DaVinci Resolve is new to me. I have DaVinci Resolve 17 installed on Windows 10.

I expect learning how to use its sharpening tools to enhance the quality of my old videos.

The old videos were captured on V8 tapes in about 1990 and later duplicated on VHS tapes with background music added and some minor editing. The old video worked without problem on CRT monitor before.

Recently I sent one VHS tape to a profession shop ripping it on DVD. Then I download the video from DVD to computer as .vob files. On the whole the video is not bad, of course unable compared to 4K video. But the video captured indoor is not very clear, not sharp.

I have the .vob file upgraded as follow:-
Resolution 1920x1080
Bitrade 256
Frame rate 25 fps

There is some improvement, but the indoor picture still not sharp on the whole.
(pls refer to attached screenshot)

Please guide me how to apply the sharpening filter of DaVinci Resolve 17 to enhance the quality of the video. Where can I find relevant tutorial?

Thanks

Regards

Hi there,

well, you can put lipstick on a pig but it still remains a pig. In other words - you can upscale, downscale and sharpen as much as you want, it will remain low-resolution footage - you can't sharpen what's not there.

There is no magical software that can transpose your old interlaced VHS footage into crisp 4K+ material. That's just not possible.

All you can do is to adjust color, brightness, contrast and framing to get rid of VHS head switching distortion and all that. You might also fine tune sharpness but that makes things worse in many cases.

I had to deal with a similar task to convert my old Super 8 scans to watchable HD or Full-HD. I managed to do as much as I could until I was satisfied with the results. There is just not that much you can do. Unfortunately I lost the orginal Super 8 films a long time ago so all I had was the poorly transfered digital files from it.

So, my advice would be - try it, fine-tune it. Watch it on different screens and sizes. Ask others to watch it and what they think. And lower your expectation about the final quality. The magic of your family films is not the quality but the contents and the history they present. Most people of my family don't care much about the quality of the pictures, they just enjoy what they see and remember.

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

Dieter Scheel wrote:
- snip -
All you can do is to adjust color, brightness, contrast and framing to get rid of VHS head switching distortion and all that.

I'll try your advice.

Could you please advise me the steps? Where to start? DaVinci Resolve is completely new to me. Thanks

- snip -

So, my advice would be - try it, fine-tune it. Watch it on different screens and sizes. Ask others to watch it and what they think. And lower your expectation about the final quality. The magic of your family films is not the quality but the contents and the history they present. Most people of my family don't care much about the quality of the pictures, they just enjoy what they see and remember.

To my surprise, all scenes captured outdoors are quite clear. Only those scenes captured indoors are not very clear.

Would there be any remedy? Thanks

Regards

Try with Topaz video enhance which use AI to upscale it.
Try to downscale from Vob source interlaced to 640x480 resolution (vhs is less 200 lines, svhs since 400 lines the same 8 and hi8 tape) with Dione models and later upscale with other models to 1280x720.
Then Upscale more from 720p.
You can try, no one can assure the result from so small resolution and from AI, but sometimes you can reach better picture with it.


Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalk

carlomacchiavello wrote:Try with Topaz video enhance which use AI to upscale it.
Try to downscale from Vob source interlaced to 640x480 resolution (vhs is less 200 lines, svhs since 400 lines the same 8 and hi8 tape) with Dione models and later upscale with other models to 1280x720.
Then Upscale more from 720p.
You can try, no one can assure the result from so small resolution and from AI, but sometimes you can reach better picture with it.


Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalk

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

According to my recollection I have posted my problem on testing Topaz before. I can get it installed but I counldn't get it started. I'll try it again.

I'll try all possibilities

Edit
==
I just finished trying Avidemux -> sharpening. Vey little improvement.

Regard

From experience, I'm pretty much with Dieter on this one...

Dieter Scheel wrote:you can put lipstick on a pig but it still remains a pig. In other words - you can upscale, downscale and sharpen as much as you want, it will remain low-resolution footage - you can't sharpen what's not there.

Merely 'scaling up' standard definition footage is a bit like drawing on a deflated balloon with a ballpoint pen, then inflating it... all you do is 'spread out' a thinly-detailed image. 'AI'? Well, there is some scope for interpolating 'detail'... but... that scope is very limited.

From what you say, your footage is already '2nd generation' - dubbed to VHS and thus will have had its quality 'damaged'. Likewise, DVD isn't the best format for further processing as it's significantly compressed... So from the outset, you're at a disadvantage.

- What looked OK on an old CRT isn't really relevant...

