A/D conversion of old tape

mel58i wrote on 10/11/2005, 4:02 AM
I've got an old video tape shot on a B&W security type camera many years ago that I want to put on dvd.
I played the tape in a vcr and used my XM2 as a A/D converter.
The picture on the XM2 screen was filled with colour noise (played ok on tv). I can only explain it as a darting herringbone pattern with colour noise. Nevertheless, I captured it into vegas - thinking I could use the B&W filter in vegas to remove it.
On using the filter, the colour noise was removed, but the herringbone patern remained.
I played the clip in windows media player and when I reduced the colour control to B&W all was ok - colour gone together with patterning.
The main problem, I think, was the initial conversion through the XM2. I have to use composite rather than S video due to vcr limitations.

Anyone any ideas?

Mel.

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 10/11/2005, 8:34 AM
Yes, this is chroma noise and is typical of VHS, especially when recorded in SLP mode. You can remove it entirely using the Chroma Denoise filters available with VirtualDub and AVISynth. The filters for VirtualDub will work inside of Vegas via the Wax plugin.

I am out of town for the week, so I don't have access to the file that has all the Vegas forum links. However, if you do a search in this forum on my user name, and look for "VirtualDub" and "chroma" in the search field, you'll find a post that describes not only what plugins to use, but where to download them, and what settings to use.

The result is pretty close to magic. The chroma noise disappears, and almost no artifacts are left behind, or created.
mel58i wrote on 10/12/2005, 7:40 AM
Seem to have solved the problem by using "sony saturation" fx, turning all the "knobs" down to remove chroma completely.
Very surprised that the "B&W and HSL filters did not cure, but the "saturation" did.

Mel