help with VirtualDub

[hearmemeep]

Hello! This is my first post here, so please pardon the newbie-ness

I'm very new to AMV-making in general. I completed my first AMV (an Escaflowne one) a few weeks ago, and while it felt great to actually finish creating it, the video itself turned out rather fuzzy when I took it off the DVD.

So I tried following the instructions on AMV's website (a tutorial on working with DVD footage) in an attempt to get a sharp, clean image on my footage. So far, it's gone rather nicely when it comes to some of my Anime (I had asked someone on here who had very clear, clean footage for a "Full Metal Panic" AMV to help me out and their suggestions worked WONDERFULLY for a Chobits box set my fiance bought from an online importer). From what I can tell, there doesn't seem to be much difference between my Chobits DVD and the result on the computer.

However, when I decided to put Chobits on the back burner for awhile and make my next AMV one for "Louie the Rune Soldier", I found myself having a bit more difficulty. I bought my copy of Rune Soldier from Hastings, so my guess is that it was a North American release (I'm not sure if this helps any, but I read on the tutorial that there is a difference in the frame rate between Japanese and American DVDs).

To give you an idea of what I've already done with the footage, first I ripped it using a program called DVDdub (I think that's the name of it... pardon me, as I'm not at my home computer at the moment) because the original DVD program mentioned by the tutorial was unavailable for download anymore. It still, however, produced a very clear .vob file for me.

I then used d2avi to create a d2avi file from the selected .vob file. I then wrote a code for AVISynth(?) to get the d2v file to load on VirtualDub.

This is where the problem comes in.

There are parts where the background seems to be going at a different framerate than the foreground, giving it a very 'choppy' appearance. This mainly happens during action scenes.

I'm also having a 'smudged' effect on certain parts of the frame in some scenes. A similar effect happens when there is dialogue. The mouths moving seem to have a ghost effect where it looks like one frame showing a mouth as being open is still there when the character closes their mouth.

I tried going ahead and encoding the footage with DIVX like the guide instructs and then using a 'smoother', but that only helped so much. I also tried to change the 'guide' value on the AVISynth file to '0' instead of '1', and that seemed to have a slight difference in how things looked, but still not enough to solve the problem.

If someone has any suggestions as to what I can play around with to try and prevent the 'choppiness' I'm getting and smooth out the smudges, I'd very much appreciate it!

[Kariudo]

if I understand correctly:
you ripped the dvd
wrote an avs script to import into virtualdub
then encoded with divx.

if this is the case, then you could have missed/skipped a few things.
you should use a program like Dvd2Avi or DGIndex to further process your .vob files (into d2v files)

with the d2v files, you can use the line
Mpeg2Source() instead of directShowSource() or AviSource in your avs script.

There is a difference not only in framerate, but also resoultion and refresh order (between NTSC and PAL). Generally speaking, NTSC is easier to work with

when you use dvd footage, you should always (or almost always) use Inverse Telecine.
this is easy to do, and involves using:
Telecide(order=0, guide=1, post=2, blend=true, vthresh=30, back=1)
Decimate(cycle=5, quality=3, mode=2, threshold2=4.0)

the parameters inside Telecide and Decimate may differ for you.
use the following two guides to assist in avs scripting:
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/ ... th_dvd.pdf
and
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/ ... etb2a.html
(there's more on using avisynth near the end of the guide)

if you can spare the space, use HuffYuv or Lagarith (lossless codecs) to encode your footage for editing. After you are done, feel free to use divx.

the blurryness that you describe might be from using a smoother filter (like smartsmoother). If you prep your footage corectly, you shouldn't (most of the time) have to use a smoother afterwords.

it would also help if you posted your script, and gave links to a few screenshots

overall, I'm impressed that you took the time to ask for help and read through at least part of a guide, good job.

[hearmemeep]

You know... I thought I had left something out of my post

My apologies. Yes, I did indeed use Dvd2Avi to convert the .vob file into d2v format.

The tutorial I've been working with has been the http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/ ... th_dvd.pdf one.

Originally, my .avs file looked something along the lines of this:

LoadPlugin("-Plugin File Location-")
LoadPlugin("-Plugin File Location-")
MPEG2Source("-DV2 File Location-", idct=5, CPU=4, IPP=true)
Telecide(order=1, guide=1, post=4)
Decimate(quality=3)


I then changed the guide to '0' and tried adding the 'blend=true'. It seemed to help some, but not drastically. I did not, however, put anything down for vthresh or back. I'll definately try seeing if that helps it. I also don't believe I've used the huffyuv or lagarith codecs yet, so I'll give those a try as well.

