From NTSC DV 720 x 480 to 1280 x 720 for web, so far . . .

Petermgr wrote on 2/11/2018, 7:58 PM

Hi all,

I have researched converting my Sony Handycam videos to a format I will be posting to my Vimeo account. After a LOT of reading posts and testing, I think I've accomplished what I want. Before I continue with my other videos, I want opinions regarding what I perhaps should tweak, should do or not do, or maybe rethink my approach.

My Goal: To take all my old Hi8 and Digital8 videos from my Sony Handycam and post them in a 16:9 format to my Vimeo account, while retaining the integrity and dimension ratio of my original SD videos. I want to display these 4:3 ratio videos within a 16:9 frame for layout purposes on my website.

Process:

Capture all my videos using firewire and Scenalyzer as avi files.
Import the avi files into Vegas Pro 15 with the project properties set to match the source the file. The source file being 720 x 480, interlaced (Lower field first), Pixel ratio 0.9091, Frame Rate 29.970.
Export as avi using Frameserver
Run the following script through MeGUI

SetMTMode (5, 10)
AviSource("C:\1-Vegas tools\Video\fs.avi")
ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true, matrix="PC.709")
AssumeBFF
QTGMC(Preset="slow", EZDenoise=1.0)
Distributor()
AddBorders(120,0,120,0)
Spline64Resize(1280,720)

I used the AddBorders to adjust the ratio of my avi video to better match a 1.33 ratio to reflect the actual 4:3 of the original video. In using this method, I'm hoping I'm not degrading the quality of the final video, although it seems to look fine.

Here is a side by side of my Vegas Pro preview, and the rendered video:

And what it looks like in the 16:9 (1280 x 720) format on my Vimeo page:

I welcome your feedback!

Thanks,

Peter

Comments

fifonik wrote on 2/11/2018, 8:25 PM

I used to have SD footage (.mpg files directly from camera) that I wanted to convert to "HD" (youtube & vimeo does not degrade the video quality too much after such conversion).

I ended up with similar process: avisynth with deinterlacing & QTGMC & resize.

However, my workflow was slightly different: I deinterlaced & upscaled & resized (& optionally "deshaked") first and then I edit everything in Vegas.

I'm using SimpleSlugUpscale avisynth script (that I've found) and self created "bat" file that I can use for processing my files. My bat file can be configured to use different "profiles" for different footage.

Musicvid wrote on 2/11/2018, 8:53 PM

Run your 0.9091 PAR files as 1.0 PAR in Vegas.

It will look good on a 16:9 display without all the TIME involved and appear only slightly stretched.

Enlarging to 720 is not recommended, although I have done so to insert a little SD into an otherwise HD youtube video.

Petermgr wrote on 2/11/2018, 9:47 PM

I used to have SD footage (.mpg files directly from camera) that I wanted to convert to "HD" (youtube & vimeo does not degrade the video quality too much after such conversion).

I ended up with similar process: avisynth with deinterlacing & QTGMC & resize.

However, my workflow was slightly different: I deinterlaced & upscaled & resized (& optionally "deshaked") first and then I edit everything in Vegas.

I'm using SimpleSlugUpscale avisynth script (that I've found) and self created "bat" file that I can use for processing my files. My bat file can be configured to use different "profiles" for different footage.

Thanks fifonik. I will give this a try!

Petermgr wrote on 2/11/2018, 9:59 PM

Run your 0.9091 PAR files as 1.0 PAR in Vegas.

It will look good on a 16:9 display without all the TIME involved and appear only slightly stretched.

Enlarging to 720 is not recommended, although I have done so to insert a little SD into an otherwise HD youtube video.

Thanks Musicvid. I'll try this and see how it looks in my Vimeo.

NickHope wrote on 2/11/2018, 10:29 PM

I've done a lot of PAL DV (576i) to 720p, with great success.

I never had much luck with EZDenoise. I found it gave a small repeating pattern effect. So I don't use it any more. If I really need denoising then I'll do it with MDegrain in a separate script, as QTGMC plus MDegrain can be a bit much in one go.

I tend to use Spline36 rather than Spline64 and do some sharpening afterwards. In the past I've used LimitedSharpenFaster or LSFmod in AviSynth to do that, but that can tend to add to the slightly plasticky effect that QTGMC can give, so more recently I tend to just put some regular sharpening on in Vegas when I bring a 720p intermediate back in for titles etc.. I render intermediates in VirtualDub Filtermod with the MagicYUV codec.

For a fancier upscaling plugin you can try ResampleHQ. I see that my latest script for PAL DV > 720p upscaling has this line in it:

ResampleHQ(988,720,kernel="spline36",chroma_kernel="spline36")

Petermgr wrote on 2/11/2018, 11:24 PM

I've done a lot of PAL DV (576i) to 720p, with great success.

I never had much luck with EZDenoise. I found it gave a small repeating pattern effect. So I don't use it any more. If I really need denoising then I'll do it with MDegrain in a separate script, as QTGMC plus MDegrain can be a bit much in one go . . .
ResampleHQ(988,720,kernel="spline36",chroma_kernel="spline36")

Thanks Nick. I'll give the ResampleHQ a try!

Musicvid wrote on 2/12/2018, 5:42 AM

Sounds like an awful lot of work and time to me.

My idea of fun with SD is Lanczos and a beer.

OldSmoke wrote on 2/12/2018, 7:01 AM

I use NeatVideo to "improve" my old Hi8 and D8 tapes and it does a good job as long as you go easy on the settings.