Went from not enough contrast to too much contrast,, looks a little hot in the middle there. I don't know why they used this crazy red background.

A Color Curve like this would allow you to correct individual color channels.

I can't really get rid of the red, there's many other scenes in the video with the red bg. I found a happy enough medium for my needs. Thank you for the input

Hi @MikeLV when you have time, it would be nice if you posted what you settled on as a comparison, I'm interested.

You could try AAVColorLab. It's a 6 vector color corrector, plus it's free. AFAIK, it's never been updated but it works very well. Here's the URL. http://aav6cc.blogspot.com/ and a screen shot.

See the small fraction of the white wall on the left and the fleshtone of the man. The background wall is not what matters.

Left: Corrected

without and with noise reduction (NeatVideo) on top

Wow! I like the noise reduction! I take it that's not part of Vegas?

@MikeLV

If you're interested in noise reduction, try the denoiser that's part of HOS. It's a temporal denoiser that attempts to preserve detail without that plastic, washed-out look that often characterizes video denoised with NeatVideo.

I just watched the video on your site about the denoise in HOS. I'd like to try it but I'm a little confused. I'm using the other avs script as you know, to process the 4:3 video for deinterlacing and resizing. Could I just copy the contents of the Denoise MDegrain3.avs file into the other avs file and use renderplus as I have been?

I tried this, but it crashed:

SetMemoryMax(1024)
SetFilterMTMode("DEFAULT_MT_MODE", 2)
AVISource("C:\ProgramData\HappyOtterScripts\Sony Vegas Pro\RenderPlus\fs_6688.avi").killAudio()
ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true,matrix="PC.601")

denoised=MDegrain2i2(source,8,2,0,400,400)   #set parameters (source, blksize, overlap, dct, thSAD, thSCD1)
return denoised

#-------------------------------

function MDegrain2i2(clip source, int "blksize", int "overlap", int "dct", int "thSAD", int "thSCD1")
{
  overlap=default(overlap,2)                # overlap value (0 to 4 for blksize=8)
  dct=default(dct,0)                        # use dct=1 for clip with light flicker
  blksize=default(blksize,8)                # For HD, you can try 16    
 
  super = MSuper(source,pel=2, sharp=1)
  backward_vec2 = super.MAnalyse(isb = true, delta = 2, blksize=blksize, overlap=overlap, dct=dct)
  forward_vec2 = super.MAnalyse(isb = false, delta = 2, blksize=blksize, overlap=overlap, dct=dct)
  backward_vec4 = super.MAnalyse(isb = true, delta = 4, blksize=blksize, overlap=overlap, dct=dct)
  forward_vec4 = super.MAnalyse(isb = false, delta = 4, blksize=blksize, overlap=overlap, dct=dct)
  backward_vec6 = super.MAnalyse(isb = true, delta = 6, blksize=blksize, overlap=overlap, dct=dct)
  forward_vec6 = super.MAnalyse(isb = false, delta = 6, blksize=blksize, overlap=overlap, dct=dct)

 MDegrain3(source,super, backward_vec2,forward_vec2,backward_vec4,forward_vec4,backward_vec6,forward_vec6,thSCD1=thSCD1,thSAD=thSAD)
# thSAD -- strength of denoising.  Normal range of 200 - 600.  
# thSCD1 -- threshold for determining block change from one frame to another--normal range of 200 to 600

# Add sharpening.
# The sharpening filters in this script attempt to minimize edge-halos, edge-aliasing, and confetti artifacts in the most visually pleasing way.
# LimitedSharpenFaster is older and simpler. LSFmod has a lot of new features and optimizations.
# Help with LSFmod settings at http://avisynth.nl/index.php/LSFmod
# Help with LimitedSharpenFaster settings at http://avisynth.nl/index.php/LimitedSharpen

#LimitedSharpenFaster (strength=500) #Uncomment to sharpen with LimitedShrpenFaster after denoising.
#LSFmod(strength=300) #Uncomment to sharpen with LSFmod after denoising. Significantly increases processing requirements.

}

AssumeFPS (30000, 1001)
AssumeBFF()
QTGMC(Preset="Fast", FPSDivisor=1)
LanczosResize(960,720)
AddBorders(160,0,160,0)
Prefetch(4)

without and with noise reduction (NeatVideo) on top

@redpaw, for the color correction part, can you tell me what you did?

@MikeLV

As you've learned, it doesn't work that way, especially when both de-interlacing and denoising are involved. During deinterlacing, motion vectors are computed which can then be used during denoising. The best way is to always start with the GUI, render and then save the script which can be modified and re-used--e.g. adding borders. Here is the script which: crops the 8 left-right pixels since it comes from a DVD; bob deinterlaces to produce 60P output, denoises using MDegrain2, adds a bit of sharpening, uprezzes to 720 P and adds black borders.