I imagine (from what you say) your original footage was PAL and 'digitised' to a 720x576/25fps file... there's actually very little point in 'upscaling' this. Analogue resolution (measured in lines) doesn't really translate directly into digital pixels... so there is already (in effect) and element of interpolation involved in the digitisation process - in effect your analogue signal is (arbitrarily) somewhat 'oversampled' in relation to the detail it would have contained.

In other words, it's possibly as good as it can be, and upscaling and sharpening will just add more distortion... distortion that you may or may not find subjectively pleasing, but distortion none-the-less. And if you do chose to upscale it, I'd advise doing that in a single step.

If improvement is what you really seek I'd suggest a few things...

1) Try and find the original camera tapes if at all possible - have them digitised.

2) Have your material transferred as uncompressed (if your system can handle these) or minimally compressed footage (files) in an readily-editable format... there are many options for this and pages can be filled with discussions about it.

...The person I would be speaking to about this is one Colin McCormack of video99.co.uk His website is distinctly underwhelming I know, but he is extremely experienced in 'domestic video' transfer... Explain to Colin (either by phone or email) what it is you hope to achieve.

...If it's any 'comfort', even BetaSP footage shot on professional cameras of the 90s - and brought in uncompressed via SDI from the original camera tapes, can be distinctly 'less than' what might otherwise be hoped for. - Enhancement can help, but only in quite subtle ways.

Don't expect too much. Topaz' VEAI is pretty impressive with nature in good light. But human faces (even if nature) under worse lighting will not gain much, sometimes they may look even worse.

Matt Quinn wrote:From experience, I'm pretty much with Dieter on this one...

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

Whether you meant "Video Dieter 2" ?

Video Dieter 2 – trim & edit app in PC - Download for Windows 7, 8, 10 and MAC
https://softstribe.com/app/pc/download- ... ows-mac-os

- snip -

If improvement is what you really seek I'd suggest a few things...

1) Try and find the original camera tapes if at all possible - have them digitised.

I still have the original V8 tapes. I'm reluctant sending them to profession shop ripping them to DVD or mp4 because I have had a bitter experience with them. Before I sent one V8 tape to them for ripping service. They broked the V8 tape.

I'm still looking for a second-hand camcorder for tapes/cassette, PAL system. I expect to do ripping myself. I can buy the analogue to digital converter online. But unfortunately it is NOT easy for me to find it in my area.

A further question, the profession shop can rip VHS tape to mp4 file. Would the quality of the vidoe be better?

2) Have your material transferred as uncompressed (if your system can handle these) or minimally compressed footage (files) in an readily-editable format... there are many options for this and pages can be filled with discussions about it.

Sorry I don't follow. Please explain in more detail. Thanks

Regards

Uli Plank wrote:Don't expect too much. Topaz' VEAI is pretty impressive with nature in good light. But human faces (even if nature) under worse lighting will not gain much, sometimes they may look even worse.

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

What about AviSynth ?

In nature (outdoor) the human face is quite clear. Please refers to attached screenshot.

The video was captured in Niagara Falls 1990

satimis wrote:Whether you meant "Video Dieter 2" ?

No, I mean I agree with Dieter Scheel, who posted earlier.

satimis wrote:I still have the original V8 tapes. I'm reluctant sending them to profession shop ripping them to DVD or mp4 because I have had a bitter experience with them. Before I sent one V8 tape to them for ripping service. They broked the V8 tape.

The first thing to appreciate is that V8 tapes will be old and fragile...and may well break no matter who handles them. They may suffer from issues such as 'sticky shed' or fungus. There are ways of dealing with this - such as 'baking' the tape - but you need to know what you're doing for any of that.

This is why I suggested Colin... take the time to look at his YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/video99couk/videos - especially those that show how he deals with issues such as mould and fragile tapes.

satimis wrote:I'm still looking for a second-hand camcorder for tapes/cassette, PAL system. I expect to do ripping myself. I can buy the analogue to digital converter online. But unfortunately it is NOT easy for me to find it in my area.

It's probably a bit more complicated than that... your best bet would probably be to find an old Digital8 camcorder or deck - then transfer the material via Firewire. That way the analogue to digital conversion takes place inside the camcorder, and the resulting files are in the DV format.

'Capture devices' vary widely in quality - some are rubbish, some are good. A 'DV Bridge' type device which converts analogue to DV and outputs via firewire may be a good choice - many old DV video recorders and camcorders (which have an input) will act as a DV bridge.

Again... this is a firewire transfer (which is sort of obsolete now) to the DV format.

