Help needed with VHS noise

[LeoH]

OK I've got this old music video PAL VHS tape that I'm trying to remaster to DVD. I captured using a good VCR and the ADVC-100, but not suprisingly I still had a noticable amount of ugly VHS voise in the picture. I've been fooling around with different scripts and plugs for AviSynth and the best result I could get was from the "No Mo Snow" script using the default settings. While the picture is very clean, I still feel like I'm losing more detail than I want (and since it's already a crummy lo res VHS) I'd like to retain every shred of detail that I can.

Here is the before still:
http://s90519770.onlinehome.us/test1.png

Here is after NoMoSNow:
http://s90519770.onlinehome.us/Test1NMS.png

I freely admit that I'm basically a newbie when it comes to this, so I'm wondering if any video noise gurus can offer advice on this one? Do you think I can reasonably expect to retain any more detail and eliminate noise using some other script?

Here are a couple sets of clips:

Short clip (http://s90519770.onlinehome.us/Test1short.avi) (21MB)

Short clip after No Mo Snow (http://s90519770.onlinehome.us/Test1shortNMS.avi) (19MB)

Longer clip (http://s90519770.onlinehome.us/Test1.avi) (138MB)

Longer clip after No Mo Snow (http://s90519770.onlinehome.us/Test1NMS.avi) (120MB)

Any help or wisdom would be greatly appreciated! I realize the colour is bad also, but I'm really just concerned about the noise right now. I'm basically just wondering if anyone thinks I can improve this - or maybe this is the best I can hope for? Cheers! And ten extra points if you guess who the band is! haha... ; )

Leo:)

[Prettz]

I would say that the filtered short clip actually looks pretty good. Even the unfiltered one looks pretty decent (doesn't look like it would be TOO terribly difficult to encode).

What detail are you trying to preserve that the filtering removes?

[LeoH]

Thanks for the reply Prettz! Well maybe I'm being too picky, but it seems to me that the picture just has a somewhat soft gauzy look to it after going through the No Mo Snow process. It could be an optical illusion, because I understand that grain and noise can give the appearance of enhancing detail sometimes. So that's why I just wanted to get an opinion from some "fresh" eyes. So you think the faces of the guys are not looking too smoothed after the noise reduction?

Thanks!

Leo :)

[rfmmars]

I have downloaded your two longer samples, but have not looked at them as of this time.

It is true that grain does give that feeling of more detail. The most important thing is does the process have artifacts with motion?

Right now I am trying WNR .01 Wavelet Noise Reduction for Virtualdub. I could not find it anymore on the web but luckly I had downloaded it a while back. You can call it in Avisynth, and has good documentation.

I will try it out on your clip and let you know the results.

richard

[LeoH]

I'm not sure if you would call this a motion artifact, but you will see that some of the wires on the boat start fading in and out after noise reduction - which probably means I need to tweak settings on the VagueDenoiser or RemoveDirt plug I guess.

Thanks for trying WNR I'll be curious to hear the results!

Leo :)

[Tuesday]

You might want to try the Dust series of filters, in my experience Pixiedust(5) can do amazing things in the way of noise removal without screwing up the pitcure.

Get it here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=42749)

[LeoH]

Thanks Tuesday, the "No Mo Snow" method actually uses two passes of Pixiedust(limit=2) already - and I agree it seems to be a great filter. I haven't tried it by itself yet, maybe I'll give it a shot.

Leo :)

[rfmmars]

I had trouble with both of your clips in any version of VD and on three different workstations. A horizontal color pattern would appear coming from the top down, You might want to check your upload.

I was able to play it ok in another program. I don't have enough storage to place another clip, so a Jpeg will have to do. I used the wavelet plugin for noise reduction.

Below is the filter chain that I used in VD. Auto Levels allowed more contrast so I could see the noise better, you do not have to use it. However the higher contrast and white ballance also gives the impression of more detail.

http://www.members.cox.net/rfmmars/wavelet.jpg

VirtualDub.audio.SetSource(1);
VirtualDub.audio.SetMode(0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetInterleave(1,500,1,0,0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetClipMode(1,1);
VirtualDub.audio.SetConversion(0,0,0,0,0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetVolume();
VirtualDub.audio.SetCompression();
VirtualDub.audio.EnableFilterGraph(0);
VirtualDub.video.SetDepth(24,24);
VirtualDub.video.SetMode(3);
VirtualDub.video.SetFrameRate(0,1);
VirtualDub.video.SetIVTC(0,0,-1,0);
VirtualDub.video.SetRange(0,0);
VirtualDub.video.SetCompression();
VirtualDub.video.filters.Clear();
VirtualDub.video.filters.Add("Auto-Levels");
VirtualDub.video.filters.instance[0].Config(20, 20, 50, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0);
VirtualDub.video.filters.Add("RGB to YUV");
VirtualDub.video.filters.Add("wavelet noise reduction (0.1)");
VirtualDub.video.filters.instance[2].Config(13107, 13107, 13107, 13107, 13107, 13107, 13107, 13107, 13107);
VirtualDub.video.filters.Add("YUV to RGB");
VirtualDub.video.filters.Add("xsharpen (1.0 beta 2)");
VirtualDub.video.filters.instance[4].Config(255, 153);
VirtualDub.audio.filters.Clear();
VirtualDub.subset.Delete();

You should be able to port over to Avisynth

richard
photorecall.net

[LeoH]

Richard I'm not sure why my clips aren't working well for you. I checked them and they play fine on my systems - even in WinAmp! They're Huffyuv v2.1.1 files so maybe if you have the newer version of Huffyuv it causes trouble? Just an idea...

I'll try the filter chain tomorrow if I can get it ported to AviSynth - thanks very much for the help! I think the contrast and levels adjustment help the picture a lot, but do you know what causes the jagged lines on the edges of high-contrast areas? It looks like an interlace artifact but since this was all shot on film is that possible?

Thanks again,

Leo:)

[rfmmars]

LeoH...... I don't know what is causing the jagged lines, it could have been my capture of the frame. I wish I have been able to posted a .BMP or .AVI but don't have the space.

It could be the Huff codec 2.11 but both clips plays fine in other programs. This is just the opposite in most cases where VD will play anything but a clip won't play elsewhere. Since there was two clips downloaded, I don't think its corrupted.

I have just started to play around with this "Wavelet" filter, so don't take those settings as law.

If you use the lastest "AutoLevels" from EOD, it has to be the first filter called as seen in the .VCF There is a bug in the filter where if you import the .VCF it will not load the rest of the chain, there is a missing "," on the last setting. However even if you correct the file, it will only load the defualt setting for that filter.

richard

[hartford]

Could you find some place to post the WNR filter?

Thanks.

[rfmmars]

I think right now if you just e-mail that would be best

rfmmars@cox.net

richard