I have a video which flickers pretty badly.
Is there a model that can deflicker it? I’ve tried a few but they didn’t seem to help at all.
I’m using version 5.1.4, but I’m willing to upgrade if it’s a feature that exists only in newer versions.
Difficult to guess what “flickering” is without an example.
If you can use the command line, the Topaz build of FFmpeg includes the photosensitivity filter to blur bright flashes. It is more for interpolated-blur of frame-flashing, a production technique that was popular back in the day.
extreme example of FFmpeg photosensitivility filter
Interframe “shimmery” flicker on flat surfaces may be temporal noise. It is very common on digitizations from analog, especially after some full-field deinterlacing of analog. Temporal noise can be reduced with Neat Video or FFmpeg’s hqdn3d. Unfortunately, hqdn3d is not included in the Topaz build of FFmpeg so would require some kind of pre or post process, ideally using a lossless-codec workflow.
To explain what I mean, I’ve uploaded a short excerpt from my video, unlisted on Youtube:
The brightness oscillates in a rhythmic pattern. I think Youtube changed the video framerate, but the original was 50 fps, and the oscillations are in cycles of 6 frames, so about 8Hz.
What you would call this? And what tools can fix it?
There is not currently a tool or model designed specifically for this type of situation. Some users have used the Frame Interpolation models to increase the playback frames which can lessen the flickering.
I’m assuming that this is from the cine transfer [assumption though]. It is unlikely to be strobing from fluorescent lights because it is happening on outdoor scenes too (but those indoor scenes are also suffering from the fluorescent color cast). If you have access to the original reel, a professional transfer should be able to match the capture frame-rate to the film-speed. Then, a per-scene color correct in a non-linear editor. After that, TVAI.
If you don’t have the original film then there’s an old thread on doom9, with a before and after example that has similar challenges to your clip. But that involves jumping down the avisynth rabbit hole. Step-through frame by frame and you will also see that every N’th frame is telecined, so you also have some hard-telecine going on (maybe from an intermediate DVD transfer?).
The “deflicker” and “tblend” filters often apply temporal averaging (ie blending the luma values between subsequent frames), but your flicker is not limited to just luma. Run it through a histogram filter (using FFplay) and you will see instability in intensity in both luma and chroma planes in your sample. So it is best to go back to source.
I try to avoid avisynth (because macOS), but those with the skills can perform some amazing recoveries, but often taking many, many hours.
Have a scan [!] up and down that thread.
It will be much more effort than a one-click in TVAI.
Thanks, I’ll see if I can do a better transfer from analog.
It does not eleminate but could lowering flickering when you increase fps by interpolating frames into TVAI
