I’m not sure why yours is so stretched, but the quality there looks about the same to me. I took the liberty of cropping your image to show just a 4:3 ratio, and the one thing I noticed is that you might be using an additional sharpening method compared to my own: Your Sisko’s ears are slightly sharper.
Well, that is the result of StaxRip doing some cropping, my player wanting to stretch to fill the screen. I assure you, the final product won’t look as “stretched”, furthermore I cut of the black bars on top/bottom, so the image appears larger (so you can compare more closely without resorting to zoom.
What’s your current script?
We’re very close, but you’ve got a distinctly sharper edge at the moment than I do. How are you getting it? Different QTGMC settings, or a different filter altogether?
You’re updated settings were my inspiration and a sort of “jumping-of-point” for me, but I realised that PAL had it’s rather unique properties in terms of noise, artefacts and so on; after I had applied most of your settings, I quickly realized that I hadn’t jumped far enough and decided to do a little experimenting on my own.
The basis for my work are the vob-files I got from ripping the PAL-Disc with DVD Shrink.
Then I dumped that into StaxRip.
Aside from the automatic source settings, the “first” filter is QTGMC in Progressive Full Repair Mode.
Afterwards, my customized string reads/writes as follows:
QTGMC(preset=“Placebo”, InputType=3, sourceMatch=3, lossless=2, MatchEnhance=1.0, MatchPreset=“Placebo”, MatchPreset2=“Placebo”, sharpness=1.0, SMode=2, tr2=2, Rep0=11, Rep1=9, Rep2=9, RepChroma=true, EdiMode=“EEDI3+NNEDI3”, Sbb=0, NoiseProcess=1, ChromaNoise=true, DenoiseMC=true, NoiseTR=2, GrainRestore=1.0, NoiseRestore=0.1, NoiseDeint=“Generate”, StabilizeNoise=true, Border=true, ediThreads=8)
A few words on that:
I increased the MatchEnhance to 1.0 and while I know it could create more noise, it also provides a bit more detail.
I pushed the sharpness setting to 1.0 but also specified the SMode=2 to allow for “vertical max/min average + 3x3 kernel” to get better results; in addition I did not set a clear value for sharpness limiting - I know, it’s risky and rarely my output can look close to the edge of oversharpening, but it’s an ok trade-off having one or two seconds of that compared to having a better look overall throughout the episode.
I adjusted the rep-settings to minimize blur for motion search, initial and final output after temporal smooth, despite not having set TR0 and TR1 values - I have found that this produces a clearer image and better motion quality with quick camera pans, I also included the ChromaRep.
Furthermore, I added the interpolation with “EEDI3+NNEDI3” to help with the “half-frame-to-full-frame-issue” during deinterlacing, since StaxRip still shows an interlaced source from the PAL, despite being flagged as progressive. And while I was comparing, it also seemed to better handle the visual flow after deinterlacing (less image stutter).
The “Sbb=0” is usually a default setting, but I wrote it in anyway, so QTGMC knows not to back-blend-in the blurr-difference pre-post-sharpening.
When it comes to Noise (which is related to the increased MatchEnhance and sharpness), I chose to use the stronger NoiseProcess=1 to adapt for the previously increased settings, I also included ChromaNoise here.
The DenoiseMC was modified to have a better noise vs. detail detection and in combination with NoiseTR helps to better identify what is actually noise and what detail (that I want to keep, naturally).
More on that, I decided to raise the value of “GrainRestore” to 1.0, cause with the PAL it preserves things better, albeit keeping a little more grain, but that’s visually ok for me, I don’t need things to be “super smooth” in that regard.
Finally the Border=true setting is added to remove flickering on top/bottom borders, which happens with PAL when explosions or very fast moving objects are in those areas. It doesn’t handle it all the time, but reduces the effects.
Then I used a second filter, “Deblock_QED”, because the PAL is quite blocky, especially when explosions or quick camera pans happen. I modified the string so the “quant1=35” (default would be 24) increases the removal of outer edges on blocks. I don’t dare go higher, for then other lines will become distorted or have weird visual effects happening - unfortunately it doesn’t get rid of all blocks, but reduces them enough to barely see them (mostly with quick movement and/or explosions).
Then I used a third filter, “pSharpen”. Now I don’t know how familiar you are with that one, but I love it. It uses a “two-point approach” on every pixel, comparing to the min/max of it’s spatial neighbor whilst avoiding overshoot and also giving you the option when to use compensation for that avoidance.
I also raised the super sampling factors to reduce aliasing.
Now I know, doing additional sharpening can lead to terrible results (considering I also pushed it with qtgmc), but I think I have made a reasonable compromise.
My specific pSharpen string as follows: pSharpen(strength=75, threshold=90, ss_x=2.0, ss_y=2.0)
Also (4th filter) AntiAliasing comes into play with MMA2/MAA2.
I know aliasing is not present “as much” with PAL, but the instances it happens it get’s distracting very fast. So I really pushed it around here as well, including chroma.
String: MAA2(mask=1, chroma=true, ss=2.0, aa=128, aac=128, threads=4, show=0)
The 5th and (almost) final filter is to handle the Color Grading, I went for GradFun3, since it gives to most pleasing results. I only do that because with PAL you can sometimes see banding, especially with stronger colors.
The string here as follows: GradFun3(smode=2).
And the last “filter” is the automatic crop.
When it comes to Topaz VEAI I know you prefer Gaia CG and while I worked with it as well for some time, I do not use it for DS9 - here I use Gaia HQ.
It’s a personal preference for the following reasons:
Gaia CG smoothens/cleans out to much detail (in my opinion) and makes the image look a little “too artifical”, faces are a particular issue here (wax effect).
Furthermore, HQ adds a little more sharpening while keeping a bit more grain/noise, which is nice for I tried to preserve some when doing QTGMC.
And: Sometimes Gaia CG has an issue with introducing a visual “grid pattern” that hasn’t been solved yet and especially during nature shots (see the holodeck scene with Jake and his father) the trees don’t look right, that really is something Topaz should take care of.
So that’s it. I hope that was useful for you; perhaps you could adapt some of my suggestions to your work.
I would like to give something back for you have really helped me with mine.