Yet Another PAL GOUT Upscale... (* unfinished project *)

After I worked with “The Matrix” for the last two months, I developed a simple denoise+upscale script to upscale the anamorphic PAL DVD to replace shots affected with artifacts; today I was tinkering with the last improved version, and I said myself “why don’t you try it with the PAL GOUT?”… even if I know SW:ANH PAL GOUT is inferior to its NTSC counterpart, I wanted to give it a try; I took Harmy’s DE 2.1 for comparison - as it’s the “de facto” standard for the OOT ( we’ll see if negative1’s project will beat it); I know there are a lot of attempts to improve GOUT’s quality, but this is MY attempt! (^^,)

Top, Harmy’s from the AVCHD untouched, bottom, my test script - no color correction at all:

Here you are the links to the comparison test clips; I included “normal” bicubic resize as well, because (if I’m not wrong) this is the method most HDTV upscale SD material, and give you an idea of before-after; all files are 1280x1080 (1280x540x2) inside a 1920x1080 frame, 23.976fps, no sound, 8000kbps:

Tantive corridor (14.5MB each)

Harmy comparison - http://www.sendspace.com/file/5x034d

Bicubic comparison - http://www.sendspace.com/file/8e6xc3

Mos Eisley (5.5MB each)

Harmy comparison - http://www.sendspace.com/file/dzbqym

Bicubic comparison - http://www.sendspace.com/file/ypilhs

Alderaan distruction (20MB each)

Harmy comparison - http://www.sendspace.com/file/khj0dx

Bicubic comparison - http://www.sendspace.com/file/g8k72f

I’m curious how well it could do with the GOUT NTSC, or with the Technidisc laserdisc captured with the Pioneer HLD-X9… I’m starting to think to use it for my next projects, but I need your opinions about quality.

Thanks to all in advance!

@Chewtobacca:

Thanks! You know what I was after, doing this test, right?

I'm open to do a capture of the Technidisc trilogy, using my Pioneer HLD-X9 (along with another MUSE and/or simple NTSC player if necessary) and this script, if someone is willing to borrow me the discs...

About sharing the script: this is my "little dirty secret"... the final achievement after almost two years of though testing, and epic fails - someone remembers WhiteMagic? Anyone? (^^,) - so I will keep it for me, for the moment; as I wrote before in another post, IF I'll quit the fanedit community for any reason, I'll post it, along with other script, here (and probably somewhere else).

@Jetrell Fo:

Just download the test clips - you find the links in the first post; and let me know what do you think about!

Usually I'm huge fan of your work Andrea but this time the noise reduction is definitely too high. The screenshots I've made show a huge lack of details, it reminds me a little bit of a painting.

http://s6.postimg.org/si06qsim9/vlcsnap_2013_11_02_17h45m55s992.jpg

http://s6.postimg.org/70oxjfrcx/vlcsnap_2013_11_02_17h58m14s149.jpg

I don't want to be harsh tho, I still respect your work and i'm impressed by your script but you should definitely reduce the noise reduction.

Hey, I started the thread to ask opinions, so don't worry! In fact, these are only tests, and I'm still testing... you are welcome to express your opinion, and I will try to follow your tips; just please correct the links you posted, because they are not working...

Now the links work, as ilovewaterslides fix them.

I should take a look at the denoiser - I'm aware that it's a bit too "present" - and take a step back, or simply change it; stay tuned, hope to post new versions soon.

Alright, glad to hear it! Can't wait to see the next results. The upscaling is indeed well done and stunning when compared to the original GOUT.

You know me, I like... no, I LOVE to exagerate, and then I exagerated with the noise reduction... OK, back to the old "plain" denoiser, but this time I upscaled full HD - 1920x816, 8000kbps, no sound, 5MB:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/tbw8bl

Still looks like that movie "A Scanner Darkly", like the whole scene has been painted over.

What does it look like without any denoise filters?

Even on 35mm film the faces are still indistinct:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ryko9a

But at least it looks real!

Here you are another two clips:

no denoise, just upscale - http://www.sendspace.com/file/2j0ynp

denoise+upscale+grain - http://www.sendspace.com/file/r5rd4v

"No denoise, just upscale" looks great. Definitely the best, in my opinion - certainly the only one I would watch. The others are way too smooth, they look like a cartoon. Perhaps the denoiser works well in other scenes, but not this one.

Good work though, the upscale looks very promising.

The Mos Eisley scene is the worst of the entire movie, hence it's difficult to denoise it well - I admit I used the wrong script... (^^,)

So, take a look at this one - Tantive test clip, 1920x816, 8000kbps, no sound, 15MB - this time I used MagiClean (a less aggressive denoise script than DigiClean) + MagicUp (the usual upscaler) + added grain:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/0xgi7b

THAT looks good. I'd watch that. I noticed that in another thread you had broken down the scenes by frame numbers. I know it's tedious, but a scene by scene correction will always produce better results.

Good stuff!

Alderaan destruction test clip, 1920x816, 8000kbps, no sound, 20MB - MagiClean + MagicUp (the usual upscaler) + added grain:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/fibinm

Now, if someone is curious to see an upscaled version of a certain scene, post your request here - just keep it short, max 500 frames, as the processing rate is a "whopping" 1fps... you could also use my PAL GOUT frame data reference.

rnranimal said:

This is the one I like best. Do you have the Mos Eisley clip done this way?

nope... but because you asked, here you are:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/h2tmdw

don't forget to post what do you think about...

I worked hard for improve the script, and it seems that now the results are not cartoonish... but judge by yourself:

Mos Eisley - http://www.sendspace.com/file/dkjauc

Tantive corridor - http://www.sendspace.com/file/gy4ntd

Please forgive my lack of education now, but... "you can't polish a turd"! (^^,)

Yes, this is the worst scene of the whole trilogy, and frankly I don't know if it's possible to restore it at a good quality level, unless someone uses BD and/or DVD and/or 1997 SE scene, and "cut and paste" pieces to obtain a reconstructed scene... but I have not that kind of patience!