I didn't use the 'smartsmoother' until after I had finished converting the video into .avi format. Before I used the smartsmoother, it had already the problems that were noted.

As I am not at my home computer at the moment, I can't provide any screenshots, but later on this evening, if I still experience difficulty with the footage, I will most definately post some here if it helps solve the problem. But my hope is that the code and codecs listed above will solve the problem.

Thank you very much for your fast response! Much appreciated

[Kariudo]

I made my first (and only) 2 amvs using the guide you did, but felt dissapointed in the lack of quality.
I started to do some searching, and the second guide has very good tips.

I don't remember what vthresh and back do at the moment...but I do know that you can find out all of the details by looking at the files that came with the plugin.
for the Decomb plugin that you get from vicbond 007's guide, go to where you saved the plugin, and select decomb reference manual

this gives extensive information on all the functions and parameters that you can use

[hearmemeep]

Thanks! I'll check out the second guide and see what it can offer.

I'm sure the quality of your first two videos greatly surpasses my first AMV. I suppose it could have been worse, but it's so painful to watch it and then see other AMVs on the site that are so sharp and high-quality.

What I used to make my first one was DVDx and Windows Movie Maker. No matter how much I worked with it, DVDx just couldn't capture the type of quality I was looking for. But hopefully utilizing both tutorials will help make my next one at least have a nice quality image to it

[hearmemeep]

Hmmm.. well I seem to still be having issues with it. It looks like the mouth blurring isn't as bad as before, but is still there in some instances. The second guide rather confused me, unfortunately. Though I did try messing with the .avs script, but it didn't seem to have much of an effect.

Here's the basic AVS script I'm using:

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\dgmpgdec145\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\Decomb521.dll")
MPEG2Source("C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\My Movies\LouieTest01.d2v", idct=5, CPU=4, IPP=true)
Telecide(order=1, guide=1, post=4)
Decimate(quality=3)


Unfortunately, it's hard for me to get screen captures of the problem. Most of really can't be seen in a single frame and is more of choppiness of frame rate than anything else. I tried to get a screen capture about what I was talking about with the mouths having a blur to them, but it was hard to show on some places where the blurring was occuring within a single frame.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/ ... ouie01.jpg shows the problem with the mouths that remains.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/ ... ouie02.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/ ... ouie03.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/ ... ouie04.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/ ... ouie05.jpg

all show the problem I'm having with blurring (smudging.. whatever you wish to call it) in general.


I've noted something strange, though. The same smudging effect appears even when I'm looking directly off of the DVD. Is this normal? I would be afraid of my DVD being bootlegged except the fact that I bought it at a popular retail store. Or is there another explanation for it?

Sorry if some of this ends up having a rather obvious solution. I'm still very new with this. But hopefully this will help with finding a solution.

Thank you in advance!

[hearmemeep]

Ack! I forgot to note that the multiple pictures is a sequence of frames next to each other to show the blurring effect that's occuring. I hope that it's noticeable. It's more noticeable if you're watching the frames go by, but I wasn't sure how to convey that in a screenshot.

[Scintilla]

louie01.jpg is just a case of Telecide failing to match the fields correctly, thus leaving a frame that's still combed... BUT, because only the mouth (which is a tiny part of the image) exhibits any combing, Telecide incorrectly detects the frame as progressive, so it doesn't get deinterlaced. You could try lowering the value of Telecide's <b>vthresh</b> argument to make it detect the frame as combed and deinterlace it (though you would have to set it pretty low), or setting <b>back=2</b> to force it to check the backwards match.

louie03.jpg is just deinterlacing that looks less than perfect. I believe the interlace removal page of EADFAG tells you how to use an alternative to Telecide's deinterlacer (namely, LeakKernelDeint) if you don't like the deinterlacing you're getting.

Alternatively, you could just use TIVTC instead of Decomb, but there's no handy how-to guide for that package yet.

[hearmemeep]

Wow... fast reply Much thanks!

What's the default value for vthresh? I tried setting it to '0' and it worked, but I'm not sure what setting it that low will do to other aspects of the video....?

[Scintilla]

What's the default value for vthresh? I tried setting it to '0' and it worked, but I'm not sure what setting it that low will do to other aspects of the video....?

*checks the Decomb documentation*

The default value for vthresh is 50. Setting it to 0 will make sure you catch all the combed mouths, but it may end up causing some good progressive frames to be detected as combed and (incorrectly) deinterlaced. Your call.