Converting DV to something usable

[Samir Patel]

Wondering if anyone has advice on converting old Mini-DV footage into a usable footage. I have a lot of old footage I shot on a Canon XL1s back in the day which I can't just recreate. On stage footage during live performances etc. which I would like to incorporate into a reel even if upconverted only to HD and not 4K. Has anyone experience with this? Which plugins/techniques to use? I did at least film it in progressing mode at the time so it is at least not interlaced.

 

[Robert Hart]

I am by no means any sort of competent in this. My personal preference is to scale the original MiniDV image within a thick black border to create an impression of more "apparent" resolution.



It might be worthwhile looking up the post-production process for the feature movie "Open Water" which was shot on Sony DSR PD150P cams but released on 35mm prints.



There was another feature which was shot in Pakistan on the DSR PD150P "Son Of A Lion" by an Australian director with a Pakstani cast and crew about a father and young son who deal in arms. They did some seriously good post work on that to make it look better.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzN1-M37RiY




An interview with the cast is here :-



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19X5K_i2AR4




Behind the Scenes here :-



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yawMdyRzKY




The linked sample below of BTS footage for local project was actually shot on a Z1, a HDV cam with an AGUS35 35mm adaptor using a Nikon 12mm-24mm f4 zoom on front, hence the vignette you will observe.


In some places the vignette is offset because I hung a toe on a chairleg and slammed the assembly into a doorframe which knocked the optical centricity rotten.


The reason I have chosen this is because it was a dub off a DVD disk from the VTS file which is standard definition. By the time the groundglass adaptor and transcode to DVD, then back into Premiere CS5 was finished with it, the image was a bit soggy. I did not try to grade it as the colours went a bit weird.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qPipu2j2lU



The above clip was pulled into a 2K project and not rescaled.


The following clip was pulled into a HDV project and not rescaled. It was shot with a PD150 and AGUS35 adaptor with 50mm-500mm Sigma lens. ( The aircraft was momentarily partially out of control and departed the runway about 70degrees off course. )


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRLAkwjXGok



The following oral history was shot on a PD150 direct-to-camera, recovered off a DVD and pulled into a I think a 1280 x 720 project and not rescaled. I did a bit of levels adjustment.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpkbMc5EgvQ


The following clip was a recovery from VHS camera tape and duplicate from a damaged VHS tape. For the noisy VHS, I favour using frame blending and later-stacking one frame out of sync to reduce image noise. My budget does not allow for more sophistcated noise reduction plug-ins. In old tube-camera VHS, there is a smear on highlights0, so the smear from layerstacking is not apparent.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTl7ZsM3Fvo


I somehow think I got a bit distracted from topic in places. Sorry about the spacing and the long page. Umpiring the brawl between Wordpad on my computer and the system for posting replies is a bit of a lost cause for me and it is now late.

 

[Jarek Zabczynski]

I just process it with standard filters.

Upscale
Chroma smoothening 4:1:1 to 4:2:2
Maybe a combination of blur and sharpen
Add grain if you like.

There's the InstantHD plugin from Redgiant, but I honestly never saw much of a difference in what it claimed it did.

 

[Samir Patel]

Thanks guys. I will experiment with the techniques mentioned.