How to improve old (digital camera) video quality?

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
February 15, 2022
5 replies
6357 views

I found an old video shot on a Kodak CX7330 digital camera (around 2006 or so). I've been playing with it in in Premiere Pro trying to improve the overall quality. Increasing the brightness, a little color correcting, removing the hum, etc. Huge improvements with a few basic effects applied...winning!

Still, the flickering grain across the whole image is brutal. Using Unsharp Mask makes a slight improvement while also making the grain sharpen as well. Anyone have suggestions on how to tackle a project like this? I know I won't make it look like it was shot on a new iPhone, but fun to see how close I can get.

Thanks.

How to

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FlyingFourFun

Inspiring

Try out these two samples I did quick and dirty; didn't play with any settings, used Video Enhance AI

I think the source file deinterlace was not great, so the results could be better if a better deinterlace was used before VEAI was applied. Either way, something for you to look at... If you play with the software, and have a better deinterlace, I think it can be much better, this was just meant as a quick sample, as you can tell I didn't bother to try and properly resize that frame

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1U2kTCiwLfiFk0PqVFgXh0qlkV5cOzDJ_?usp=sharinghttps://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1U2kTCiwLfiFk0PqVFgXh0qlkV5cOzDJ_?usp=sharing

keithm1972Author

Inspiring

Yes, these both show improvements over the original (I think I like the second ones best). Nice of you to put up some samples, thanks!

OK, need to check out this Video Enhance AI.

FlyingFourFun

Inspiring

They have a free trial.

There is a good chance you will like one of the many options.

I think with the footage you have provided as a sample; you may want to focus on capturing the video with interlace intact if you can, and then apply the best deinterlace you can before you do any other work to it. Topaz has a deinterlace tool that seems to work pretty well but I have a limited experience to draw from for interlaced as I have not worked with that for years.

I hope you find a path that yields superior results for you.

Ann Bens

Community Expert

If you really want to clean up old footage have a look at:

Video Enhance AI – Video Quality Software

chrisw44157881

Inspiring

neatvideo or topaz ai.

AE has an old remove noise plugin as well.

there's also some external filters for virtualdub, avisynth if you want to get your hands dirty with scripting but they are free. time is money, right? that camera only has 3 MP, so don't expect iphone 13 quality.

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basil1891

Inspiring

Sounds like you are looking for a video denoiser. Premiere has only very basic one ("VR denoise". iirc).

I prefer this freeware option, but it's a standalone tool, not a plugin:

Free Video Denoiser. How to reduce video noise, remove grain, HQ noise reduction, tutorial - YouTube

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Andy 1968

Inspiring

Do you have a sample video clip for us to see? I place SD interlaced video into 60P sequences if I am posting to social media. If it is for Blu-ray I leave it interlaced.