Need help in removing these artifacts

[digitalone]

I've been working on an indian dvd. the source as usual is bad. i've been trying to remove these pixel blocks using various de-interlacing combinations (TDEInt, TomsMoComp etc.). i tried to IVTC it as well but it hasn't worked for me so far.

- Pixel Blocks
http://maxupload.com/img/CBA9C141.jpg

I haven't been successful in removing these strange dots appearing on the edges..

- Dot like artifacts
http://maxupload.com/img/3E957D23.jpg


i've uploaded a Sample VOB here:
http://maxupload.com/8872A503

any help is appreciated. thx.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Well those blocks don't look like interlace artifacts to me, they look more like blocking and dot crawl. Hard to tell from JPEG screenshots though. Do try keeping full resolution, and compress in PNG. It's bigger, but is exact.

I'm downloading your sample right now, and will try it out.

~MiSfit

[Blue_MiSfit]

Okay, not sure why you picked that sample for the VOB, it's just credits moving. I see the dot crawl pretty easily. I tried using GuavaComb to fix it, and had mixed results.

Not sure what to suggest. Using TFM().TDecimate() to handle IVTC seemed to work reasonably well, hard to tell without a real scene. It didn't leave too much combing in the credits anyway.

Hopefully someone else can help.

When you upload samples, use someone other than rapidshare. People sometimes have issues. Also, consider using DGIndex to just demux an m2v instead of including the extra bits required for the audio track(s).

~MiSfit

[digitalone]

@blue_misfit: thx for replying. in the AVI (along with sample VOB) if you see, it's showing lots of blocking or maybe haloing in dark areas. blocking is clearly visible here. that's only reason behind picking up this sample.

i am uploading a sample VOB with real scene on maxupload. will post the link here in few mins.

[digitalone]

here's da link to real scene sample vob..

http://maxupload.com/8872A503

thanx.

[digitalone]

@blue_misfit: somehow guavacomb didn't work for me. i tried DeDot() for removing dot crawls and to me result looks good. there are still some leftovers (nose part) if you see the images below. can they be removed as well with high parameter settings?

Before:
http://maxupload.com/img/EFC38254.jpg


After:
http://maxupload.com/img/DF308DE4.jpg


Chroma blocking is still there. is there a way i can reduce/remove them without loosing much details? if u've time can u pls take a look at the real scene sample here?

Sample VOB:
http://maxupload.com/8872A503


thx.

[DarkT]

Tcomb would help more then DeDot... Atleast so my experience with anime showed... In the readme of Tcomb there are instructions how to tweak it specifically for DotCrawl.

[digitalone]

@DarkT: thx for ur input mate. i tried TComb with these parameters..

TComb(mode=0,fthreshL=12,othreshL=12)

it successfully removed dot crawl but it tends to blur/distort da image. check the lips and jaw part.

http://maxupload.com/img/AFA7312D.jpg

any suggestions?

[DarkT]

Did you go about it custom adjusting like it said in the manual? like, 1st make one of them 255, and then up the other one from 1 and more - untill it clears it up, remember it, and then do same fot the other value...

Only, one of them will most likely stop helping after ~3 or 5 or 7... you need to notice when that happens so that you don't go from 3 to 15 just because it helps 1%...

Basically, I say just try to play with the values...

Also, apply it PRE-IVTC... DotCrawl/Rainbows should be killed as much as possible at the pre-ivtc stage(or so I've heared, and experienced best results with).

If all else fails, you can try DeDot, and then add Tcomb... Though I dunno how efficient that would be in truth...

[digitalone]

Yes..i went thru the manual and applied the custom adjusting described in it.

Also, i changed certain DeDot values and it removed all the dot crawl. in certain frames i still do see dots, maybe coz the filter needs a few static frames for removing dot crawl.

i'll try your suggestion. thx. :)

[manono]

So, I downloaded the first one and got 64 MB of useless credits and an AVI with the wrong framerate. Then I download the second one, which provided something useful. And by then you had learned how to both unblend it and get the correct framerate - close anyway.

If I had to guess, that's not a new movie, was sourced from VHS tape, and a PAL VHS tape at that. Not one, but two logos on every frame? Each of the 3 pics you provided is worse and more cartoonish than the one before. Indian DVDs are the worst in the world. Why waste time trying to turn dogs**t into cows**it? In the end it's still s**t.

You get all that shimmer/aliasing because the source is garbage, and because the unblenders use bobbed frames for a lot of the output. Can't be helped, and after being unblended it's still way better than the source. I long ago learned to live with it, and it looks OK on the TV anyway.

Unblend it, sharpen it, resaturate it. That's about all you can do. In my opinion, anyway. With this one you might also crop away the black and resize it. You might do something about the 2 logos. You might try and do something about the heavy edge enhancement. I've worked with a lot of Indian DVDs. More than I care to admit, and more than most people. The sad state of Indian DVD production is kind of discouraging for those of us that like Indian films.

[digitalone]

thx for ur input, manono. sorry for the credits sample. i've fixed the link in first post. :)

yeah the source is crap and i've been spending lots of time on it. considering the resources i've, running filters like fft3d, mvtools etc wud just be an overkill for my system.

wat can be done about the two logos? can they be removed? if so, pls tell me how. DeHalo_Alpha successfully removed edge enhancements & it looks pretty good now.

i tweaked bright/contrast/colors with Levels and Tweak filters. there is an AVI along with the last sample. can u pls tell me if they can be improved upon?

thx.

[manono]

I didn't download the AVI. As for the logos, because they're nearly transparent, they shouldn't be too hard to remove. AviSynth doesn't have a good logo remover. Although the VDub ones can be used within AviSynth, I've always found it more trouble than it's worth, and just do it inside of VDub. The better of the 2 is, in my opinion, the Delogo Filter. It comes with very good instructions, but here's another guide to its use:

http://forum.videohelp.com/topic280003.html?sid=83e077ffeff886912f1537090a318029#1376335

[Didée]

Although the VDub ones can be used within AviSynth, I've always found it more trouble than it's worth, and just do it inside of VDub.
Can't fully agree here. Going through the "trouble" of applying Delogo through certain Avisynth functions definetly IS worth the effort.

In the thread on videohelp.com you referred to, have a look at the screenshots of this post (http://forum.videohelp.com/topic280003.html#1450687). Alas, that's a "typical" result of Delogo-in-Virtualdub: Lots of noise.

For comparison, have a look at the examples in this post (http://forum.gleitz.info/showthread.php?p=172450#post172450) (German Doom9/Gleitz):

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/6427/delogo1compareet5.th.jpg (http://img413.imageshack.us/my.php?image=delogo1compareet5.jpg)
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/7566/delogo2comparewe3.th.jpg (http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?image=delogo2comparewe3.jpg)

(1) is what you get from Delogo directly (i.e. when just using it in Vdub).

(4) is the result of my little function buried in that thread.


Another one:
In this post (http://forum.gleitz.info/showthread.php?p=177274#post177274), a case is handled where the transparency actually was so little that plain Delogo left back an "unusable" result. (I forgot to include the results of plain Delogo, but you can believe me that it looked really bad - similar to the Disney Channel problem shown in the videohelp thread, but x-times worse. Much more annoying than not delogo'ing at all.)

Before-After results of the customized function:

http://img98.exs.cx/img98/2784/before5yr.jpg
http://img98.exs.cx/img98/7664/after9wz.jpg

http://img98.exs.cx/img98/5236/before21ei.jpg
http://img98.exs.cx/img98/780/after29zk.jpg


Delogo is a powerful filter. However for the most satisfying results, you need to twist'n'wrest its results through Avisynth. ;)