SetMemoryMax(2048)
SetFilterMTMode("DEFAULT_MT_MODE", 2)
AVISource("C:\ProgramData\HappyOtterScripts\Magix Vegas Pro\RenderPlus\fs_23168.avi").killAudio()
ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true,matrix="PC.601")
AssumeFPS (30000, 1001)
Crop(8,0,-8,-0)
AddBorders(160,0,160,0,0)
AssumeBFF()
QTGMC(Preset="Medium", FPSDivisor=1, ForceTR=2, SubPel=2)
super = MSuper(pel=2, levels=1)
MDegrain2(super, QTGMC_bVec1,QTGMC_fVec1, QTGMC_bVec2,QTGMC_fVec2,thSAD=400,thSCD1=400)
LimitedSharpenFaster(strength=500)
Lanczos4Resize(1280,720)
Prefetch(8)

Here is the result of that script applied to the sample footage I've downloaded from you.

Hey @MikeLV, here's the link to the project with all the effects applied.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ikrvm8f2kc1513i/wb.veg?dl=1

Yes, the noise reduction plugin (Neat Video) isnt unfortunately the part of vegas, but it's worth every penny!

https://www.neatvideo.com/

Hey @MikeLV, here's the link to the project with all the effects applied.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ikrvm8f2kc1513i/wb.veg?dl=1

Yes, the noise reduction plugin (Neat Video) isnt unfortunately the part of vegas, but it's worth every penny!

https://www.neatvideo.com/

@redpaw, thanks for the download link, however, I cannot open it as I'm on an earlier version of Vegas. Would it be possible for you to screenshot the settings for the fx you applied for color correction? I will use the denoise feature in wwaag's HOS.Thanks so much!!

@MikeLV

the above is a new try at it .The RGB Histogram is really tight .Most of the gray tone range is about 0 to 192 . …………...…...No noise reduction used .

that was my stab at it . Left most image is the corrected one . Right most image is the screen shot from your post . middle pic shows how i did it . Not sure if that is what you wanted . Hot Spot diminished .

color noise is at a minimum too . pretty much the same as the original . except for the High-tones , but then not much info in the image at those high-tones . so any extra color noise there shouldn't be an issue .

I also tried classic Photoshop tricks ,...Multiply the image by itself , to darken\get more contrast , but that did not work too good . "Multiply" intensified the Hot Spot , even though the resultant image had more contrast

@MikeLV

As you've learned, it doesn't work that way, especially when both de-interlacing and denoising are involved. During deinterlacing, motion vectors are computed which can then be used during denoising. The best way is to always start with the GUI, render and then save the script which can be modified and re-used--e.g. adding borders. Here is the script which: crops the 8 left-right pixels since it comes from a DVD; bob deinterlaces to produce 60P output, denoises using MDegrain2, adds a bit of sharpening, uprezzes to 720 P and adds black borders.

SetMemoryMax(2048)
SetFilterMTMode("DEFAULT_MT_MODE", 2)
AVISource("C:\ProgramData\HappyOtterScripts\Magix Vegas Pro\RenderPlus\fs_23168.avi").killAudio()
ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true,matrix="PC.601")
AssumeFPS (30000, 1001)
Crop(8,0,-8,-0)
AddBorders(160,0,160,0,0)
AssumeBFF()
QTGMC(Preset="Medium", FPSDivisor=1, ForceTR=2, SubPel=2)
super = MSuper(pel=2, levels=1)
MDegrain2(super, QTGMC_bVec1,QTGMC_fVec1, QTGMC_bVec2,QTGMC_fVec2,thSAD=400,thSCD1=400)
LimitedSharpenFaster(strength=500)
Lanczos4Resize(1280,720)
Prefetch(8)

@wwaag, after being away for a while, I just now got around to trying your script in HOS. It definitely improves the quality of the video, however, I notice that the video looks vertically stretched somewhat (most noticeable when looking at his head) compared to the original. Do you know what is causing that? The only thing I changed was the avisource path since I'm using Sony Vegas.

When I compare it to the other script you provided:

SetMemoryMax(1024)
SetFilterMTMode("DEFAULT_MT_MODE", 2)
AVISource("C:\ProgramData\HappyOtterScripts\Sony Vegas Pro\RenderPlus\fs_6688.avi").killAudio()
ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true,matrix="PC.601")
AssumeFPS (30000, 1001)
AssumeBFF()
QTGMC(Preset="Fast", FPSDivisor=1)
LanczosResize(960,720)
AddBorders(160,0,160,0)
Prefetch(4)

It looks different. This one did not have the crop, and the resize instruction is different too. Not quite sure what to fix.

@MikeLV

The crop-resize dialog has been reworked quite a bit. I'd suggest that you start over by creating a custom script using the dialog itself. Once you're happy with the results, then you can use the custom script or just save those settings as a template (a lot simpler).

Just ran a test using your footage which produced this script.

SetMemoryMax(2048)
SetFilterMTMode("DEFAULT_MT_MODE", 2)
AVISource("C:\ProgramData\HappyOtterScripts\Magix Vegas Pro\RenderPlus\fs_17588.avi").killAudio()
ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true,matrix="PC.709")
AssumeFPS (30000,1001)
Crop(8,0,-8,-0)
AddBorders(106,0,106,0,0)
AssumeBFF()
QTGMC(Preset="Medium", FPSDivisor=1)
LanczosResize(1280,720)
Prefetch(8)

Here is a sample of the rendered result.

After reading your post, it just dawned on me that you weren't writing those scripts yourself. All this time, I thought you were creating the scripts. I didn't realize the scripts are created from the settings in the dialog. Thanks, I will play around with it now that I understand this concept :-)