Just worked for me. Try it again.
=========
I did. Downloaded on the third attempt, but when I tried to open it Winzip once again reported:

"The WinZip Wizard cannot open this file. It does not appear to be a valid archive."

John

Maybe it's a problem with WinZip? I don't use WinZip, I have WindowsXP and it opens in an Explorer window and I have full access to the contents. Maybe try another unzipping program.

Maybe it's a problem with WinZip?
========
I have never had a problem with WinZip. Meanwhile the name of the file is

vegdnr.zip

It cannot be unzipped. Says it is not a valid archive.

John

OK so I installed another program called TUGZip. It opens every tyoe of archive. It said that the file was not a valid archive as well and generated an error. Now I'll uninstall TUGZip.

It appears that I am not alone regarding Mike Crash's website.
More recent complaints:

Much much better to use the "smart deinterlace" plugin for vegas: http://mikecrash.wz.cz/vegas/vegas.htm
For me this site didn't work recently but you may find other links.
=====
Can someone please email me either the Dynamic Noise Reduction filter or the entire filter pack? I have been trying to download both files for two hours now and both sites Mike's and VASST timeout at about 50% download.

I need to render some video this afternoon - thank you.
========

want to try out several of Mike Crash's plugins mentioned in these forums, so I accessed his site and downloaded several. When I try to unzip them, they all have a message saying that they are corrupted. Repeated downloads didn't help.

Does anyone have them or a know of place I can find them at a different site?

Thanks.
=======
In testing just now, I managed to get 1 out of about 5 tries to work in download various pieces from his site. You may be better off e-mailing someone who has already downloaded them.
========
etc


John


Perhaps someone who has clean versions of these filters can host them?

I have always had those same problems with his website then one day everything worked fine on the download. Don't know why.

JJK

If you have my Vegas books, they're in there. Or, I can send you copies, so long as it's just an issue of Mike's site being problematic.

Or, I can send you copies, so long as it's just an issue of Mike's site being problematic
==========
Thanks Doug,

I would appreciate that VERY much.

Regards,
John

Doug,
You don't have to e-mail the file. I was able to download and unzip the file finally. Thanks for the offer though. Much appreciated.

John

PS: If anyone has trouble downloading a clean copy of the file I would be happy to send it to you.

"If DVDA recompresses anything, then you're doing something wrong."

John, what I do is after I render the finished MPEG2 for the DVD I then render a WAV of the audio from the AVI and set DVDA to recompress the WAV to AC3. I do NOT recompress the video EVER. Only the audio. I don't like rendering the AC3 in Vegas because for some reason the audio level is lower, even when I set the properties to the highest level (-1db) it still seems lower than the original WAV. After I burn the DVD using my method the audio sounds as loud as the original WAV.

Is my method still no good?

Is my method still no good?

Sounds fine. With what you describe, the video should not be re-compressed (you can always tell beforehand by looking at the Optimize dialog).

Re your ac3 level problem, under Preprocessing set Line Mode Profile and RF Mode Profle to None.
Bob.

Also, John, I'm trying out your method for capturing twice to see how it comes out. I installed AVISynth but I cannot figure out how to use it. I'm trying to read how to use it on their website, but it's jibberish to me. What program do I use to access it and equal out the two captures?

To raise the audio level:

Set dialogue normalization to -31db. You should also set the line mode profile under dynamic range control to none as Bob said so that the dynamic range isn't compressed especially if there is music.

John

Also, John, I'm trying out your method for capturing twice to see how it comes out. I installed AVISynth but I cannot figure out how to use it.

Use VirtualDub to read the AVISynth script.

However, I strongly urge you to drop the multiple capture idea. As I said earlier, it really does work, and is the best way to eliminate noise that results from the random variations resulting from transfer of the magnetic signal from tape to heads. All that "snow" will diminish, but without the side effects that temporal denoisers (like the Mike Crash adaptation of one of the VirtualDub filters) cause. Problem is, it will take you so long to achieve results that your kids will be grown up and gone to college by the time you finish. This is due not only to the fact that you have to capture the same thing multiple times, but also due to the fact that you cannot ensure that the fields of video will line up. Thus, each capture may be 1/2 of a frame off, and you will have to adjust. In addition, analog VCRs (VHS, etc.) can drift, so even once you get the fields aligned between your captures, they may drift apart again. There are ways to automate the process of aligning so it doesn't get too tedious, and there are scripts you can write in AVISynth that can almost completely automate the process, but you are MUCH better served to learn a little more about AVISynth and use some of the remarkable tools available there.

I am constantly tweaking my "general purpose" VHS cleanup script. Here is the latest:

#Serve RGB32 from Vegas and convert back to RGB32 in this script if going into Mainconcept MPEG encoder.

#Check the RGB 16-235 box in the Mainconcept encoder.



