Wolverine - Change Frame Rate without Re-Encoding

[Paul Molive]

Hello, Sorry if this has been covered already. If so, if someone could refer me to a useful thread that would be great. I am looking to improve the results from my Wolverine Super 8 transfers. I need to change the frame rate to 18fps without losing quality re-encoding. I am a novice with this, and learning as I go. I'm finding this is not so easy lol. If anyone can help me I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks

Paul

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

My only option is a freeware called VirtualDub. It does allow you to adjust frame rate to anything you'd like to without any sort of re-compression. That means zero quality loss and lightning fast.
The only catch is its steep (and I mean STEEP) learning curve. But once you get a hang out of it, you can do TONS of things besides framrate conversion. Worth the try.

[Paul Molive]

Ok thanks. Yes I tried Virtualdub but the originals from the Wolverine are MP4. I don't see the option to import MP4 files.

[Stan Jelavic]

Works for me. Try VirtualDub2.

[Paul Molive]

Thanks for the replies! I managed to change the frame rate to 18fps with ffmpeg. A little tricky but worked great. Now I'm just now trying to find the best way to add audio to my clips without re-encoding. Any suggestions? Thanks again

[Stan Jelavic]

Paul, ffmpeg duplicates and/or deletes the frames for frame rate change. VirtualDub uses frame interpolation i.e. it detects the motion vectors for each pixel and generates interpolation frames. It gives you nice smooth panning. I have not done much audio but there are so many people in this forum with lots of audio experience. Hope they read your post.

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

When properly configured Virtualdub will accept almost any video formats known to mankind - avi,mp4,mpg,mts,mkv,etc., you name it. In direct stream copy mode it will re-wrap the video stream in .avi output file without any recompression. Perfect for speeding up/slowing down a video stream.

Once again - STEEP LEARNING CURVE. I pulled my hair countless times (months I think) before get it just right.

[Paul Molive]

Ok thanks. I will try virtualdub and hopefully get a better result. Is there a way to adjust gamma/brightness without re-encoding? If not, I'm wondering which program does the best job with minimal loss of quality

[Stan Jelavic]

Gamma, brightness, contrast is all there under video -> filters.
You could also consider Film9. It is gui wrapper on top of VirtualDub2. You select different video filters via a gui panel. Actually pretty easy to use.
http://contact41766.wixsite.com/film9/home-1

[Gregory Oliver]

Odd, but Norton refuses to let me download fiml9. Malicious site?

[Stan Jelavic]

Probably because it is a .exe file. I zipped it and put it on my google drive:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1P3...16g1c_HxncJ7hQ

[James G. Brown]

I may have what your looking for. See my post at http://8mmforum.film-tech.com/vbb/fo...rscan-and-crop

[James G. Brown]

FFMPEG does add or delete frames but only if you use it on the output file. Applying it to the input file will change the actual frame rate (speed) without adding or dropping anything. There is also a filter available for the interpolation on the output video if that is what you require. Virtualdub changes the frame rate without affecting the actual speed. But since the Wolverine scans frame by frame and outputs 20 frames per second, you need to drop the speed to 16 or 18 frames per second to match the original film speed. Then if you want to smooth it you can use interpolation to create additional frames and bring the fps up to a standard 24 or 30 frames per second. I've been working on some films for a guy that were about Jeeps running obstacle courses. With so much motion, the interpolation resulted in a smooth video but it had less clarity so I left it at the 18fps.

[James G. Brown]

Paul.....
For a straight forward method using ffmpeg to change the frame rate from 20fps to 18fps without re-encoding or dropping frames try the following:

ffmpeg.exe -r 18 -i "inputfilespec" -r 18 "outputfilespec"

The first -r 18 tells it to read the input file at 18fps. The second -r 18 tells it to record the output file at 18fps. The result is that the input file and output files have the same number of frames except when played back it will display at 18fps.

This can be verified using ffprobe. The input and output files will have the same number of frames but the duration will be longer.

Regular 8mm cameras normally shot at 16fps and Super 8mm cameras shot at 18fps. So adjust accordingly.