VirtualDubMod w/o AVISynth

[eswrite]

Every guide I've read on VirtualDubMod strongly recommends using AVISynth. However, since I'm having problems reading MPEG2 files with AVISynth, it looks like I'm going to use VirtualDubMod's video filter (plugins) to get the job done. A couple of questions:

1) What would be the advantage of using AVISynth, i.e., what do I lose by using VirtualDubMod as stand-alone processor (performance, quality, or both)? My task involves VHS captured video processing with DVD as the target format.

2) Is there an advantage to de-interlacing video when my final format is DVD, which I think is interlaced (480i)? The two filters I want to run are de-interlace and unsharp mask; the latter can take either interlaced or non-interlaced video.

3) One of my videos is a pretty old tape, and the quality is terrible. Namely, the video is very soft, but I'm afraid of over-sharpening it, and the audio has quite a bit of noise and fluctuation. Any recommended filters/tools/plugins for these two issues?

4) My instance of VirtualDubMod lists several video compression options: for some reason I can't recall, I have used MJPEG Pic in the past. Is this a good compression algorithm? What do people recommend for the least quality loss?

[fccHandler]

Originally posted by eswrite
1) What would be the advantage of using AVISynth, i.e., what do I lose by using VirtualDubMod as stand-alone processor (performance, quality, or both)?
VirtualDubMod sometimes has problems keeping MPEG-2 audio/video sync (especially with VOBs). Additionally there's no way to concatenate multiple MPEG streams in VirtualDubMod.

BTW, are you capturing in MPEG-2 format? If you plan on filtering and recompressing, it would be best to capture lossless (see below).

My task involves VHS captured video processing with DVD as the target format.
Me too. :)

2) Is there an advantage to de-interlacing video when my final format is DVD, which I think is interlaced (480i)?
For VHS to DVD, don't de-interlace.

3) One of my videos is a pretty old tape, and the quality is terrible. Namely, the video is very soft, but I'm afraid of over-sharpening it, and the audio has quite a bit of noise and fluctuation. Any recommended filters/tools/plugins for these two issues?
Well, I personally don't like to artificially sharpen video. If the original is soft, then it just is. I don't have any filters to recommend on that issue.

For cleaning up audio I use an ancient copy of Cool Edit Pro 2000. Unfortunately Cool Edit no longer exists; the software has evolved into Adobe Audition and today it costs $299! (Adobe does offer a free "tryout" version.) I've also heard of an open source audio program called Audacity, but I've never tried it myself.

4) My instance of VirtualDubMod lists several video compression options: for some reason I can't recall, I have used MJPEG Pic in the past. Is this a good compression algorithm? What do people recommend for the least quality loss?
PicVideo MJPEG is excellent, but I'm not clear about how you want to use it in your VHS-to-DVD project. If you're looking for a quality codec to capture with, I recommend Huffyuv because it's totally lossless. You will need a big hard drive though... If you're capturing VHS to Huffyuv at 720 x 480, expect to consume about 30 GB per hour. :eek:

[rfmmars]

You can make a video look sharper by increasing the dynamic range as long as the noise level isn't too high. Also good white balance is important.

Try ColorMil 2.01 It have features not found anywhere else. Autolevels is great if it's a film in your VHS tape.

richard
photorecall.net

[fccHandler]

Originally posted by rfmmars
Try ColorMil 2.01
Gosh dangit, I can't find this critter. Do you have a link?

[eswrite]

fccHandler said:
PicVideo MJPEG is excellent, but I'm not clear about how you want to use it in your VHS-to-DVD project. If you're looking for a quality codec to capture with, I recommend Huffyuv because it's totally lossless. You will need a big hard drive though... If you're capturing VHS to Huffyuv at 720 x 480, expect to consume about 30 GB per hour.

fcc, my VHS capture device is a PVR-250. It's output is MPEG2, so no choice there. As for MJPEG, I don't have enough disk space to do RGB AVI, so I need some sort of compression. You mention Huffyuv is lossless: on one of my WinXP PCs, I have Huffyuv v2.1.1 - CCESP Patch v0.2.2 (huffyuv.dll), but on the other--the one where the capture and post-processing is to take place--I don't have it. How do I get it? I have no idea how I got it on one PC and not the other.

EDIT: I just found huffyuv.dll. It comes with DVD2SVCD, which, lo' and behold, I have installed on the very PC where Huffyv v2.1.1 shows up in the VirtualDubMod video compression list.

[rfmmars]

Gosh dangit, I can't find this critter. Do you have a link?

http://neuron2.net/board/viewtopic.php?t=593

richard