Avisynth 4:3 NTSC -> anamorphic NTSC

I saw there was another upscaling thread, but that was focused on HD upscales and rather than derail that one I thought I'd start my own.

I'd like to convert a 4:3 letterboxed DVD to 16:9 anamorphic (all NTSC).  That part is simple enough, but I'd like to retain as much quality as possible and I don't mind a slow script, i.e. use various deinterlacing/scaling tricks to avoid jaggies.

Does anyone have any generic scripts that would be handy to start with?  I'm pretty new to avisynth, so verbose is good.

I'm having some luck in testing with the following script.  Feel free to critique; I'm new to all of this.  I haven't actually converted a real video yet.

import("TempGaussMC_beta1.avs")

directshowsource("input.m2v")

# crop top and bottom from the 4:3 frame
crop(0,72,0,-72)

# stabilized deinterlace (also doubles frames, so we undo that with selecteven)
converttoyv12(interlaced=true)
tempgaussmc_beta1()
selecteven()
converttoyuy2()

# scale image 2x vertically, interpolating missing fields (slow)
eedi2()

# stretch to anamorphic ntsc frame
spline36resize(720,480)

# compensate for the blurring effect from all of this resizing
sharpen(0.25)

# interlace the video
bob(0.0, 1.0)

# set NTSC video framerate
assumefps("ntsc_video")

EDIT: Script fixes.

Thanks for the catch on cropping!  I think I got those 72 values by working with a PAL source, and forgot to change them for NTSC...

Yeah, I hate having to do the convertto's, but tempgaussmc_beta1() only works in yv12, and I really like its deinterlacing results.  Deinterlacing/interpolated scale/reinterlacing seems to produce a less aliased image than the basic script, which IMO looks better, but yes, it certainly makes things a lot more complicated (and slower) than just scaling the image.

EDIT: Wait, I think I got what you were saying about having the full frame and not messing with the fields.  I thought crappy old 4:3 letterboxed DVDs would be hard-telecined, but maybe they just have the pulldown flag just like modern DVDs...  I'll try the whole process without deinterlacing/interlacing, but still using the interpolated scale, and report back.

CatBus said:

I thought crappy old 4:3 letterboxed DVDs would be hard-telecined, but maybe they just have the pulldown flag just like modern DVDs...  I'll try the whole process without deinterlacing/interlacing, but still using the interpolated scale, and report back.

Even if the video is 29.97 fps hard-telecined, performing IVTC is the correct solution, it should never be deinterlaced.

Thanks for the help so far... running into a snag.  HCenc (GUI) is only encoding about 75% of the video, even though it says it's doing all frames and it completed successfully.  I play the AVS through Windows Media Player and the whole thing plays all the way to the end.  75% is suspiciously close to 24/30, so I'm wondering if it's a framerate problem.

I've been trying to use an m2v file extracted from a VOB file as my source, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to just use the VOB as the source.  Perhaps by not using the VOB, I'm losing some framerate/other hints that would help out the encoder.  Any other suggestions welcome.

That seems to be the issue.  The VOB file shows a length of 1:31:55, the extracted m2v shows a length of 55:11, and that's exactly where it truncates.  Rather than trying to get the script to see the correct length on the m2v (probably some framerate screwup in directshowsource(), I'll just use the VOB.  It's easier in the long term anyway.

Personally, I always use DGIndex and MPEG2Source() instead of DirectShowSource(). Guess I'm just old school.

Just to update, I'm having much better success now, but still running into snags.  Using DGIndex and MPEG2Source per Moth3r's advice after more DirectShowSource problems, and now I'm seeing that in fact it's MOSTLY progressive with a few noticeably interlaced bits (ugh), so I'm now trying TIVTC and hoping for better-looking results.  So far, so good, but slow...

EDIT: Did I mention I'm trying this on a Hong Kong film?  Apparently crappy telecines are kindof a thing there.  Who knew?  Latest script below:

loadplugin("dgdecode.dll")
loadplugin("eedi2.dll")
loadplugin("tivtc.dll")

# d2v file created from vob file by dgindex
mpeg2source("input.d2v")

# inverse telecine to reconstruct progressive frames
tfm(d2v="input.d2v")
tdecimate()

# crop top and bottom from the 4:3 frame (60px top & bottom on a perfectly centered image)
crop(0,60,0,-60)

# scale image 2x vertically, interpolating missing fields (slow)
eedi2()

# resize to anamorphic ntsc frame
spline36resize(720,480)

That last script did it!  It may not have done perfect IVTC on those problem sections, but I don't see anything obvious anymore.  Thanks to everyone for the help!