Please advise me on remastering of an old school play video

jeff-waters wrote on 7/29/2018, 6:23 AM

Hello! I found a video at the library of a play that my town put on in the 1980s. The audio and video quality makes it almost unwatchable. I'd like to try my hand at cleaning it up.

I mostly work with audio, so I need some help and advice from you smart folks for the video side. Maybe we can leave this thread here to help others attacking a similar problem.

I'm using Vegas Pro 15 and have Noise Reduction 2.0 and Boris Continuum Image Restoration Unit plugins.

The original footage was shot on camcorder and edited to VHS tape. Someone (sometime in history) transferred the VHS to a DVD. So the DVD is the source material I have to work with.

I went into the Video_TS folder of the DVD and copied over all the .VOB files to my harddrive. Then, I renamed them xxx.VOB to xxx.MPG in order for them to appear in the Vegas file manager.

Question #1:

I chose the default project video settings when starting the Vegas project. What project video settings should I use if my ultimate goal is to create a new DVD with cleaner video and audio to be shown on modern TVs?

Question #2:

When I drag footage to the timeline, I get the message in this image. Should I set the project video settings to match the source footage?

Thanks for all your help in advance. I hope this will be a fun adventure you can help guide me along!

Jeff

Comments

Former user wrote on 7/29/2018, 8:01 AM

Others here will better advise on cleanup, if it was me i’d try and source one of the previous generations, you’re now about to create a fourth generation copy. Can the origional camcorder source material or 2nd generation VHS material be acquired?

Musicvid wrote on 7/29/2018, 8:51 AM

Search this forum and YouTube for restoration tips from johnmeyer.

There is none better.

rraud wrote on 7/29/2018, 9:29 AM

If you can post a clip, I can access your audio options. There's only so much that can be done to poorly recorded (and/or mixed) audio if that's the case.

jeff-waters wrote on 7/29/2018, 11:06 AM

@Former user, I agree, but I think those are long gone. Have to do my best with what I have.
@Musicvid. Thanks, I'll have a look.
@rraud, I'm good with audio. You're right, only so much that can be done-- but, I know how to do that part.

As just a basic 1st question (since I don't really do much with video and haven't set up a project for DVD in forever), what Project Video Settings should I choose? The source material was originally 4x3, but I guess I should go with a widescreen format for modern TVs with letterboxing?

Should I just use the default "HD 1080-60i (1920x1080, 29.970 fps)" template?

Former user wrote on 7/29/2018, 1:12 PM

If you are making DVDs use DVD templates for rendering and the resolution that matches your source for project settings (probably 720 x 480 4x3). If you don't want your picture to stretch, then you need to use the WS settings but let your video stay at 4x3. This will have black bars left and right or you could fill those with a color.

 

 

Musicvid wrote on 7/30/2018, 8:16 AM

Your best cleanup tool is NeatVideo plugin.

jeff-waters wrote on 7/30/2018, 8:01 PM

BTW, here are a couple of sample clips. All advice is much appreciated:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mx0pvkb4je6esln/THS1.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zshgv7dztabr1w5/THS2.mp4?dl=0

Thanks!

Former user wrote on 7/30/2018, 11:43 PM

The first very obvious thing to fix is your levels. they are set at 0 - 255, when the range should be between 16 - 235. It's why it looks so contrasty. Go to VEGAS LEVELS & use preset COMPUTER RGB TO STUDIO RGB. Use the unsharp mask to try and bring out some detail. It's a very soft image, which is good in a way because VHS over sharpened images can't be restored.

The audio you'd obviously try the various voice enhancing and noise removal options in Adobe Audition or the free choice, Audacity.

 

jeff-waters wrote on 7/31/2018, 5:34 AM

Thank you, @bob-h ! This is great advice. I've never used Vegas Levels and would have known to use that preset. Exactly the kind of advice I was hoping for!

Musicvid wrote on 7/31/2018, 6:59 AM

Yes, the advice to use the levels preset is correct, as it is in most situations.

Other than that, I would make a light pass through NeatVideo, and enjoy it. Nothing that can be fixed or improved that I can see.

JJKizak wrote on 7/31/2018, 7:19 AM

Thank you, @bob-h ! This is great advice. I've never used Vegas Levels and would have known to use that preset. Exactly the kind of advice I was hoping for!


Actually your stuff is pretty good compared to the stuff I had to work with.

JJK

jeff-waters wrote on 8/2/2018, 6:18 PM

@bob-h, what settings do you suggest for Vegas Levels after choosing the COMPUTER RGB TO STUDIO RGB preset? Looks like I can play with the following:

  • Input Start
  • Input end
  • Output Start
  • Output End
  • Gamma
Musicvid wrote on 8/2/2018, 7:10 PM

Don't. They are correct. You may want to play with gamma a bit, within +/- .05