Restoring old MiniDV wedding footage with Mac and Final Cut Pro

I have some MiniDV files that were imported digitally from the tape via Firewire. You need to make sure to tell Topaz that the footage is interlaced under the ENHANCEMENT setting or otherwise you'll get hideous interlacing weave artifacts, sometimes people call it combing. Also if you use AI upscaling, be very VERY gentle. I would say not to upscale it more than 2x. Let FCP scale it the rest of the way. Don't add fake detail that's not there which gives the video an extremely artificial look. Let it look how it looks. But Topaz is FANTASTIC at deinterlacing and you'll get a proper 60fps file (or 59.97fps) that you can edit.

I have other methods of capture if Firewire isn't possible.

If the OP is still around he may be interested in these 2 short wedding clips I made 6 months ago.

A friend had a wedding video which had been shot some 50 years ago on Super 8 Cine film which he had copied to PAL mini-DV some 20 odd years ago by projecting onto a piece of A4 paper.

I took the tape, copied it onto my Mac and converted it to mp4 using a ten quid VHS converter from Amazon.

I then ran the MP4 through MacXvideo AI (now superseded by VideoProc AI) and these were the before and after results.

https://youtu.be/PTkqItzI0AI?si=mFDGu_Gig8cU_6ii

https://youtu.be/HaviUwkekxw?si=NCg0M8YsDFacesbI

VideoProc AI costs around £50.

Don't get rid of your old Mac as it probably has a FW socket which is essential for capturing.

The tapes should be OK for you to copy onto your Mac unless they have been badly stored . . . no point in paying for the service. They are just as likely to ruin your tapes as you are . . . but you will be paying for the pleasure!

Just get it copied and see what can be achieved using FCP's or iMovie's adjustment filters.

Take it from there if necessary.

FCP's Voice Isolation feature should help clean up some of the low volume speeches.

Don't expect miracles from AI video. It can lift the appearance but if the original is really bad it will still look dodgy.

Are you looking to output the whole 3+ hours as it could be very boring and you would probably be the only person willing to sit through it . . . much better to cut it down to 10 minutes of the highlights using the most salvable footage.

I'll also recommend Topaz, I've had GREAT success cleaning up old footage with it. And AI can do amazing clean up jobs, if you use the correct model and prompt. Also, some damage or bad shots will only be cleaned up so much. Don't expect miracles.

Quite possibly the OP has found a solution or is otherwise engaged.

If he is viewing this thread he should be aware that the free iMovie that comes with his new Mac could be more than adequate to revive his old, unused footage.

Of course, if he requires something more sophisticated, the free version of DaVinci Resolve should do everything he requires and is more like his old legacy Final Cut Pro than the current FCP 12.

BenB wrote:

I'll also recommend Topaz, I've had GREAT success cleaning up old footage with it. And AI can do amazing clean up jobs, if you use the correct model and prompt. Also, some damage or bad shots will only be cleaned up so much. Don't expect miracles.

Topaz doesn't use prompts in the conventional sense, just sliders. But yeah if you know how to use it it can do great things for old videos. Best to play around and see what works best. Personally when I find something I think looks good, I back each slider off just a hair and save it as a preset. I use the same philosophy when color grading. It looks great, but I've been staring at it for a while so it's probably a bit too much... back it off a hair.

After posting his question, the OP has not been back here for a week. I hope he found a solution.