Help needed - 8mm scanned at wrong frame rate, need to restore.

[Paul Hildebrandt]

Hello, reaching out here in hopes that someone may be able to help.

I've been given some 8mm film that was apparently scanned some time ago in SD, all that remains is a DVD copy which seems to have been scanned at 29.97. Unfortunately, the original 8mm is lost so I need to make the best I can out of this.

The video exhibits significant frame blur, and in premiere it's showing as 29.97i LFF, but i'm not seeing any interlacing lines.
I've attempted pulldown removal in after effects, but none of the options are cleaning it up for me, so i'm not sure how to proceed from here.

I've linked a video sample below on Vimeo, download enabled. Hoping that someone might be able to direct me on how to go about cleaning this up and restoring the original frame rate without the frame blur.



Link: https://vimeo.com/776812080/6d5e77209e

Thank you,

[Graham Sinden]

Paul, it's a shame you have been put in this position but the golden rule the previous owner should have stuck to is "Never lose the original". Once it's gone it's gone. Sadly this happens all too often where families digitise the films then chuck the original films thinking no one else in the family can play them now. Hopefully someone on here can provide technical help.

Graham S

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Hi! Maybe you should take a look at the freeware virtualdub2 - see https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/vbb/f...ut-re-encoding

[Lee Mannering]

The dvd quality is about as much as you can hope for now Paul

[David Strelitz]

Hello, reaching out here in hopes that someone may be able to help.

I've been given some 8mm film that was apparently scanned some time ago in SD, all that remains is a DVD copy which seems to have been scanned at 29.97. Unfortunately, the original 8mm is lost so I need to make the best I can out of this.

The video exhibits significant frame blur, and in premiere it's showing as 29.97i LFF, but i'm not seeing any interlacing lines.
I've attempted pulldown removal in after effects, but none of the options are cleaning it up for me, so i'm not sure how to proceed from here.

I've linked a video sample below on Vimeo, download enabled. Hoping that someone might be able to direct me on how to go about cleaning this up and restoring the original frame rate without the frame blur.



Link: https://vimeo.com/776812080/6d5e77209e


Thank you,

The DVD is not scanned so unsure why you say that. What makes you think the film was scanned? It may have been an optical transfer and not sharp. The mp2 file is encoded and if it is encoded correctly for NTSC would be 29.97. To meet the specs for DVD video, the interlaced mpeg file should be Uff. How did you extract the vob files? When you play the DVD on a player and TV how bad does it look? If it looks soft, like it does on the link then it's a lost cause. I suspect if the DVD is ripped correctly and put into a correct SD project.
What are you hoping to achieve? Upscaling to HD. Without decent AI software that can be hit and miss, the TV will do a better job...batton down the hatches for the roars of disapproval 🙄

[Paul Hildebrandt]

The DVD is not scanned so unsure why you say that. What makes you think the film was scanned? It may have been an optical transfer and not sharp. The mp2 file is encoded and if it is encoded correctly for NTSC would be 29.97. To meet the specs for DVD video, the interlaced mpeg file should be Uff. How did you extract the vob files? When you play the DVD on a player and TV how bad does it look? If it looks soft, like it does on the link then it's a lost cause. I suspect if the DVD is ripped correctly and put into a correct SD project.
What are you hoping to achieve? Upscaling to HD. Without decent AI software that can be hit and miss, the TV will do a better job...batton down the hatches for the roars of disapproval 🙄

Hi David,

I have no idea how the original film was put onto DVD, it may have been a optical transfer like you state.

I copied the VOB files straight off the disc, I didn't use any kind of ripping software. I don't have the original DVDs any longer so I can't play it on a TV, although I suppose I could burn the VOB files back onto another disc and try it.

The final intention is to upscale to HD and i'll throw some grain over it. I have experience doing this with the Topaz software and it turns out okay, but I need clean unblurred frames first. Even if I keep it SD, I need to get these frames cleaned up.

How would you suggest I go about doing that?

Thank you.

[David Strelitz]

Hi Paul Topaz is probably the best out there but as you know it's slow.
I would play the vob with VLC player or similar and if it looks as soft as the ProRes...I would walk away. You can't polish a (rhymes with Bird).
If it was sharp (ish) I would rip the DVD in my preferred edit software GV Edius. I would then rename the .m2p to .mpg and put it on a stick.
Of course that ripped m2p could be fed to Topaz.
Sadly these sorts of jobs are thankless. Good luck.

[Ed Gordon]

Paul, your problem with blurry images appears to be the result of the incorrect focus which you may have to accept. You may find software to improve the look, but I would not expect much. The frame rate has nothing to do with the blurring.

I assume you have all the files that once resided on a DVD. If that is the case you can create an MKV version of the original VOB files which is not limited to 1gb (the 1gb limit is a limit imposed by the design of DVD structure which splits large video files into multiple 1gb VOB's). Conversion to MKV will not affect the quality of the image. You will then be able to play the MKV of any computer or DVD/Bluray player. If the VOB files are in a directory called VIDEO_TS look for a file named VIDEO_TS.IFO. This is the file MakeMKV will need to do the conversion since you no longer have the original DVD. MakeMKV will combine multiple VOB's that comprise one video. VOB's that contain a single video will be converted to single MKV files.

MakeMKV is available at: https://makemkv.com/
You will need the latest "Beta Key" to use it for a limited time free of charge. Search the forum for Beta Key. A new Beta Key is released periodically.

[Janice Glesser]

Some stabilization with Vdub2 may also help.