Advice on DeSpot for Super8 film

[ABurns]

I'm working with some rather dirty Super8 film, and I'm really struggling to find some DeSpot settings that will clean the dirt and scratches without leaving blocky artifacts in high motion areas. Here's an example of the artifacts it's leaving.

https://thumbs4.imagebam.com/f0/9d/a4/ME12U19N_t.jpg (https://www.imagebam.com/view/ME12U19N)

These are the settings I'm currently using. This does a good job of getting the dirt, but it leaves the artifacts. I've played with the arguments to try and reduce them, but all it does is clean less dirt.

DeSpot(p1=38, p2=38, mthres=28, dilate=2, pwidth=12, pheight=2, sign=0, motpn=true)

Any advice much appreciated.

[VideoMilk78]

I've just been through the despot saga :p Don't use it!

I recommend Spotless:)

EDIT: Just look at your sample and it looks either AI upscaled or HIGHLY processed. Perhaps you wouldn't mind sharing the rest of your script?

[ABurns]

I've just been through the despot saga :p Don't use it!

I recommend Spotless:)

EDIT: Just look at your sample and it looks either AI upscaled or HIGHLY processed. Perhaps you wouldn't mind sharing the rest of your script?

There is no other part of the script, aside from loading the source. It's a single-function script.

[VideoMilk78]

What is your source then? That is not a clean super 8 capture whatsoever.

[Selur]

A sample would be needed for suggestions,... (since the blocking caused by DeSpot is motion dependent, suggesting anything based on a screenshot seems foolish)

[ABurns]

What is your source then? That is not a clean super 8 capture whatsoever.

I didn't say nothing has been done. I said there's nothing else in this script. How is that relevant to my despot settings?

[ABurns]

A sample would be needed for suggestions,... (since the blocking caused by DeSpot is motion dependent, suggesting anything based on a screenshot seems foolish)

Sure thing.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/9zbpk9tqfn3stlh/sample.mov/file

[johnmeyer]

Spotless or RemoveDirtMC.

There are scripts in these two threads which show how to restore film, including removing dirt.

The power of Avisynth: restoring old 8mm films (https://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1237054)

Capturing and restoring old 8mm films (https://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1592567)

As discussed in a recent thread from last week, Despot doesn't really work.

P.S. The single frame you posted looks like a really bad Super 8 capture. You should post a short sample of the actual video because I suspect you may have issues which will stop Despot, Spotless, RemoveDirtMC, or any other dirt removal algorithm from working. You need a "frame accurate" transfer with no blended or duplicate frames.

[Selur]

I would use multiple SpotLess calls combined with some luma limit mask.
i.e. SpotLess(thsad=16000, thsad2=16000) + a limit mask to keep only is luma <= 90
https://i.ibb.co/9HsK375p/grafik.png (https://ibb.co/N2ZDnMBF)
does not 'eat' the arms&co. (the line at the left is still there with that setup, for that another call with masking would be required)

Personally, I would first look into color adjustments, since after that removing spot&co is probably easier.
(Also: filtering a less processed source for spots&co (especially no denoising, resizing or smoothing) might be easier.