Be aware that some professional-grade devices don't respond at all well to the input from domestic video equipment, and in many cases a device known as a timebase corrector is necessary before an analogue signal can be input.

satimis wrote:A further question, the profession shop can rip VHS tape to mp4 file. Would the quality of the vidoe be better?

Ultimately any form of compression will degrade your material - which is already 'fragile'. Certainly, if you hope to do further processing, it will be better if any compression is of an intraframe type (i.e. compresses each frame individually like a still) rather than inter-frame which also imposed temporal compression between frames.

Ideally - no compression at all would be applied... i.e. the signal would simply be digitised and recorded as a file. - Ultimately you would compress when all your processing and editing is complete, and you're creating files for ordinary viewing.

For example...when we 'capture' BetaSP footage here (or SVHS for that matter) we do so as .AVI 10-bit YUV If we needed compression we would use DVC-Pro 50 in a Quicktime wrapper (because that happens to be what our system supports).

I suppose much depends on where in the world you are... What I can tell you though is that running transfers from camcorder tapes can be a bit of a 'black art'... And that your 2nd generation VHS copies aren't necessarily the best source.

...Go on to his YouTube channel and 'reach out' to Colin; or drop him an email. He's a genuine enthusiast with the equipment, time and technical knowledge to get the job done. - Or at the very least advise you what the best way to go about this is...

Regards,
Matt.

I second the suggestion of finding a D8 camcorder or deck and transfer by FireWire. It doesn't get much better. I can see a few on Ebay, depending on where you live.
And, yes, Sony had some problems with durability of the bonding between the magnetic layer and the tape base in those years, even with professional U-matic tapes.
If that's affecting your tapes, there's not much you can do, they're gone forever. Don't blame the transfer service if that is the case. Maybe an experienced specialist like the one Matt recommended can help.
I can remember a period when art museums tried to save what was still readable, some of my students were working for them. Even decades ago some works were lost already.

Topaz Video Enhance AI did a superb job restoring some early 90s Hi8 of mine. Well worth the investment.

Peter McLennan wrote:Topaz Video Enhance AI did a superb job restoring some early 90s Hi8 of mine. Well worth the investment.

I'll try it.

I have download the latest version;
TopazVideoEnhanceAI-2.6.3-windows-x64-Full-Installer.exe

From;
Topaz Video Enhance AI
https://www.filehorse.com/download-topa ... nhance-ai/

Any additional package I need to install ?

I'll install it on Windows 10.

Besides I have 2 PCs;

PC-1 : daily working PC, connected to a 32" 4K display but graphic comes from AMD CPU
(DaVinci Resolve 17 can't work on this PC)

PC-2 : spare PC, connected to a 24" 2560x1440 resolution display via graphic card
(DaVinci Resolve 17 works on this PC)

On which PC shall I test Topaz ?

Edit
====
I found my posting on another forum about unable to start Topaz after its installation, DLL Errors. I have MS Visual Studio 2015 installed but problem still remains.

Regards

Matt Quinn wrote:The first thing to appreciate is that V8 tapes will be old and fragile...and may well break no matter who handles them. They may suffer from issues such as 'sticky shed' or fungus. There are ways of dealing with this - such as 'baking' the tape - but you need to know what you're doing for any of that.

Hi,

Thanks for your advice and links.

I have checked all my V8 tapes recently. They are in good condition without mold nor damaged. I have 9 V8 cassette tapes. The cassettes are in good condition and the tape can be turned in both directions with screw-driver without breaking.

Also I have checked the returned tape from the profession shop. I have dismantled the plastic case and found the tape easily broken on pulling. The tape seems damp.

Second hand video camcorder will be easier to find but I need PAL system. Then I will purchase an analogue to digital converter online
(please see attached screenshots)

But this will be my last attempt.

Meanwhile I'll try all possibilities to enhance the quality of the indoor scenes.

Regards

Any D8 recorder will be your digitising device for video 8, you'll only need FireWire and some software to read it. Sony constructed them for backward compatibility with analog cassettes.

satimis wrote:I have checked all my V8 tapes recently. They are in good condition without mold nor damaged. I have 9 V8 cassette tapes. The cassettes are in good condition and the tape can be turned in both directions with screw-driver without breaking.

That's a hopeful sign... but not absolute.

satimis wrote: Also I have checked the returned tape from the profession shop. I have dismantled the plastic case and found the tape easily broken on pulling. The tape seems damp.

And your other tapes may have a similar issue - even though you cannot detect it...

satimis wrote: Second hand video camcorder will be easier to find but I need PAL system. Then I will purchase an analogue to digital converter online

What you've posted are pictures of some sort of eBay junk... if you're serious about this you need a more credible device - as Uli points out, Sony built the D8 machines to be backwards compatible; and they are the simplest credible solution... failing that a standard V8 camcorder fed through an 'old school' DV bridge such as the DataVideo DAC-100 (you'll have to find one second-hand) to a firewire port...

