Help Deinterlacing SDF Footage (For Video Editing)

[DuoHimura]

Hey all, new to the forums (it's pretty awesome that there's an active Macross-specific forum, guess it speaks to the show's lasting appeal).

Anyway, I have a sort of specific question for anyone who knows anything about editing video. I'm working on a fan-parody of SDF Macross, in the vein of Evangelion Redeath, Ideon/off, This is Otakudom, etc. The writing is done pending some ongoing edits, and ideally the whole thing would be done in time to submit to this year's Otakon fan parody night.

The problem is, I have the ADV Macross DVDs and I can't seem to get through the interlacing. I use the AMVapp and AMV.org's associated guide, and I've run down the obvious suggestions for how to inverse telecine it, but I can't get rid of some after-image-y interlacing artifacts. So, my question is, does anyone here make AMVs or whatever and happen to have a script for producing nice-quality footage from the ADV DVDs, or have a recommendation about how to proceed? Would it be better to just try and acquire the Animeigo DVDs to make use of the progressive encoding? I would like to avoid rebuying the show, if at all possible, but I could manage it.

I've also considered grabbing Galaxy Networks' "remastered" subs, which look pretty nice, if rather dark compared to the DVD footage. Since they're .mkvs I'm guessing there must be a way to take the subs off for editing, though I don't actually know how to do it. I'm also a little dubious on using a non-DVD source for the footage.

Anyway I would be eternally grateful if anyone could offer me some advice. And you'd get a spot in the credits when I finally get this thing together, for what it's worth.

[frothymug]

I know mkvtoolnix and mkvextract can unpackage matroskas into their individual elements. That's about all I can say to help you

[Mercurial Morpheus]

Yeah, MKVextract can pull the raw h.264 video straight out of it, assuming you're using a program that can work with h.264. You can pull the subs out too. Also, they're encoded at the highest quality, so as long as you don't over compress it, it should work. Though the grain will require a high bitrate.

I haven't done much encoding lately, so I'm not sure about deinterlacing. Doom9.org has the best resources I've come across aside from AMV.org's guides.

If progressive is that important to you and you dislike the BV remaster (I'm not wild about the colors on it myself), I'd grab the Animeigo discs if you can get them cheap. There's a nice commentary from the director on it, and the Japanese audio is vastly superior. It's also not a EE'd as ADV judging from some image I've seen.

[DuoHimura]

Thanks for the quick replies. I did manage to get some pretty good looking footage out of the fansubs, having pulled off the subs and then screwed around with the colors (since the dvds are a lot more vibrant) and doing some noise removal--though this (or some other phase in the process, maybe just the compression) seems to have produced a lot of blocking. *Sigh*

MM, thanks for the link. I'll have to check that out... well, and I should probably make a serious study of all this stuff and just be done with it. I've tried to pick up the relevant sections but I always end up feeling like I have no idea what I'm doing.

On that note, BV? Is that Bandai Visual or something else?

I guess my heart isn't set on pogressive entirely, since I have to end up with an interlaced DVD to send in anyway, it's just that interlacing looks funny on a computer and I wouldn't know how to tell if it would even out when it's played however Otakon does it. Well, and progressive would make it easier to put up online too I guess.

Also, love the Otakudom quote in your signature.