fixing poor quality video

[dasher]

I have been given a vhs tape that was shot on HI8 in poor light. It is very dark and grainy. I have been asked to improve it. I suspect the best way to improve is to throw it in the bin.

Is there any way I can lighten it up without making it worse. I have dumped the vhs tape to my camcorder, taken it in to Prem and it is very very ordinary, nay bad.

Des

[Brian Ellis]

Garbage in = garbage out.

Notwithstanding, although I do not and will not use Premiere, I imagine that it has video filters that will correct the brightness/contrast problem and noise-reducing filters to mitigate the graininess. You will never get normal results, though, just slight visual improvements. The noise reduction tends to reduce the sharpness of the image, though, so it's a compromise.

I took a shot one of about a dozen mongooses romping around a tree in Kenya, by the light of a half-moon, on VHS-C. As can be imagined the image was in shades of black, almost invisible. By judicious manipulation, as described, I even managed to not only see the animals playing, but the grass was greenish and the brown and buff stripes on the animals were clear. Of course, the enhancements didn't improve the noise, but it was better than the original.

[mits]

Hi,
Brian is right about gigo, but you have nothing to lose if you check Xentrik's Vixen filter (they claim that their filter improves poor quality video). http://www.xentrik.demon.co.uk/ViXen/body_vixen.html

[dasher]

Also found Viviclip and Video finesse. Bothof these load plugins to Premiere.

The video is better but still poor. At least it is watchable. Thanks for your help.

Des

[smitty]

depending on what the footage is about, you may be able to mask the poor quality by........... artistic means.eg change to B&W old film
smitty