The latter device will also accept and convert the output from a VHS (or another analogue source).

You need to start with the best possible conversion you can achieve from the best source you have... the old maxim 'rubbish in rubbish out' holds true. - there is little to be gained by trying trying to 'enhance' material which is unnecessarily flawed.

satimis wrote:

Peter McLennan wrote:Topaz Video Enhance AI did a superb job restoring some early 90s Hi8 of mine. Well worth the investment.

Just tested Topaz Lab "Sharpen AL"

Not mush improvement. Please refer to attached screenshot

The sharpening tool of Avidemux works better

Regards

Wrong program....... You need Video Enhance AI..... Sharpen AI is for stills.

Uli Plank wrote:Any D8 recorder will be your digitising device for video 8, you'll only need FireWire and some software to read it. Sony constructed them for backward compatibility with analog cassettes.

What is D8 recorder? Thanks

It is for audio to my understanding

Regards

satimis wrote:

Uli Plank wrote:Any D8 recorder will be your digitising device for video 8, you'll only need FireWire and some software to read it. Sony constructed them for backward compatibility with analog cassettes.

What is D8 recorder? Thanks

It is for audio to my understanding

Regards

Ah! Sorry... What is meant by 'D8' in this context is a Sony Digital 8 machine...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital8

This was the last iteration of the Video-8 format, and it used a Video-8 shell to record 'DV' video... these machines were backwards-compatible with normal Video 8 and Hi8 (they could play the tapes back) - and some had the massive advantage of being able to do so digitally over Firewire. - Effectively doing the digital to analogue conversion for you.

Please see the model list on the Wikipedia page for further guidance. ...And be careful to pick a model that DOES support digital playback from analogue tape.

As far as i know Topaz is the best but it is extremely processor intensive and just won't run on many older machines unless your final window size is still pretty small.
2nd best would be Neat Video which has better sharpening tools than Resolve IMHO - though it does depend on the shot. Sometimes i do better with resolve . You have to experiment with settings no matter what you use. Neat is also processor intensive , but nothing like Topaz.

Leonardo Levy wrote:As far as i know Topaz is the best but it is extremely processor intensive and just won't run on many older machines unless your final window size is still pretty small.

Topaz is also 8-bit only, so it won't help people who are using 10-bit material. I think there are a variety of sharpening tools in Resolve that will do every bit as good as Topaz, but they require time and effort to experiment and get the best results.

Are you sure about this, Marc?
Newer versions can save into higher formats, but I don't know about internal processing.

I've had great results with Topaz. As with any software, you have to learn some tweaks, then save those settings.
Of course my VHS, BetaSP,U-Matic, 8mm, etc. are 8 bit. None of those old tapes are 10bit. Nothing wrong with that. I use a TBC to capture to hard drive. Using scopes, this gives me the best picture. I then UpRez to Prores HQ. I like the results. I tried many settings in Resolve but I think Topaz is a bit better.
With my 3060ti GPU , I'm getting .08 sec. per frame for output. Not too bad.

David E King wrote:Wrong program....... You need Video Enhance AI..... Sharpen AI is for stills.

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

I'm aware. I did the easy way first. I believe Topaz using the same sharpening technology on both photos as well as videos.

My finding is that "there is no improvement on photo quality".

Now I do the hard way, testing Topaz Video Enhance Al to enhance video quality with following steps;

1)
Run ffmpeg on Ubuntu20.04 (Linux) Terminal to trim a 10 sec video from the original .vob video and simultaneously converting the trimmed video to .mkv format

2)
On Win10 start Topaz Video Enhance Al

Parameters (settings)

Code: Select all

Al model
Video Quality: Medium
Video Type: Progressive
Video Artifact Type: High Compression

Recommended
Artenis Medium Quality

Output Size
100% (Denoise/ DeBlock)

Grain On
Amount: 4.8
Size: 2.0

Video Format
MP4 - H264
Constant Rate Factor: 35

Keep Audio: on


ETA: 11 mins (2.29 sec./frame)

To my surprise a 10 sec video needs 11 mins to finish the process. For a 300M video it'll need 3~4 hours to finish.

My PC is not a slow PC:
CPU : AMD Ryzen 5 8-core CPU
RAM - 32G DDR3
HDD - 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen 3.0x4.0 SSD
Connected to 32" 4K display

My finding on this test is "there is no improvement on the output video". Please refers to attached screenshot.

