After we've finally captured the video, we will proceed to the task
of cutting out unwanted parts (e.g., commercials, but also any unwanted
scenes). Furthermore, we will apply different filters and adjust them to
each situation. Therefore we load the video into VirtualDub:
File -> open Video File
Now you have to browse to the folders where you saved the spill drives.
There you have to open the files capture.00.avi (or whatever it is titled,
important is the "00"); the subsequent files will be loaded automatically.
Using the filters
Depending on the resolution, source, type and quality of your video
there are different filters you can choose. There is an almost uncountable
number of filters available on the net and you are free to try all of them.
The basic filters are already included in VirtualDub and Donald Graft has
a huge collection of his own and third party filters on his homepage http://neuron2.net/.
Before being able to use any new filters you'll have to copy them into
the 'plugins' subfolder of VirtualDub and restart the program.
I'm going to just cover the basics here, but you'll get the idea of
how to use filters and can go on searching the net to find filters that
best fit your needs. if you think you've found a special gem, please let
me know and I'll probably include it in the guide (contact info at the
end of the document).
The order in which you use the filters is important though!
Deinterlacing Almost all analoque signals
(and I'm sure all that you are using) are not sent in a progressive order,
frame after frame. No, they are transmitted on a field basis. Every frame
is split in half. Sounds complicated? - it is, but don't worry, we just
have to tell the computer what he has to do with it. If you want to go
into greater detail, a few guys have explained it in
detail.
I have tried out several filters and come to the conclusion that "Deinterlace
MAP" by Shaun Faulds works best for me. By the way, MAP means 'Motion and
Pixel'.
Video -> Filters -> Add Choose 'Deinterlace MAP' from the list
and hit "ok". In the confuiguration window that pops up, leave everything
at default and hit "ok" again.
If you want more information, here are some links to the forum: one thread and the other.
Correcting chroma shifts
Sometimes the capture of vhs-recordings can have chromashifts (also
called color bleeding). This means that one or some colors are shifted
in a direction. It is possible to correct for this using the ChromaShift
plugin. For details, have a look at Correcting
chroma shifts!
Logo removal
If you have a 4:3 clip with a disturbing logo in the picture you might
want to try to remvove it with a logo filter.
Excursion: Logo Removal (only for more advanced
users recommended!)
Resize
It does not make a lot of sense to compress the movie at full resolution. It would need even huger amounts of processing time, the files would get inaccaptibly large and there is not necessarily a quality improvement. You are now free to choose any resolution you'd like as long as it keeps the 4:3 aspect ratio.
Recall the discussion about resolutions. If you captured at 720x576 (NTSC: 720x480), and it contains about 18 pixels overscan (NTSC: about 10 pixels overscan), you should crop (using the "null transform" filter) this first before resizing to a 4:3 format. Otherwise can resize directly >
As shown above with the deinterlacing filter, now choose the internal resizing filter from the list and hit "ok". In the configuration menu that pops up, enter the new size. Under "Filter Mode" you have to choose a method how the resizing will be done. "Precise bicubic (0.75)" has worked best for me. Hit "ok" to leave the menu.
resolutions. If you captured at 720x576 (NTSC: 720x480), and it contains about 18 pixels overscan (NTSC: about 10 pixels overscan), you should crop (using the "null transform" filter) this first before resizing to a 4:3 format. Otherwise can resize directly >Again two links to further explanations: number one and number two.
Cropping at 352x288 in order to create a VCD you can just skip this passage, because the program (e.g., TMPGEnc) that handles the encoding process will take care of this too. In most movies there are black borders on the top and bottom. To take them through the compressing steps just takes up resources for the movie and therfore we'll just cut them off in advance. You can accomplish this as follows:
Video -> Filters -> Add
In the window choose the "null transform" filter and click ok.
Now just click "Cropping" to open the following window:
As you probably expected you can crop left (X1 offset), right (X2 offset),
above (Y1 offset) and below (Y2 offset).
In this case I only want to crop above and below, but sometimes you'll
get small black stripes on the sides which you might want to crop off as
well. Now you should find a scene where you can see as exact as possible
where the borders start, preferably something bright. Then you'll just
have to enter the appropriate pixel counts that have to be cut off in the
appropriate fields. This is a trial and error problem, but shouldn't be
too though to solve though! Make sure that your final resolution is a multiple
of 16 (required for playback). A small trick: Y1 and Y2 should be
even, and the sum Y1+Y2 a multiple of 16. You're finished with this step,
so hit OK twice.
And at this step the watermark that was created when using the MJPEG demo version now disappears as long as you are capturing 16:9 content, because of the black borders being cut off. Of course people capturing 4:3 content don't have this advantage, and will have to register the codec.
Additional filters
If you have specific problems you might want to use one of these additional filters:
1. "normal" clips with snowlike noise
temporal smoother (by default) on the 2nd tick
2d cleaner optimized (by Jim Casaburi) using the default settings
2. Anime
Only 2d cleaner optimized
If you have noise you can also use temporal smoother, but even better
is Warpsharp (by Avery Lee)
smartsmootherhiq (by Klaus Post, has an option making it usefull for
anime too)
Cutting out commercials
You should now have a picture that should look somewhat like the one below:
Now we have to find the commercials. To accomplish this you should use
the slider. To fine tune to the right frame you can use the cursor keys.
If you additionally hold down the <Alt>-key you can jump ahead (or back)
fifty frames per click.
After you've found the starting point, hit 
Then find the ending point the same way and hit 
Now the selected range appears blue and you can delete it by hitting
<DEL> or by choosing Edit -> Delete selection:
Repeat this step for each section you want to cut out. Afterwards put the slider all the way to the right and note the running time of the movie. You will need it for calculating the compression. (You find the time of the movie in my sample picture where 0:14:17.480 is displayed. This means 14 minutes, 17 seconds and 480 milliseconds).
If you now close VDub all the changes you made are gone, filtering as well as the cut parts. To prevent this, it is highly recommended to save these processing settings: File -> Save processing settings (choose a name, i.g. "capture.vcf"). Now you can shutdown VDub and next time you start it, you just have to open your videofile again and then File -> Load Processing settings. You can continue where you stopped last time.
Next step: Video and audio compression: <NEXT>
Back to the Index: <HOME>
Last edited on: 09/18/2003 | First release: n/a | Author: BaronVlad | Translator: SteVe (killingspree) | Content by Doom9.org