x264, best quality (prop. even anamorph) - no problem here i think, have some experience (although not with anime yet)
doing it in batch! i mean universal settings for the conversion if possible (perhaps DVD3-6 need to be different because of the lower bitrate in the source) -
i would like to avoid reviewing and reencoding every episode multiple times (after all there are 26 episodes)


About 1: megui analysis is choosing hybrid(mainly film), TFF, TIVTC. Are these ok, or has someone better settings? (megui or avisynth script)
a test encode for episode 1 looked quite good for most scenes. only the credits were really bad (but that would be ok).

About 2: the quality for CB is quite good - so i don´t think much filtering is needed but a little denoise and derainbow would be nice - but this is also something i haven´t done before.

I hope someone can give some hints for me here...

thanks in advance and happy new year to all!
Mikk

[mahsah]

Hum, maybe Neuron2 will show up (I seem to remember decomb was made using CB as a test).

For IVTC, you can just use what Megui recommends if it gets rid of all the combs, or if you really want you could try out VFR video (the 2-pass mode is working very good for me):

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/VFR#encoding_to_vfr_.28mkv.29

For filtering, you could always take a look at this guide: http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/avtechbeta/avspostqual.html

Although I would recommend against deen for smoothing as there are other filters these days that work better then it and don't oversmooth or distort the colors as much.

If you are curious, here is a script I am using for an anime that I am currently backing up. Likely you will need to modify it alot for your source (derainbowing like you said, you also might want to mess around with limitedsharpenfaster a bit), but I guess it could give you a good idea of where to start


global MeGUI_darx = 9113
global MeGUI_dary = 5000 # Signaling for megui anamorphic encoding
mpeg2source("VTS_01_1.d2v")
colormatrix(interlaced=true,d2v="VTS_01_1.d2v") #color correction, your source might not need this
tfm(mode=1)
Vinverse() #recommended to me in another thread to get rid of leftover combs during a "fading scene change" - if you don't have a problem like that you can remove this
TDecimate(mode=5, hybrid=2, dupthresh=1.0, input="stats.txt", tfmin="tfm.txt", mkvout="timecodes.txt") #2nd pass for MKV VFR
crop( 4, 0, -4, 0)
spline36resize(720,480) #or another resizer
hqdn3d(0,0,3,3) #temporal stabalization - I found that in dark areas I had tons of flickering color edges in dark areas
degrainmedian() #basic degrain, keeps most detail.
fastlinedarkenmod(thinning=1,strength=50) #line darkening


Note my source is widescreen (hence the signaling for megui at the top). I don't remember the aspect ratio of CB, but you might need to change the script for that as well. Also I chose to encode anamorphic - you might want to resize.

Basicially it all comes down to what looks good to you; the settings above look good to me, but you might like something completely different.

[=mikk=]

thanks for the reply mahsah!!

i'm playing with the scripts for the visual improvement right now. i think what you gave me will be working fine (i'm using only parts because there isn´t much to do in CB). will still look into the linedarkening but as i have dvd source i will properbly stay with the original.

about ivtc: it´s not perfect but almost never visible in normal playback on the beamer (beside the credits).
on the monitor i can still see some artifacts but unless someone has an better tip i think i can live with what i get from megui. i still have to check other episodes though.

about the vfr: this looks interesting - i´m not shure if i got it correctly: is this an alternative to ivtc?? (this is how i understood you) or is it just additionally to improve compressabilty of the video?

Note my source is widescreen (hence the signaling for megui at the top). I don't remember the aspect ratio of CB, but you might need to change the script for that as well. Also I chose to encode anamorphic - you might want to resize.
AR is 4:3, source is 720x480 (704x480 without black bars if i remember correct now). i think i will go for anamorph aswell - as i don´t really care about filesize and have HD equipment.
the movie is widescreen but i don´t think i will have problems with thisone, seems not to be hybrid like the series...

thanks & regards!