2015-01-04, 04:11 PM
PaNup™ - PAL and NTSC upscaled
This technique should be used to obtain a good quality upscale, when two different standard definition video are available, better than using one source only.
The idea is simple: take two captures of the same content, one PAL, one NTSC, then merge them to “squeeze” every bit of details from it… everyone knows that a PAL capture has 576 horizontal lines, while NTSC has 480… now, when a movie was transferred to video, usually original resolution was higher than that (not all the times, but often); so, the PAL and NTSC “received” different lines of image… see the next image (obviously intentionally exagerated…):
![[Image: hd_pal_ntsc.png]](https://fanrestore.com/images/hd_pal_ntsc.png)
As you can see, the red, green and blue lines have different thickness in PAL and NTSC; the aim of this technique is to combine those different lines to recreate an image closer to the original one.
To test my theory, I took some high definition images, resized each dimension to 1/3 to simulate NTSC, and to 2/5 to simulate PAL, then I wrote a script to mix and upscale the simulated PAL and NTSC images. Here you are the close-ups of the results; PAL and NTSC are the simulated images upscaled with pointresize, PALup and NTSCup are upscaled using a bicubicresize, to simulate a simple upscaler, PaNup™is my script (oh, how much I love acronyms – PaNup™=PAL and NTSC upscaled) – no noise reduction is used:
![[Image: SANY0005_closeup.png]](https://fanrestore.com/images/SANY0005_closeup.png)
![[Image: HDTV1_closeup.png]](https://fanrestore.com/images/HDTV1_closeup.png)
![[Image: Men_Funny_Constructicons_Eating_Crash_Test_Dummi.png]](https://fanrestore.com/images/Men_Funny_Constructicons_Eating_Crash_Test_Dummi.png)
Of course, the validity of this tests are questionable, as the PAL and NTSC images are simulated; nevertheless, these give an idea of what could be achieved using “simple and poor” low definition media, like VHS or better laserdisc, and DVD too! Not HDTV, OK, but still quite a good result.
The problem is, in real life, it’s close to impossible to find a movie which has a PAL and NTSC version that match each other 100% – usually they use different masters, so cropping and color grading are different… but, in those almost-impossilbe cases where a PAL and a NTSC laserdisc (and VHS) are virtually the same, the ideal condition is to capture the PAL at 768×576 and the NTSC at 640×480 (actual letterbox images at 2.35:1 will be 768×326 and 640×272, at 1.85 will be 768×416 and 640×346); if the capture card could capture at 720×576/480, only the Y axis will benefit – this is also the case of DVD.
***
I tested PaNup using “The Abyss” PAL DVD letterbox, and NTSC R6 DVD, anamorphic; overlaid at 40% PAL and 60% R6 (as it has more resolution); applied at the end a grain plate
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/61161
Another example: Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/63368
Star Wars - A New Hope 1997 (adding Super Resolution):
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/125558
(more comparisons on post #18)
It could be an interesting technique to restore movies that are not available in HD, but only as PAL and NTSC DVDs – or letterbox and anamorphic DVDs, OR, just missing shots not present in HD, but only on PAL and NTSC DVDs... or, if someone would like to make a fan extended edition, this could be used to improve the quality of SD deleted scenes!
This technique should be used to obtain a good quality upscale, when two different standard definition video are available, better than using one source only.
The idea is simple: take two captures of the same content, one PAL, one NTSC, then merge them to “squeeze” every bit of details from it… everyone knows that a PAL capture has 576 horizontal lines, while NTSC has 480… now, when a movie was transferred to video, usually original resolution was higher than that (not all the times, but often); so, the PAL and NTSC “received” different lines of image… see the next image (obviously intentionally exagerated…):
As you can see, the red, green and blue lines have different thickness in PAL and NTSC; the aim of this technique is to combine those different lines to recreate an image closer to the original one.
To test my theory, I took some high definition images, resized each dimension to 1/3 to simulate NTSC, and to 2/5 to simulate PAL, then I wrote a script to mix and upscale the simulated PAL and NTSC images. Here you are the close-ups of the results; PAL and NTSC are the simulated images upscaled with pointresize, PALup and NTSCup are upscaled using a bicubicresize, to simulate a simple upscaler, PaNup™is my script (oh, how much I love acronyms – PaNup™=PAL and NTSC upscaled) – no noise reduction is used:
Of course, the validity of this tests are questionable, as the PAL and NTSC images are simulated; nevertheless, these give an idea of what could be achieved using “simple and poor” low definition media, like VHS or better laserdisc, and DVD too! Not HDTV, OK, but still quite a good result.
The problem is, in real life, it’s close to impossible to find a movie which has a PAL and NTSC version that match each other 100% – usually they use different masters, so cropping and color grading are different… but, in those almost-impossilbe cases where a PAL and a NTSC laserdisc (and VHS) are virtually the same, the ideal condition is to capture the PAL at 768×576 and the NTSC at 640×480 (actual letterbox images at 2.35:1 will be 768×326 and 640×272, at 1.85 will be 768×416 and 640×346); if the capture card could capture at 720×576/480, only the Y axis will benefit – this is also the case of DVD.
***
I tested PaNup using “The Abyss” PAL DVD letterbox, and NTSC R6 DVD, anamorphic; overlaid at 40% PAL and 60% R6 (as it has more resolution); applied at the end a grain plate
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/61161
Another example: Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/63368
Star Wars - A New Hope 1997 (adding Super Resolution):
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/125558
(more comparisons on post #18)
It could be an interesting technique to restore movies that are not available in HD, but only as PAL and NTSC DVDs – or letterbox and anamorphic DVDs, OR, just missing shots not present in HD, but only on PAL and NTSC DVDs... or, if someone would like to make a fan extended edition, this could be used to improve the quality of SD deleted scenes!
