Help me restore an awful VCD

[Dark Shikari]

I have a copy of "The Genius That Was China," an old (and quite good) NOVA documentary. However, it only came out on VHS, and I don't have the equipment to do another transfer from the original VHS--and the only digital copy I have is an old VCD transfer. The quality is utterly atrocious, but I think we can probably try to improve this.

Also, if anyone can find me a DVD of it, I'd be quite gracious... but I don't think one exists.

Problems I've found:

1. Frame blending.
2. Massive ringing/blocking/artifacting (encoded at way too low a bitrate).
3. Motion jitter in low-motion scenes.
4. Just generally awful, loads of noise and grain.

Since I don't feel like figuring out how to cut DAT files today, here's a CRF 10 x264 encode (practically lossless) of a short representative clip (http://mirror05.x264.nl/Dark/force.php?file=./GeniusThatWasChina.mkv).

The eventual goal is to put this on a DVD to replace the VCDs, so I would expect to upscale and so forth.

Here's a silly script so far of mine (doesn't fix blending):

pointresize(last.width,last.height*2).NNEDI().turnleft()
pointresize(last.width,last.height*2).NNEDI().turnright()
super = MSuper()
backward_vectors = MAnalyse(super, isb = true)
forward_vectors = MAnalyse(super, isb = false)
forward_compensation = MFlow(super, forward_vectors, thSCD1=500)
backward_compensation = MFlow(super, backward_vectors, thSCD1=500)
interleave(forward_compensation, last, backward_compensation)
dfttest(tbsize=3,sigma=3)
selectevery(3,1)
LimitedSharpenFaster(strength=150)
AddGrain(5,0.5,0.5)
AddGrain(8,0.3,0.3)
AddGrain(12,0.1,0.1)

[Blue_MiSfit]

I'm looking at it now...

I'm curious about the logic behind your pointresize*2.nnedi. Why use this method instead of nnedi's double height mode?

I like motion compensated DFTTest! Creative!

I'll see what I can do...

~MiSfit

[Blue_MiSfit]

OK.. here's my best shot. In short - if I had a decent VHS setup, I'd do a fresh capture for you :( It's that bad...


super = MSuper()
backward_vectors = MAnalyse(super, isb = true)
forward_vectors = MAnalyse(super, isb = false)
forward_compensation = MFlow(super, forward_vectors, thSCD1=500)
backward_compensation = MFlow(super, backward_vectors, thSCD1=500)
interleave(forward_compensation, last, backward_compensation)
fft3dfilter(plane=0, sigma=2, sigma2=4, sigma3=4, sigma4=2)
fft3dfilter(plane=3, sigma=2, sigma2=2, sigma3=12, sigma4=12)
selectevery(3,1)

nnedi(0,true).turnright.nnedi(0,true).turnleft
lsfmod(Smode=5)
grainfactory3(g1str=4, g2str=7,g3str=10)


The only part I can't stand in the output is the drawn portion ~ 30 seconds in. The blending in that section, and the horrible blocking there has utterly defeated me :)

~MiSfit

[Dark Shikari]

What about dealing with the frame blending? It's not as bad here, but in some parts it's the biggest problem with the clip.

I'll talk to the guy who owns the VHS to see if I can get him to have it transferred properly to DVD. It's 4 hours of video though.

[scharfis_brain]

I'll talk to the guy who owns the VHS to see if I can get him to have it transferred properly to DVD. It's 4 hours of video though.
Ask him to do at least a Transfer to DV.
Better would be YUY2 Huffy (or any other lossless codec).

The Video seems to be converted from PAL-Film (25p) to NTSC.
In its corrent stat (VCD) it cannot be restored. You can't do anything agains the blending.

You'll need a GOOD transfer of the VHS (as mentioned above) to remove the blending and other nastinesses.

[Dark Shikari]

Ask him to do at least a Transfer to DV.
Better would be YUY2 Huffy (or any other lossless codec).It'd be nice, though I don't even think he knows what MPEG is... :p

[scharfis_brain]

So maybe he might ask a 'professional' service to do a transfer to DV?

[jeffy]

Dark Shikari, I don't know if they can help you, but according to the info I found the original VHS was published by "Coronet/MTI Film & Video" which was acquired by Phoenix Learning Group in 1997. Maybe you could ask if there is any plan for the DVD, if they own the rights for this title.
http://www.phoenixlearninggroup.com/Contact/