How can deblend this ?

[lastchance22]

Hi,
I’m currently working on encoding a DVD source and I’m trying to achieve the best possible final quality, but I’ve run into several issues.
The main problem is noticeable ghosting/blending (likely caused by a poor deinterlacing or blending process). I’ve already tried a few deblending methods, but none of them gave truly satisfying results — the ghosting is still quite visible, especially in motion scenes.
More generally, I’d like to properly clean up the source before encoding. So I’m not only looking for advice on deblending, but also on the overall best workflow and filters to improve the final result.
For example:

• Proper way to handle this kind of blended/interlaced source
  
• Recommended deinterlacing / deblending settings or filters
  
• Whether additional steps like denoising, debanding, or sharpening would help (and in what order)
  
• Any specific encoding settings that would preserve as much detail as possible
  

I’ve attached a short sample clip so you can see exactly what I’m dealing with.
My goal is to get a clean and efficient encode (likely in HEVC/x265) without introducing artifacts or losing too much detail.
Any advice or recommended workflow would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!


http://titant.free.fr/tmp/B1_t00.mkv
   

[Selur]

Argh, there are seems to be some strange chroma ghosting/blends and it seems to be in a lot of frames.
Is that 1:1 from the DVD? (that is horrible)
out of curiosity: Is this just one episode of multiple? Is this through the whole episode?

There's doesn't seem to be a patter, at least I didn't notice one.
Those chroma blends to not seem to match to the adjacent frames, no clue how this was created.
i.e. I see no frame to which the chroma in frame 31 would match,..
Comparing it to your previous sample OPBox2, one can see that:
1. there are frames missing
2. the chrome of those frames is what is causing these chroma artifacts.
(btw. setting saturation to 0 = turning of the chroma, shows that these are just chroma and general blends)

If this is the whole episode I see no proper way to fix this based on that source.


Cu Selur

[lastchance22]

Yes, it’s from the DVD source, and the entire episode looks like this. I also noticed that the compression is quite heavy, as there are a lot of artifacts. But the most annoying issue is this kind of “ghost” chroma, which looks like a poorly done deinterlacing. Is there really no way to fix this?

[Selur]

No, at least not in Hybrid.
I do not count manually fixing the chroma in an NLE (or trying to use HAVC or similar to reimagine the colors) as a 'solution'.

Like I wrote there is no original chroma information for these frames and there are frames missing. (if it were just the intro, one could copy the intro from another episode, but since it's the whole episode that doesn't work)
You would need a correct version for this and then there would be no need to fix it.

Cu Selur

Ps.: it's proably caused by some broken norm conversion or telecine attempt.

[lastchance22]

I’ve been pretty unlucky with my sources for this anime. I still have one last Japanese DVD source. Could you take a look and tell me which encoding settings would work best?
Also, what would you recommend for cropping? I’d like to keep the original resolution but remove the black bars on the sides.

PS: I also really liked the results I got with the BasicVSR filter. Could you recommend the best settings for this DVD source?

http://titant.free.fr/tmp/A1_t00.mkv

[Selur]

Could you take a look and tell me which encoding settings would work best?

Not really, since encoding settings are highly subjective I won't recommend more than use x265, x264 or one of the av1 encoders, use crf (or 'constant quality') and lower the value till the output size is too large for your taste. The defaults are usually a good starting point, but especially for animes, you can often use larger values.

Also, what would you recommend for cropping? I’d like to keep the original resolution but remove the black bars on the sides.

I would, if the input PAR isn't 1:1:

• crop
  
• tell Hybrid to adjust the PAR to 1:1
  
• tell the resizer to adjust the width instead of the height and set the height to the crop height.
  

otherwise I would just crop.

Could you recommend the best settings for this DVD source?

Will look at it after work,..

Cu Selur

[lastchance22]

Thank you so much for your help,
I used the same settings as last time on the Blu-ray, and it seems pretty good. I’m not sure if anything needs changing though. 

   

PS: If you need a longer video sample for better accuracy, just let me know.

[Selur]

'Overwriting input scan type' to 'telecine' + TIVTC + (masked) BasicVSR++ should work fine.
Instead of BasicVSR++ you might be able to clean this one with conventional filters too.

I would start out with LutDeCrawl(ythresh=20, cthresh=20, maxdiff=250), RainbowSmooth(hthresh=250), CCD(threshold=20), AWarpSharp2(blur=2, depth=12) and adaptive-sharpenwith Anime,Overshoot and VideoLevel and then see whether I can tweak the output. (more control, probably faster encoding since no machine learning stuff was used)

Cu Selur

[lastchance22]

Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it. I’ve been using the BasicVSR++ filter and I like the results a lot—it looks better overall. I did notice some flickering though, almost like the pixels are “shimmering” or trembling at times, like in the sample I attached. Do you know if there’s a way to reduce that? thanks in advance!

I promise I’ll stop bothering you with questions after this one… at least for a little while 😄

   

http://titant.free.fr/tmp/A1_t02.mkv

[Selur]

not atm home atm, but try applying DeNoise->QTGMC in input mode 3, but move it before BasicVSR++