Cleaning a really poor quality video

me_again wrote on 3/21/2026, 6:13 AM

Greetings,

I've been asked to try and clean a video on a CD given to me by my brother. It's of his friend Ron who made a living recreating the ancient Worcestershire woodland practices.

AVI (MJPEG) - progressive - 320x240 - Note the horizontal 1 pixel high lines at regular intervals The first and last scene clearly show the problem; the middle scene shows how it's acceptable for most of the video (this clip is a direct copy, cut using Avidemux)

I know that the forum re-encodes uploaded video but I really don't think that will affect what you see.

edit --- when I looked at the post it seems that the AVI would play for me. I assume the forum doesn't like MJPEG AVIs? IHere's an MP4 version in case the AVI doesn't play. The problem is still shown

Nothing out of the ordinary there I don't think, apart from being a distressingly small resolution but that can be overcome with an understandably low but acceptable degree of quality.

The video was commissioned by a publisher to accompany a book written by my brother and his friend Ron and this CD was given to them, with footage roughly edited to 10 minutes, to write a commentary for it; as it was a demo, that explains the low resolution and quality. The book was published but not with the video. Sadly the original video is long gone, as is the publisher and indeed, Ron.

Cleaning and tidying the video is comparatively easy using the arsenal of effects I have but the horizontal lines are persistent and are really starting to annoy me. I can only assume that it's something to do with de-interlacing, or rather not de-interlacing, when creating the original progressive demo files.

I've seen "jaggly" lines on video that have that de-interlacing problem but this is different to anything I've come across. As the clip above (hopefully) shows, for most of the video it's not noticeable but for a few scenes it's horrendous, usually where horizontal branches or leaf fall carpet is shown - well it is for me; my wife says it's OK when she's seen a cleaned up / de-noised test encode.

I've tried re-interlacing, dropping frames, doubling up frames, font smoothing, drinking gallons of tea but all with no real difference.

Any ideas as to what the lines are? Any ideas as to what can be done? Or should I just reluctantly accept that "it is what it is"?

AndyW

Comments

me_again wrote on 3/21/2026, 7:08 AM

Greetings,

Odd, the AVI clip I posted above doesn't play on my PC but does on my mobile.

AndyW

CubeAce wrote on 3/21/2026, 7:51 AM

@me_again

Hi Andy.

What I'm seeing is horizontal bands of varying contrast of various widths which may have been caused by the original VCR used when the clip was first digitised. At least that is what it looks like to me. I have no idea how that would be fixed as it could have been recorded like that and not the fault of the playback VCR when it was digitised. Sorry my observations are not particularly useful.

Ray.

me_again wrote on 3/21/2026, 9:01 AM

@CubeAce, Thanks Ray.

The varying contrasts and occasional rolling shutter effect are quite easily be removed or at least well subdued by Neat Video and a couple of NewBlues; the clip presented has no effects added at all.

The pin sharp horizontal lines are burnt in so obviously can't be removed, I just want to "cover them up "some how if it's at all possible.

Another example that shows it better:

nb Between Ron and the camera is a wood fire burning. Why is was filmed with smoke and hot air in front of the camera is anyone's guess.

I don't think the video I'm talking about was recorded on a home VCR (if that's what you meant) it was a (alledged) professional that filmed and edited it, so even though this is a very low quality and first draft edited video for the writing of a commentary point of view, I'm sure that a proper editing facility was used to bring the tape from the camera into editing machine.

Unfortunately that original recording has shuffled off this inanimated coil, bereft of oxide it rots in peace and other (para)phrases from Monty Python's Parrot sketch.

AndyW

CubeAce wrote on 3/21/2026, 10:46 AM

@me_again

Hi Andy.

Assuming the CD's resolution is at best 640x480 and you have upscaled that to 1920 x 1080, I think that in itself would introduce problems with jaggies as well as moire. Maybe Al will have better insight to this when he comes online. The original CD was probably played back with the use of a VGA or SVGA CRT monitor with larger pixel pitches that would have filled the screen and seemed better.

If the CD is a higher resolution then I am at a loss as to what the problems are but the videos seem similar to video I took with an older bridge camera back in the day if I try to play them back full screen on a modern monitor.

Ray.

johnebaker wrote on 3/21/2026, 11:43 AM

@me_again

Hi Andy

These 'lines' could be hardware acceleration decoding created artefacts. Do they appear if you switch all the Device Options to use the CPU or UHD630 ?

John EB.

me_again wrote on 3/21/2026, 12:29 PM

@CubeAce

Ray, the resolution is 320x240 (as in the Mediainfo) and is the original file I was given. I've asked my brother what camera was used and he thinks it was a Panasonic and it was a "big b***er" 🙂 that I assume didn't record in 320x240 so obviously it was reduced just for the demo/commentary purposes; it was never meant to be played as a finished video but it's all we have so I want to make it as good as possible.

I tried the AI upscale in Shutter Encoder - the horizontal lines were still there. Strangely it looks almost acceptable in greyscale.

@johnebaker

John, I've played this file back on various playback devices, even playing on the TV and recording it back onto a DVD which did actually clean it up very slightly but probably that was because the picture had softened.

I've just tried all possible combinations of device options in MS2025 all to no avail.

AndyW