Suggestions for removing video noise from converted Hi8 footage

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Level 1

6 points

Suggestions for removing video noise from converted Hi8 footage

I am about to start capturing Hi8 material into FCP 6 through a Sony D8 camcorder that does the analog to digital conversion. Even after cleaning the tape heads, I notice a very few lines of noise at the very bottom of the frames - like a dirty head. From the camcorder side everything looks normal - no noise. From the FCP side in VTR mode you can see the noise. I am not sure if this is an artifact from the analog to digital transfer or if the tape head is still dirty.

Question: assuming I cannot eliminate the noise on transfer/input, is there an easy way to apply a universal filter or horizontal "clip" function to imported video to remove the bottom few lines of video? I guess I could always overlay a black canvas covering only a few lines on the bottom, but maybe there is a more elegant solution?

Thanks in advance for any counsel!

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on May 3, 2008 6:33 AM

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Answer 1

luvsoccer Author

Level 1

6 points

May 3, 2008 6:43 AM in response to luvsoccer

On closer inspection it doesn't really look like a dirty camcorder head signal. It almost looks like a head alignment issue - i.e., the start of another signal. There is a mostly solid black line just a few video lines thick, with some multi-colored lines below it. The whole thing covers no more than about 2% of all vertical lines - just along the bottom of the frame. The original footage was shot with a Canon A1 Hi8 camcorder. The D8 camcorder I am using is a Sony. Again - the footage seen from the camcorder video monitor does not show the artifact - it is only seen from the FCP side and I presume would also exist after capturing.

Any advice?

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Answer 2

May 3, 2008 6:53 AM in response to luvsoccer

No... that is 'normal'. You find similar things (though on the left, I find-and solid black) when doing SP transfers too. Not sure I can give you a technical answer for why... but it happens. Either scale it a few degrees or crop it when heading out. OR put a widescreen matte on it and call it 'professional!' (hee)

The reason you don't 'see' it when looking at the monitor is because of overscan. The LCD doesn't show the WHOLE footage. Just like a TV and Action Safe areas. Ok? If you are going to TV and not the web you won't EVER see it.

CaptM

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Answer 3

Studio X

Level 7

27,229 points

May 3, 2008 6:53 AM in response to luvsoccer

What you are seeing are timing errors that are an artifact of analog recording and generally are outside the viewable area of a CRT TV (i.e. in the overscan zone). If you are setting these up for digital presentation - web or computer play only, these items may be seen.

You have a couple of options to deal with the tearing ..

• Recapture the material using a Hi8 deck and a separate analog/DV converter with a full frame Time Base Corrector between the tape machine and the analog/DV converter. This will clean up the timing errors but is an expensive proposition.

• Crop the image. This will leave a very slight letterbox effect and may not be noticeable unless you mix the material with non-cropped material.

• Slightly enlarge the material so that the tearing falls outside of the 720x480 area. Expanding images much beyond 110% softens/pixelates the images noticeably and my not be acceptable.

• Live with it.

Good luck.

x

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Answer 4

luvsoccer Author

Level 1

6 points

May 3, 2008 7:01 AM in response to Studio X

Thank you both for the speedy replies! This footage will be ultimately for DVD production and I confess I hadn't thought far enough ahead in the process to realize that it falls into the overscan area of the picture. Your explanations make perfect sense. Aside from the annoying (and I presume safe for the monitor) visual distraction during the editing process - sounds like I should be good to go. Thanks again to both of you - really appreciate the professional counsel!

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