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Known Participant
March 18, 2021
Question

captured video from scanned 8mm film

  • March 18, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 2974 views

I have an issue regarding the quality of captured video from a film scanner. Let me post you a background;

In early 2018 a got myself a small film scanner from Reflecta (may possibly also be manufacured as Wolverine) and with great help from Safeharbour11 in this forum, I managed to create a workflow creating a reasonably good result from scanning old 8mm film. In order to get an even better result I've got hold of a used but well kept professional scanner called Flashscan8 from a german firm named MWA. This scanner is outdated by todays standard but should be good enough for me to produce my scanned films on DVD. I use a JVC monitor with a SDI-connection to the scanner to check the running film and a firewire connetion between the scanner and my computer. I capture the film directly into Premiere Pro and here's the problem: The captured film looks out of focus and horisontal lines, or near horisontal lines, become jittery sometimes along with a color error. The film looks crystal clear on my JVC monitor (assuming its crystal clear on the original film) wich, to me, indicates that there's no problem within the scanning process itself. 

This is what I use:

Windows 10 pro 64 bit

Processor AMD Ryzen 7 2700x Eight Core 

RAM 32 GB

Monitor Eizo Color Edge

Flashscan 8 outputs 720x576 lines with 25 f/s and 25 Mbit/s on IEE 1394 (Firewire)

Though the scanning process is progressive, PP regards the film as interlaced when captured, so I change that in the sequence settings to progressive. I have tried to leave it interlaced but there is no difference to the quality other than when useing Neat video the picture is extremely distorted (from expected 4:3 to something like 16:3) but back on the timeline after filtering the aspect ratio is back to expected. 

Much appreciate some help.

 

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1 reply

Inspiring
March 18, 2021

The scanning process is a nonissue. If you used a Firewire device the video is interlaced to PAL specs.

Your scanning method may or may not have had good results. You can drop the video in a 1920 X 1080 60P timeline and resize it as you wish and export at 60P.

Known Participant
March 19, 2021

Hi Andy,

Thnks for your rapid reply. I must admit I don't understand your suggestions. I tried my best to follow and made a new sequence from AVCHD 1080i in order to get the frame size 1920x1080. The 60P bit I didn't follow at all. In Sweden (or Europe if you wish) PAL is associated with 50P and furthermore I couldn't find a place to make that adjustment. I tried this sequence on a few clips but the picture is very small in the program monitor and to resize it to fit I had to zoom in A LOT and the sharpness didn't exactly benefit from that. When useing the Neat Video to reduce noice the picture becomes so stretched in width so it is hard to work with. Have I got everything wrong?? 

Known Participant
March 22, 2021

P.Daguerre,

You are welcome.  The most impotant part for you in the video is after the six minute mark. That being said why do you have to use DVDs instead of Blu-ray? 

Placing SD video in 1920 X 1080 timeline and upscaling will not look bad if you don't upscale to much. Keep in mind a DVD will be upscaled to fit the whole screen. It is best to create a Blu-ray disc as opposed to a DVD so you have full control over the quality as seen at the six minute mark in my video. 

If you work with PAL and are exporting for social media then exporting at 50P would be your best bet.

If your work with PAL and want to go to Blu-ray or DV interlaced video is best. Keep in mind editing interlaced video on a computer monitor is not wise. That is where the AJA and BD products come in handy. Interlaced video looks awesome on broadcast compliant hardware. What you see is exactly what you get including motion, color space and composition.






Hi Andy,

 

I use SD DVD because Blu-ray isn't very frequent around here.

 

I got your other advices. Thanks

 

Peter