Restoring a Umatic Music Video

[Paddywack0]

Hi all,
I'm a newbie to AVISynth so forgive my ignorance. I'm working on a restoring a 20 min music video programme that I produced, filmed and edited in 1985! It was originally filmed on PAL VHS and Lo-Band Umatic and then edited on Umatic. Released on VHS the masters and the rushes were lost in the mists of time. However the Master UMatic tapes have recently resurfaced as well as a UMatic Dub (the rushes are lost forever). I work now as a professional video editor so I took on the task of trying to restore them. The Master tape was suffering from sticky shed syndrome but after baking I managed to get a picture from it. The Dub copy was actually in better shape. So I now have 2 different digitisations of the source material.

There was a lot of drop out of the comet tail variety. I have used the Despot filter which has done a remarkable job of getting rid of those. I am now looking at the next steps to put in the chain and am a bit bewildered by the options.

The original is PAL 768x576 25 interlaced - I have digitised at Avid PAL SD 2:1 25i which produces an MXF file. I have used QTSource to read the file.

What would people suggest for the following:
Denoising
Sharpening
Reducing Moire/interference artefacts.

This would be to produce a DVD master.
Then for an HD master I would be looking at:

Deinterlacing
Upscaling. (Although I might use the Topaz VideoEnhance AI software for this).

Any suggestions/tips/pointers would be gratefully received. My script so far is pretty short!

Here's a couple of stills which show some of the problems. the comet tails have now been removed:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1klaDi7ildgw0KIxksgo7DRVNNWTAyZI5/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h2VrUx-alR40Flsm8fPJOYOtgrOgUcsj/view?usp=sharing

[Paddywack0]

Bumping this.
Anyone got any ideas what I should do next beyond DeSpot. Some kind of denoise and then sharpening? + DeInterlacing. Just a bit stumped on what to use.
Any help gladly received.

[StainlessS]

Here's a couple of stills which show some of the problems.
People are probably still admiring your stills. :)

Even if you do provide stills at some point, not of much use for comments, only a sample of the source will be of much use for advice from those that could help.
Original source (prior despot) would be best. And as for Despot, can I suggest you at least give SpotLess() script as shot instead.
30 secs of original source with movement is pretty much always minimum required for any real help.

EDIT: There is also a filter called Decomet().
EDIT: See post here:- https://forum.doom9.org/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=1800999

Decomet (JMac698), or DePulse, DePulseC, DeVCR. (DePulseC, for chroma streaks only, DePulse/DePulseC YUY2 only).

DeComet,
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/357149-Can-someone-create-a-comet-removal-Avisynth-plugin-please/page2
https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=163049

DePulse/DePulseC, DeVCR:- https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=151426

EDIT: DeVCR (link from above link is 404):- http://avisynth.nl/index.php/DeVCR

[FranceBB]

Without a sample it's kinda hard to know what would work and what wouldn't, as StainlessS said.

Just as a reference, this is what I used for a kinda poor SD capture that I had to Remaster and bring to AVID as XDCAM-50:


#Indexing
video=FFVideoSource("\\mibcssda001\Media Ingest\00_INGEST_MAM\A.R.C.A\00_FILE_DA_ENCODARE\file.avi")
ch1=FFAudioSource("\\mibcssda001\Media Ingest\00_INGEST_MAM\A.R.C.A\00_FILE_DA_ENCODARE\file.avi", track=1)
ch2=FFAudioSource("\\mibcssda001\Media Ingest\00_INGEST_MAM\A.R.C.A\00_FILE_DA_ENCODARE\file.avi", track=2)
ch3=FFAudioSource("\\mibcssda001\Media Ingest\00_INGEST_MAM\A.R.C.A\00_FILE_DA_ENCODARE\file.avi", track=3)
ch4=FFAudioSource("\\mibcssda001\Media Ingest\00_INGEST_MAM\A.R.C.A\00_FILE_DA_ENCODARE\file.avi", track=4)
audio=MergeChannels(ch1, ch2, ch3, ch4, ch1, ch2, ch3, ch4)
AudioDub(video, audio)

#Bob-deinterlacing
QTGMC(Preset="Placebo")

#Bring everything to 16bit planar
HBD=ConvertBits(bits=16)

#Convert to 4:2:2 planar 16bit
c=Converttoyuv422(HBD, matrix="Rec601")

#De-Sport 16bit planar
SpotLess(c, chroma=true) #play yourself with RadT=, ThSAD2=, pel=

#Degrain in 16bit planar
super = MSuper(pel=2, sharp=1)
bv1 = MAnalyse(super, isb = true, delta = 1, overlap=4)
fv1 = MAnalyse(super, isb = false, delta = 1, overlap=4)
bv2 = MAnalyse(super, isb = true, delta = 2, overlap=4)
fv2 = MAnalyse(super, isb = false, delta = 2, overlap=4)
degrain=MDegrain2(super,bv1,fv1,bv2,fv2,thSADC=1200, thSAD=1200)

#Spatial denoise 16bit planar
denoise=dfttest(degrain, sigma=64, tbsize=1, lsb_in=false, lsb=false, Y=true, U=true, V=true, dither=0)

#Adding borders for 1.33 PB 4:3 with 16bit planar precision
borders=AddBorders(denoise, 152, 0, 152, 0)

#Upscale to FULL HD with Spline64 + NNEDI and 16bit planar precision
resized=nnedi3_rpow2(borders, cshift="Spline64ResizeMT", rfactor=2, fwidth=1920, fheight=1080, nsize=4, nns=4, qual=1, etype=0, pscrn=2, threads=40, csresize=true, mpeg2=true, threads_rs=0, logicalCores_rs=true, MaxPhysCore_rs=true, SetAffinity_rs=false)

#From 16bit planar to 16bit interleaved
interleaved=ConvertToDoubleWidth(resized)

#Matrix Conversion from BT601 to BT709 with 16bit interleaved precision
color=Matrix(interleaved, from=601, to=709, rg=1.0, gg=1.0, bg=1.0, a=16, b=235, ao=16, bo=235, bitdepth=16)

#From 16bit interleaved to 16bit planar
planar=ConvertFromDoubleWidth(color)

#Dithering from 16bit planar to 8bit planar with the Floyd-Steinberg error diffusion
dithered=ConvertBits(planar, bits=8, dither=1)

#Limiter TV Range 0.0 - 0.7V
Limiter(dithered, min_luma=16, max_luma=235, min_chroma=16, max_chroma=240)

#PAL Re-Interlacing
assumeTFF()
separatefields()
selectevery(4,0,3)
weave()