Clean up of old 8mm movies

[bseidner]

Back in the day I had 8mm movies moved onto VHS. I recently got a bug to edit these back into the digital domain and imported them on a good VHS manchine, using an s-video connection and a Canopus 300 A/D converted box. Now that they are on the time line I would like to take out some of the old scratchy lines and bad color, and poor saturation. I can tackly the color and saturation issues but I do not know if there is a filter in Edius5 that will help old movies look less old. I have changed the speed of them (to about 75%) which makes them look more natural; but they still look old..

Anyone ever try to do this before with success?

[MinMinc.]

I'd give "neat video" demo a try, you need "virtual dub" first and neat is a plugin...I recently accidentally shot video at 12db wihch resulted in a lot of noise, after rendering the footage thru neat video it looked lide 0db !!...it might clean up the old school look you have..like I said I think they still have a free demo trial...Gary

[shueardm]

Cleaning up noisy video is one thing. Taking out the character of old movies is usually not the aim but each to their own.

[bseidner]

Neat video looks good

Is there a way to plug it into either Edius 4.5 or Edius 5?? I would rather not render out of Edius into virtual dub and then pull it back in for this - but I will if I have to.

[MinMinc.]

I don't think neat works within Edius...I've only worked within neat and save it for Edius..Gary

[bseidner]

Thank you Gary

What is your suggested method for rendering out of EDIUS and then out of virtual dub without loosing any video quality? Right now this is an NTSC SD project.

[plasma_video]

I use HQ or Canopus Lossless instead of DV. That would be preferred if you have the hard drive space.

I pop back and forth between Edius and Vdub all the time with those CODECs. Canopus DV CODEC is excellent, and you won't have any generational lose if you use that, however. On your older material, you probably won't see any difference between DV and HQ.

Within VirtualDub world, look for the MSU filters online, including one called Old Movie Color Restore, and DeNoise 2.51, which uses the GPU for processing. It's a really fast noise reducer.

Neat Video is amazing, but it's slow processing because of the intense math involved.

[Jim N]

After Effects more appropriately has a function to clean up old film that works quite well. Removes both scratches and grain and is tunable. Very render intensive however.

[rob stowell]

Thanks for the tip on "neat video". I shot a rather vital sequence at 18db- pretty dumb. It was going to be very difficult to re-create. I've just bought a copy of Neat, and it's remarkable. The footage ain't perfect, but it IS usable. I probably need to learn how to tweak the settings a little better- but so far, I'm very impressed. Cheers-

[AJL14]

Rob - you are 100% correct - a little experimentation goes a really long way. I use Neat and Virtual dub a lot, and even though it may not always turn out "perfect" (whatever that means), it is always improved. It's always a balance decision, of whether to "take the time" to improve your results, or accept the way it is at the present, and stop complaining. Most editors I know, will do anything to improve the results, and obtain their "minds' eye" image of what it "can be", and are willing to take the time and plunge into it to make it better. I am, and I make that choice one way or another each time. That's another reason I love EDIUS - it gives us that option all the time.
Cheers,
Alan

Thanks for the tip on "neat video". I shot a rather vital sequence at 18db- pretty dumb. It was going to be very difficult to re-create. I've just bought a copy of Neat, and it's remarkable. The footage ain't perfect, but it IS usable. I probably need to learn how to tweak the settings a little better- but so far, I'm very impressed. Cheers-

[rob stowell]

There was a mention on the Neat forum of an Edius version- now that would've been NEAT. I've not used virtual dub before- heard of it for years, but never had a specific need. It's impressive too. With less than 2Mb of code (zipped, anyway), it does a heck of a lot. I'm going to try to subtlely add a touch of sharpness now most of the noise is gone.
A quick question: I applied the same setting to a whole sequence- it was all shot at +18 db, so the same noise problem. It's all improved. But I'm wondering if I should really tweak each shot individually?

[AJL14]

Rob, there's probably no direct answer to your question - because no one has seen your footage except you. You have to determine if all the original scenes look pretty much alike in the noise and brightness arena, and if so, then one setting for the entire batch would probably work pretty well. If there's a difference between one scene and another visually, then separate settings might improve the results. I don't think a judgement can be made by anyone but you, comparing the scenes. Or give a try to one individual scene and see if it improves with an altered setting.
Good luck,
Alan

[rob stowell]

Thanks Alan- I've had a go today. It's all an interior sequence with the same lighting, the same fault, and the same look, and I'm going with the one setting. I spent a lot of the day dragging drives back and forth and copying footage (I can't cut this on my HDStorm machine, since I need Avid's timewarp- but I did capture it in Canopus HQ via component) and I need to get at least a first cut done. I'm still impressed with how it's improved things- though I know it's possible to do better. Cheers-

[TrackRanger]

Rob, please keep us informed of your outcome, preferred settings used etc, and level of satisfaction. It would be good to share your experiences with other users, including the use of filters etc (if any) in Edius itself, and how acceptable the results are. TIA

[Thor]

A recapture would be best.

This is my primary business. If all you have is the VHS, so be it.

But if you still have the original film, have it recaptured.

The difference between in quality and resolution of a frame of film captured to VHS, and the same film frame captured directly to DV with good equipment, is stunning.