Issues with cropping 4:3 and 16:9 Footage (Premiere)

[Dext3r]

Hello,

Note: PLEASE LOAD ALL THESE IMAGES IN A DIFFERENT URL/tab, that is the only way to see the whole image on the right side, which for some reason is not showing up on this page.

So I've been having some issues cropping 4:3 footage to fit in a 16:9 environment as well as some oddities with some 16:9 footage in general.

I originally did this with Fullmetal Alchemist (2004) and it came out pretty well with these AVS Script Settings:

Spline36Resize(848,636)
Crop(0, 78, -0, -78)



Footage Details for FMA (2004):

Resolution: 720x480
Aspect Ratio: 4:3


However, I'm trying to replicate this with Cowboy Bebop (Series) and Pokemon (The Original Opening) and its
not coming out as well for either one:



Footage Details for Cowboy Bebop (Series):

Resolution: 720x480
Aspect Ratio: 4:3



Footage Details for Pokemon (Original Opening):

Resolution: 720x480
Aspect Ratio: 4:3

If anyone knows how I can fix this, that would be great.



Now my second question is about footage for Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, which is a 16:9 source, but has a strange border on the top and bottom that I can't seem to get rid of (every time I try cropping it, it only seems to make it worse; but thats because I don't really know what I'm doing).



Footage Details for Cowboy Bebop: The Movie:

Resolution: 720x480
Aspect Ratio: 16:9

I'm not sure if this is because it was a film so its different than regular 16:9 footage for some reason or what.

Any help to all of this would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Dext3r

P.S. Sequence Settings:

Resolution: 848x480 (If you're wondering why I'm using this resolution, it was under advisement from an AMV Guide)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels
Fields: No Fields (Progressive Scan)

(The Sequence settings between the project using the FMA footage and this project are the same)

[l33tmeatwad]

The footage itself was not handled well, you are going to need to clean the footage up before upscaling and cropping off. I would refer to the Improving Visual Quality with AviSynth Filters guide and look at the section on cleaning dot crawl and randbowing, as well as looking into using a noise reduction filter. As for the movie, if you crop from the top and bottom, you need to crop from the sides too, the footage is slightly wider than 16:9 so you need to adjust it accordingly.

[Mister Hatt]

If you upsample an image with defects, the defects get upsampled too. As l33tmeatwad said, investigate some dotcrawl and rainbow removal, and potentially dering or remove dirt.

[Dext3r]

Ok so I took your advice on the other footage and I think I've cleaned it up a bit, but this new footage is really giving me trouble.



Here's my AVS Script:

Mpeg2Source("K:\AMV Comedy Video\Source Footage\Lucky Star\MainMovie\Lucky\VIDEO_TS\Lucky.d2v", cpu=6)
Checkmate(48)
LutDeRainbow()
ConvertToYV12()
Spline36Resize(848,480)
TTempSmooth()
FastLineDarkenMod()
LSFmod(strength=120)

Any advice?

[l33tmeatwad]

Ok so I took your advice on the other footage and I think I've cleaned it up a bit, but this new footage is really giving me trouble.

Quoted Image converted to link:
http://i.imgur.com/MYUHIIq.jpg

Here's my AVS Script:

Mpeg2Source("K:\AMV Comedy Video\Source Footage\Lucky Star\MainMovie\Lucky\VIDEO_TS\Lucky.d2v", cpu=6)
Checkmate(48)
LutDeRainbow()
ConvertToYV12()
Spline36Resize(848,480)
TTempSmooth()
FastLineDarkenMod()
LSFmod(strength=120)

Any advice?

First off, I'm fairly certain Lucky Star does not have ranbowing or dot crawl going on (if I remember correctly), so I'm not really sure why you are applying those filters as it would degrade the quality overall.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that is part of the opening sequrnce correct? The episodes are probably fine and don't need to be filtered a lot, so I would filter the opening seperately from the episodes as to not lose detail. Using the CPU=6 setting and TTempSmooth() is probably not strong enough for this particular sequence and CPU=6 tends to blur a lot and is less effective than some other filters. I would recommend trying Deblock() and Dftest(), please refer to the org guide for more information on how to use those filters. Also not really sure why you are using two sharpening filters...just bump up the LSFmod settings.

I'd say try something like:

Code: Select all

Mpeg2Source("K:\AMV Comedy Video\Source Footage\Lucky Star\MainMovie\Lucky\VIDEO_TS\Lucky.d2v")
Deblock(quant=45)
Spline36Resize(848,480)
dfttest(sigma=60)
LSFmod(strength=180)

I'm kinda guessing on some of those settings since I don't have the source in front of me to test with, you need to tweak the settings to get the right balance of noise reduction and maintaining detail.

That said, I really find MVtools2 to be very useful and adding in Degrain2 often helps "settle" noise down as well (not just grain).
If you have that installed I would recommend something like this:

Code: Select all

Mpeg2Source("K:\AMV Comedy Video\Source Footage\Lucky Star\MainMovie\Lucky\VIDEO_TS\Lucky.d2v")
Deblock(quant=45)
super = MSuper(pel=2, sharp=1)
backward_vec2 = MAnalyse(super, isb = true, delta = 2, overlap=4)
backward_vec1 = MAnalyse(super, isb = true, delta = 1, overlap=4)
forward_vec1 = MAnalyse(super, isb = false, delta = 1, overlap=4)
forward_vec2 = MAnalyse(super, isb = false, delta = 2, overlap=4)
MDegrain2(super, backward_vec1,forward_vec1,backward_vec2,forward_vec2,thSAD=400)
Spline36Resize(848,480)
dfttest(sigma=60)
LSFmod(strength=180)

This would be REALLY slow and I would only recommend doing this for the segments you need instead of running it over the entire episode. MVTools can be downloaded here.

Again, all of these are some pretty heavy duty and slow filters that will kill a lot of detail, so use it sparingly where needed.

[Mister Hatt]

I have a deblocking filter custom for bad high motion scenes but can't find it right now, will append when I can. In the meanwhile DeblockQEDMT2 is probably your best option for that kind of thing, and then a light fft3d or dft afterwards, just tune it to your block size. This will have a similar effect to the above script but be significantly less slow I guess. Also, check if you have a creditless special OP chapter in your DVD if you're not using it already. I find the credited ones tend to have more bitrate overall, but creditless is cleaner. You can use one to filter the other to a degree also.

[Dext3r]

Alright I'm finally getting back around to this. I've got until Monday night to get this video done, so the pressure's on!

@l33tmeatwad I'm going to give this a try, I'll report back after I know how it goes.

@Mister Hatt If his method doesn't work, I'm going to try yours. Unfortunately, with the Lucky Star DVD I have, there is no creditless version (although thankfully everything I wanted to use didn't have any credits on it).