Regards

Matt Quinn wrote: - snip -

And your other tapes may have a similar issue - even though you cannot detect it...

The damaged V8 tape returned from the profession shop is wet and easy to break. I have dismantled the cassette plastic case to examine the tape. I don't know how the profession shop treating the tape.

I'm still prefer ripping the VHS tapes, 5 cassettes. They were duplicated from the V8 tapes with lot of work done on them, such as adding sub-titles, adding background music etc. At least I know where the videos were captured. But on the V8 tapes I have to guess.

The videos were captured on England, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Hawaii, California, SeaWorld, Las Vegas etc.

I don't expect turning lead to gold but I'll try all possible means.

It is impossible applying one editing parameter on the complete VHS tapes because the videos were captured on different environment. I have trimmed the videos on this VHS tape into 27 sections. Each section will be treated on different parameter running the video editing software. After finish I will run video editing software to combine them together.

Fortunately the videos captured outdoor (on open air) are quite clear and they need not be further treated. Such as the Niagara Falls captured on helicopter in this VHS tape is very clear.

I'm now only testing the video editing software. After having finalized my direction to go I'll build a faster new PC to do the job. I have already finalized the component list of the new PC

CPU - AMD Ryzen 7/9 8-core CPU
4K GeForce Graphic card
RAM - 64/128G DDR4
HDD - 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen 4.0x4 SSD
HDD for storage - WD 4TB hard disc

It'll be a long way for me to go

Regards

As I expected - you made it worse with this software. A lot of edge (contrast) artefacts. I don't see any improvements at all - I see the opposite.

What exactly is your goal? You will never have a clean and crisp result, no matter what you do.

Fine tune the image on a large (TV) screen in regards to noise, colour and sharpness. Very slightly adjustments in Resolve unless you are satisfied. That is all you can do with such poor material, everything else is a waste of your time.

WestCoastDP wrote:I use a TBC to capture to hard drive. Using scopes, this gives me the best picture. I then UpRez to Prores HQ. I like the results.

...Which is rather the point. You're not trying to shoehorn PAL into an NTSC frame size (as the device suggested by the O/P above does) - which means ditching and/or interpolating vertical resolution. Nor are you immediately compressing in both spatial and temporal terms - to some or other scheme which might or might not be good. You're also using a TBC - and of your A/D conversion and ingest?

Possibly achieved by your TBC and fed to the host computer as uncompressed SDI? - The 10-bit/8-bit thing is probably moot... I happen to use 10-bit because I can basically.

...But how does that help the O/P who, currently, seems to be trying to work off a well-mangled 2nd generation copy of his footage in a format that was really only ever intended for playback. He needs to go back to his original camera tapes and convert them as best he can.

I'd still strongly urge handing the job over to a legitimate professional who will do as you or I might. - and actually has the proper equipment; which as many of us here will appreciate is hard to find, relatively expensive and requires technical knowledge and experience to operate effectively.

Failing that... the DV route is probably the most effective and practical direction for the O/P to go. - Without a decent transfer to start with, all the processing in the world is unlikely to make matters better.

satimis wrote:I'm still prefer ripping the VHS tapes, 5 cassettes. They were duplicated from the V8 tapes with lot of work done on them, such as adding sub-titles, adding background music etc. At least I know where the videos were captured. But on the V8 tapes I have to guess.

I'm sorry... but as a trained, qualified Broadcast technician with over 40 years of experience the only advice I can give you is that the results will be inescapably inferior to re-capturing from the original source tapes. It will be entirely possible to re-construct your VHS tape on a modern edit program, and possibly improve upon it.

On the other hand, there is no software or process that can bring what is already a sub-standard recording (the VHS) up to scratch... It would be possible using an industrial SVHS machine and timebase corrector (TBC) with the appropriate hardware to stabilise it and bring about some subtle improvement. - But you're talking a few thousand £/$ for equipment which really takes technical training and experience to operate to any good effect.

The trouble with cheap junk off the internet is that it's manufacturers have no clue nor care... the devices themselves have all sorts of irrelevant rubbish written all over them to impress the gullible - and reading the (usually comical Pidgin-English) manuals reveals much about how incompetently designed they are!

So... again... I'd advise turning the job over to a legitimate professional... not some back-alley flea market operator - but someone with proper skills and experience.

Otherwise, you're just wasting your time... doesn't matter how much you faff about with software; rubbish in, rubbish out... as my esteemed colleague suggested; you can put lipstick on a pig, but it stays a pig.

Sorry to be so harsh... but it's in nobody's interests to feed confirmation bias.