#For use in Virtualdub, BOTH RGB 16:235 boxes must be checked AND YUY2 Disable must be checked in MC DV codec.



loadPlugin("c:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\CNR\Cnr2.dll")

AVISource("D:\VegasWaxFrameserver.avi")



#These plugins require color space conversion

converttoYV12(interlaced=true)

assumebff()

a = separatefields()

even = a.SelectEven().fluxsmoothT(5).Cnr2("oxx",8,16,191,100,255,32,255,false)

odd = a.SelectOdd().fluxsmoothT(5).Cnr2("oxx",8,16,191,100,255,32,255,false)

Interleave(even, odd) 

weave() 

ConvertToRGB24(interlaced=true)



#Cnr2("oxx",8,16,191,100,255,32,255,false) #this is CNR for VHS

#Cnr2("oxx",8,14,191,75,255,20,255,false)   #this is CNR for Laserdisc

There is nothing magic about any of these numbers. You can go as high as 10 or even 15 for fluxsmoothT (which is the temporal denoiser, like Mike Crash's filter), although you have to be careful as you approach and go beyond 10.

The next time I roll up my sleeves and try to improve this, I'm going to finally do the motion adapted denoising, but that's a lot more work. This filter is pretty darn good. As I posted in some of those other threads I referred to earlier, I also use DeSpot to get rid of sparkle noise, laser rot and -- on IVTC'd film clips -- film dirt.

Does anyone know where Mike Crash's DNR filter is supposed to show up?
The file installed into a newly created "filters" folder, but I can't find it from within Vegas 4.
And is there a small guide for the filter anywhere?
John

To raise the audio level:

Re your ac3 level problem, under Preprocessing set Line Mode Profile and RF Mode Profle to None.

Set dialogue normalization to -31db. You should also set the line mode profile under dynamic range control to none as Bob said so that the dynamic range isn't compressed especially if there is music.
===================================================

Could you tell us how / where to make those changes? I've had the same low volume results when encoding to AC3 within my V6 before going over to DVDA

Thanks,
Teaktart

Craftech, you should be able to find it in the Video FX tab.

Johnmeyer, I actually tried your recapturing method already with an eighteen minute video (without AVISynth because it lined up fine) and the quality is AMAZING. Most of the DVDs that I do are an hour or less because I break up my old tapes to events rather than each tape per-dvd. I really like the results so far. I have a second video at half an hour that I want to try that method on next but I need to re-align the tracks because one of them is a half a frame off and doesn't line up correctly with the other track.

Could you tell us how / where to make those changes? I've had the same low volume results when encoding to AC3 within my V6 before going over to DVDA

Click on File -> Render As.

Choose the AC-3 mode, default or Stereo template.

Click on the Custom button (this is the "secret").

Click on the pre-processing tab and you'll see the settings.

Type a name in the template area at the top of the dialog and then click on the floppy disk "save" button in the dialog. That way, next time you can just use that template and won't have to remember these instructions.
==========================
Johnmeyer, I actually tried your recapturing method already with an eighteen minute video (without AVISynth because it lined up fine) and the quality is AMAZING.

Not many people ever actually tried the technique, because it is so much work. It is the ONLY way to improve video and not have any downside. You can do a third and a fourth capture, but the improvement falls off as the square root of the number of captures, so you have to do a LOT more work in order to get substantial additional gain. I think if I were to do this again, I'd apply the chroma filter only on each capture and THEN combine them together.

You need Win2000/XP.
============
Marquat,
Is that an answer to MY question? Do I need 2000.XP to use Mike Crash's DNR filter? It does not show up under FX or anywhere else from within Vegas 4. Perhaps if it were in a different folder? Not sure which one though. I am using W98SE and Vegas 4.
Thanks,
John

And they won't show up on WinME, either. AFAIK if you install your Vegas 4 on Win2000/XP they will work.
=========
Thanks Marquat.

Johnmeyer,

I redid the video again only using the three filters in Virtual Dub and not doing the recapturing. I'm not happy with the results because for some reason it adds lots of shadowing and is not smooth at all like the original capture. I have decided not to go with any noise restoration and just stick with my original capture source and render from there. With my original capture footage there are no shadowing and everything is very smooth even after rendering to MPEG2.

It's a shame because the noise restoration results look good after the Virtual Dub method (the three filters for VD mentioned in your VHS restoration recipe), but it adds shadowing that I do not like. I have redone it THREE different times in Virtual Dub, burned three different DVDs, and viewing them on my TV. Each time still getting the same shadow results that I do not get on the DVD from the original render without noise reduction, so I know it's not a fluke. Very frustrating. This makes four DVDs of the same video that I have made for this one video project so far.

If there is a way to stop the shadow that would be great, but I'm not doing any more re-rendering for this current disk that I've been working on. This one video project has gone long enough and I must move on. I would like to get these noise reduction methods to better work in the future, though, because I have more critical videos to do soon (one of them a wedding video I shot for my friend before my digital video camera days).