Elfen Lied DVD Quality Trouble and Question

[Kero777]

I am having some difficulty making my footage look clean and I have a question about interlacing. I would appreciate anyone's help on this.

Well, I bought the Elfen Lied Box Set over the weekend and I was experimenting around with the filtering for 3-4 hours last night, but not with much luck. I'll start off with my question first. DGIndex is telling me that my source is interlaced, and I can clearly see that the opening and closing are definitely interlaced. However, even when testing it out in the middle of the episode, I get the same answer, but instead there appears to be no interlacing whatsoever even when I scroll through it frame-by-frame. According to here I have a situation 3, "Progressive footage encoded as 'interlaced'." How should I handle this? Do I use a de-interlace script even though I wouldn't be using the opening and closing?

Now, the quality issues. Before touching the source I can see that it needs some sharpening and deen for the noise. Here is my script:

Code: Select all

MPEG2Source("C:\Documents and Settings\Desktop\elfenliedrip\elfenliedep1d2v.d2v",cpu=4)
Converttoyv12()
crop(4,0,-4,0)
lanczosresize(848,480)
Deen("w3d",3,3,5)
undot()
vmToon(strength=24)
LimitedSharpenFaster(strength=95)
gradfun2db()

If you are wondering why I used Deen AND undot() it's because undot() is very mild and because Deen didn't quite touch it enough... I know I could simply adjust the deen, but I am afraid to do it too much (This is my first time trying EVERYTHING before I edit. Normally I am afraid to overdo it and leave everything to the end and then I am hitting myself because all my effects/text looks different when using these filters for post-processing).

But anyway, when adding the filters new problems are introduced or rather, show up more clearly. I have some shimmering lines in some scenes, the darker scenes have a lot of circles, I have gradients in places... the dark scenes look pretty bad. The gradfun2db() didn't touch any of the problems I thought it would. The pictures below are some example pictures (only Episode 1 because that's currently the only project I have ripped). The pictures on the top and bottom are both the same; The top one is just there with red circles to show the problem areas in the one below it:

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5 (Contains blood and some nudity)

When you click to make them larger, you will see all the circles and problems better.

I also noticed just now that some red colors have lines near the edges and I am not sure if it could be considered "bad chroma". Example:

Bad Chroma?

Any help will be greatly appreciated. If you see any other problems that could be fixed or just anything that could look better in general, please, please mention it. I've been using the same scripts over and over and very sparingly (and very few!). I really need to learn more and I really want to buckle down on visual quality.

Thanks.

[Kariudo]

I can't really see anything wrong, with any of the pictures.
it just looks like the typical noise you find on dvd footage.

the gradients you are seeing may be a result of vdub/mod, vdub/mod's default is 16-bit color depth, which makes it look like your footage has a problem.
IIRC you go video-settings and set the output color depth to "use output setting"
if that's the case, then you'll want to take gradfun2db() out of your script

to help with noise & grain, I'd get removegrain (v1.0), vaguedenoiser and fluxsmooth

Code: Select all

removegrain(mode=5)
removegrain(mode=5)

this removes a lot of noise/grain from footage while preserving details extremely well
modes 2 and 11 are also good, play around with it a bit if you don't like the result

fluxsmoothST() takes care of noise around lines (maybe more, but I mainly notice it around lines)

vmtoon has a built-in sharpener, so throwing limtedsharpenfaster may be overkill

[Kero777]

the gradients you are seeing may be a result of vdub/mod, vdub/mod's default is 16-bit color depth, which makes it look like your footage has a problem.
IIRC you go video-settings and set the output color depth to "use output setting"
if that's the case, then you'll want to take gradfun2db() out of your script

Nope, unfortunately I still see it even when I save it as lossless or preview it in Media Player from the script. There are really bad circle-type things (you can really see it around the lower half of Lucy's face in the first picture) in a lot of the darker areas and even some light ones.

to help with noise & grain, I'd get removegrain (v1.0), vaguedenoiser and fluxsmooth

Code: Select all

removegrain(mode=5)
removegrain(mode=5)

this removes a lot of noise/grain from footage while preserving details extremely well
modes 2 and 11 are also good, play around with it a bit if you don't like the result

fluxsmoothST() takes care of noise around lines (maybe more, but I mainly notice it around lines)

Thanks for suggesting them. I just tried them, and still no luck with my problem areas.

vmtoon has a built-in sharpener, so throwing limtedsharpenfaster may be overkill

The built-in sharpener doesn't seem to be that strong even at the default maximum setting (225, is it?), so I usually add another sharpener as long as the VMtoon isn't set too high.

I uploaded two 8 second clips to show you (since sometimes you need to see them in motion to realize). One clip is before the filters are applied and one is after. The lossless codec is Lagarith and they are small files.

Video Clips:

Before Any Filters Are Applied
After The Filters Above Are Applied

I can't decide if it looks better with or without the script I used.

Thanks for your response. I hope to hear from you again. You seem to know a lot more than I do, lol.

[Kariudo]

now I can see what you mean about the weird color issue, unfortunately I don't know what to do about it.

now that I'm back in windows...
in vdubmod: options-preferences-main and set output color depth to "use output setting"

although the removegrain & fluxsmooth don't seem to fix the problems in your test clip they will make your video easier to compress (giving you a smaller file in the end)

I'd say that the filtered looks better (when it isn't flashing pink and green,) but gradfun2db increased your filesize by 10MB for that 8 second clip

[Kero777]

now that I'm back in windows...
in vdubmod: options-preferences-main and set output color depth to "use output setting"

It is already set to that.

although the removegrain & fluxsmooth don't seem to fix the problems in your test clip they will make your video easier to compress (giving you a smaller file in the end)

I'd say that the filtered looks better (when it isn't flashing pink and green,) but gradfun2db increased your filesize by 10MB for that 8 second clip

That's true. I will probably use them as well. Less Noise=Greater compressibility.

I'm pretty sure it's actually the sharpener (LimitedSharpenFaster) that affected the compressibility. I've never had any problems with gradfun2db() and compressing. If anything, it seems to help slightly. I'll use anything to make it look better than how it does though whether it affects compressibility or not.

now I can see what you mean about the weird color issue, unfortunately I don't know what to do about it.

When it's filtered I noticed the circles show up more. Hm... There has got to be some way to fix this problem.

I really appreciate you trying to help me. Thanks!

If anyone has any suggestions at all, please suggest and I'll test them out.

[Kero777]

Well, I found out that the problem can't be unfixable because I just watched three Elfen Lied AMVs with very nice cleaned up footage... still no luck though even with a couple of more hours last night. In lighter areas most of the time it looks pretty tolerable, but when it comes to a dark area it's like

[Kariudo]

do your vobs look like that when you preview (f5) them in dgindex?

[Kero777]

do your vobs look like that when you preview (f5) them in dgindex?

Yes. Example:

[Zarxrax]

I don't see any problem in the pics on my monitor.

[Kariudo]

you'll see it if you download the test clips