I have completed my first step of digitising some Video8 tapes, using a S-video out from a handcam and an external TBC and capture card, I have captured some raw footage into AVI using VirtualDub and Huffyuv codec.
I would like to ‘improve’ this footage as much as possible without losing detail (i.e. make any improvements - if possible) and upscale it so that I can play it on an outdoor projector and also upload some footage to YouTube.
I have tried Topaz on my laptop but it is just a basic Dell with onboard GPU. It cannot handle anything. Before I invest in decent hardware, I wanted to see what Topaz is capable of.
Is there an expert/guru out there that I could please trouble to send a sample to see what is possible.
I am not sure what settings or profile would be best, but basically would like to
De-interlace
De-noise
Sharpen/improve picture
-Colour correct?
Upscale to HD
I am probably asking a lot, but I do not know anyone with a decent enough GPU to run Topaz. Any help is much appreciated.
Here is a link to the extract of the interlaced footage:
Here is my first attempt. do not watch in the web browser, google messes up the quality for the online play but the download file is ok. no color correction applied yet.
Clip Test.zip (19.5 MB)
Here’s what I’ve been using for my VHS tapes. It’s the Deinterlacer and EZDenoise filter from QTGMC and Proteus Manual settings.
I think your tapes are better quality to start with than my VHS, but all the improvements are still subtle.
Generally Revert compression is good from 50 to 60. 60 can be too much on some videos.
Sharpen at 32 is right on the edge of introducing spot patterns in VHS content. Usually I put it lower like at 20 for higher quality sources.
Anti-alias/Deblur -80 is the most important setting. Not sure why, but right there gives the least undesirable artifacts for most of the videos I’ve been processing.
Yes. If you’re getting something different, it’s probably form my Hybrid settings.
I originally tried to run it with my script, but I don’t have logic for interlaced 25FPS videos. Also of note, I tried Bob, but it gave duplicate frames that made the motion really bad. Though now that I think of it, selecting Odd instead of Even in Hybrid could get you better quality.
hi i’m looking at what i can do on my side little question, is it 8mm camcorder tapes?? When I digitized mine, I digitized them using a firewire port and a pci firewire card, they were digitized to avi dv at about 28 000 kb/s, I see yours is over 60 000 kb/s, how did you do it please?? THANKS!
for your video, with hybrid, I can use bob at 50 fps, it’s smoother
Because you digitizing it with a Handycam (Digital8 Camera), so it outputs as DVCAM format of 29mbps as part of the Camera option and capabilities. basically your camera converts the analogue feed from the Vdioe8 tape into digital feed to be transmitted over the firewire channel in a digital DVCAM format.
He Is not, he uses pure Analogue capture over analogue display cables (S-VIDEO) and a capture card.
He is doing the analogue to digital conversion on his computer / capture card.
so he decided to save the clips in Huffman Lossless compression as part of the capture/conversion process software. that is why you seeing the difference.
I used QTGMC manually scripted through Avisynth using Preset Slower and AssumeTFF(), from my understanding that is with Bobing. Output was 50 fps. Didn’t notice the chopping. Might try a few different configurations in Hybrid and see what is the optimum is.
Seems like the general workflow around here is
QTGMC interlace + EZDenoise - > Topaz for enhance and upscale.
Akila has covered it. But yes, I specifically sourced a Hi8 PAL camcorder with S-video out and line TBC, then sent that through a frame TBC and capture card so I could control the conversion. The Digi8 path is much simpler but the trade off being you are the mercy of Sony’s conversion wizardry.
Ok thank you! I don’t really understand, in order of quality, it’s rca (the red, yellow and white cables), then s-video which is superior and then firewire, even superior to s-video. my camcorder is the sony trv 120-e handycam. I also activated tbc, but what I don’t understand is the speed of 27,000 kb/s that I have, and I read that firewire corresponds to that, about 13 go per hour of video . I also tried rca and svideo which always gave me a lower quality than firewire.
I might get an expert to chime in, I’m just doing this for a box of family Video8 tapes.
The difference is where we are doing the analogue to digital conversion. You’re doing it using the camera, I am doing it in my capture card.
I am doing S-video into a digital converter (capture card) and then storing in lossless format. DV out on the camcorder - the conversion to digital is done by the camera, DV is compressed file format.
1.5hrs of footage is ~40 GB when storing with Huffyuv lossless codec.
Line TBC in the camera is different to a frame/external TBC. You don’t need an external TBC if you are doing DV out.
in fact I connected my camcorder to my capture card via the firewire socket. an external tbc card? what is the way to digitize without loss in huffyuv? because in the end you still use a camcorder to digitize your cassettes, which one is connected to the pc? I thought that with a simple firewire output to my firewire card was the best quality …
With my limited experience trying to transfer my Video8 with both methods (analogue via S-VIDEO & through Digital8), I found that the picture quality of the transfer was very noticeable in favor of the DVCAM through Fiirewire / Digital8. I highly advise you lease a digital8 cam and do it that way.
Same here. I also found the same in my video8 transfers. I use the TRV-355E over firewire and it was much better capture quality then the capturing over S-VIDEO with my Hi8 Sony camcorder over S-VIDEO with a capture card.
Oui c’est ça. Le débit est de 27000 à 28000 kb/s mais c’est la qualité maximal qu’on puisse avoir dans tout les cas, normalement identique à l’enregistrement sur la bande. Moi j’ai le handycam de Sony, trv 120-e et la qualité vidéo est vraiment médiocre par rapport au firewire. Par contre que j’active le TBC ou pas sur le caméscope, ça me donne la même qualité. Je nai pas d’images perdue etc… L’avantage du caméscope que j’ai, sûrement comme le tiens c’est qu’il lit le 8 MM digital 8 et hi8. Et très important, il reconnais les bandes enregistrées en SP et en LP. Chose qu’il faut absolument avoir sur le caméscope si on a des cassettes enregistrées dans les deux modes. dans tout les cas il faut banir le rca et le s-vidéo pour la Numérisation…
little question, is it 8mm camcorder tapes?? When I digitized mine, I digitized them using a firewire port and a pci firewire card, they were digitized to avi dv at about 28 000 kb/s, I see yours is over 60 000 kb/s, how did you do it please?? THANKS!