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M
MAG-DJ
Participant
October 26, 2022
Question

Poor quality video

  • October 26, 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 879 views

Hello! I have an old video recording from a VHS tape but with very poor quality. It is a very dear memory to me and I would like it to remain a memory of me for my children and grandchildren. It's actually something I dealt with many years ago. My question is: Is it even possible to fix it with premier pro 2015? If possible, would someone direct me where and what to read or watch a video tutorial? I am 73 years old, but it does not prevent me from learning something more in this life. I am attaching part of the video for visual information. I will be grateful even if there is no way to solve my problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r333pa5-F7I
Greetings from Grandpa Dimitar from Bulgaria.

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4 replies

S
smrpix
Participating Frequently
October 26, 2022

Those kinds of trails appear when an S-VHS tape is played in a regular VHS deck.  The deck cannot handle the extra bandwidth.  That is almost certainly your case.  You need to track down an S-VHS player and retransfer.

M
MAG-DJAuthor
Participant
October 27, 2022

Hello! No such S-VHS video cassette was used. The recording was made with a video camera and then I transferred it directly with a cable between the camera and the video machine.
Thank you sir for your time.
Be blessed!

chrisw44157881
chrisw44157881
Inspiring
October 26, 2022

I don't want to leave you with nothing, so here it goes. These kinds of things may be possible to improve if you clean the tape and the vhs heads with something similar to isotope alcohol. A professional can do this and may be able to fix the lines with a fresh transfer (if it was S-VHS, instead of VHS) but this won't work if you got a bad VHS copy from a missing S-VHS master.

 

I noticed they flicker on and off, so you essentially have good data in there, hiding in the odd field. you may be able to paste it into the even field. you can lay out the video (if it is 29.97 fps interlaced) into a 59.94 frame composition and then every field will become a frame, so you may be able to use a simple clone stamp tool. painstaking? yes, but may be possible. you may be able to repair and merge automatically with frame interpolation (which uses vector data) I used to enhance vhs detail by frame merging fields this way with timewarp

set to 50% inside a comp speed 50% which produced the same speed but interpolated missing data. I believe Topaz does something similar. If you wanted something quick and dirty, you may be able to simply key out the brighter streak, and overlay a duplicate video with a 1 frame offset or solid black matte. at least it wouldn't be as flickery.

 

now, if the lines are unrecoverable, you may be able to do some jiggery pokery in post. how much is questionable at best, but if you have time and nothing to lose, try these:

 

1. after effects with Effects > Blur & Sharpen > Camera-Shake Deblur (will only use good frames)

2. clone stamp every other frame for every line. maybe a high end scratch removal tool used for film restoration may work?

3. any content aware AI algorithm, see photoshop batch processing images content aware

4. topaz enhance

5. any high end film restoration software like resolve, pfclean, diamant-film, phoenix, drs nova etc.

6. There's very few free automatic solutions out there such as: spotremoverfilter dot com or infognition dot com/dirtcleaner

 

side note: it will be important to capture the video again with full interlaced fields, then deinterlace with topaz or some other motion estimation tool qtgmc etc. if you capture a single field, you are in effect, capturing half the resolution.

    M
    MAG-DJAuthor
    Participant
    October 27, 2022

    Thank you sir. I'm a little ashamed to admit, but my knowledge of this matter is negligible, to say the least, for which I apologize for wasting your time. My main occupation boils down to working with sheet music and a satisfactory level of magical art.
    As for the video machine - Cleaned and serviced by a professional. All the video materials I have on VHS tapes are of decent quality and I transferred them to my laptop with an audio video converter. But unfortunately, one material turned out to be of this poor quality, which is why I dared to write here, where people are professionals. Or as we say - to drink water from the spring. I guess I'll have to make do with what I have. I don't think I will be able to handle everything you recommend me to try. My language barrier is also a factor.
    Finally, I would like to thank you for your time.
    Be blessed good people.

    E
    Eko Wardoyo
    Inspiring
    October 26, 2022

    Hi @MAG-DJ , Premiere Pro is not a magic soft. Your original footage is corrupted, no way to restore it. I think vhs effect like that is special for nostalgia. 🙂

    ######Raizen 7, 40Gb Ram, RTX 3060, Win 11 -- All of Software in the world are just tools. Buy it if it works for you :)
      Fergus H
      Community Manager
      Fergus HCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      October 26, 2022

      Hello Dimitar, 

      I'm sorry to tell you that Premiere Pro does not have any features for fixing that type of damage in an original recording. I did some searching for you on Google - mostly looking for "VHS restoration" - but I didn't find anything that seems like it would be useful. Perhaps other people in this forum will have some suggestions. 

      Regards,

      Fergus

        M
        MAG-DJAuthor
        Participant
        October 27, 2022

        Thank you sir for your time. I appreciate your willingness to help.
        Be blessed!

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