Ghost in the Shell

[CSchmidlapp]

Before and after at 200% magnification:

Nice.

Could this (or similar) be done in a AVIsynth script?
Ive been playing with a script cleaning separate RGB (mainly the blue channel) and ive got some good results. This would be great to have as an option.

[spoRv]

BronzeTitan, may you post the frame number and the crop settings? I'd like to make some tests, and those would be handy for a comparison.

[CSchmidlapp]

BronzeTitan, may you post the frame number and the crop settings? I'd  like to make some tests, and those would be handy for a comparison.

Are you doing what I think your doing?

[Doctor M]

If someone is still interested, I've found the (maybe original?) VC1 (mislabeled) HDTV file, 1920x1040 7mbps.

Interested if the real deal.
If it's the source it would probably be 1080i and have a logo in the top right corner. (My screenshots and Lotto's show logo removal)
I've seen a 1080p and 720p built from that source, but they are usually poorly deinterlaced to the point that the 1080 has little more detail than the 720p.

[spoRv]

Are you doing what I think your doing?  

Nope, really!

@Doctor M: frankly I don't know what to think about this version... until now, I've only seen VC-1 untouched video, so getting a 1920x1040 VC-1 video means that it is a re-encode (but why use VC-1 instead x264?) or some sort of official release - not HDTV, but maybe a WEB-DL?

[zoidberg]

It's on a certain russian place. I am guessing that what we understand to be the 'HDTV' version is in fact the WMV version that was released on DVD back in the day.

[Doctor M]

I can't say I agree with that assessment. If we are all talking about the same version, why would there be logo removal if it were commercially released? Check out the top right corner of the screenshots (mine and Lotto's), the ghost of the logo is still there.

I can't imagine a commercial release would have that. Most likely HDTV.

[CSchmidlapp]

Are you doing what I think your doing?  

Nope, really!

O.K.

[zoidberg]

Didn't realise there was a version with logo removal. I've only seen the WMV, the blu ray reissue and the Netflix version so far.

[BronzeTitan]

Could this (or similar) be done in a AVIsynth script?

I've never tried it but Avisynth should do even better.

I read that this paint program's JPEG artifact remover is probably a "median" filter. I never tracked down such a filter to test it's result. But it should average an "out-of-place" pixel with it's surroundings. This paint program function also softens the picture a bit so it's not taking into account pixels that could be part of an edge. (It wouldn't quite be a JPEG artifact filter at that point.) A good Avisynth filter would allow for edge pixels. (It wouldn't quite be a median filter, either, at that point.) 

The paint program's Unmask sharpen is only fair, as it produces haloing with increased sharpening values. I've had experience with Avisynth's plugin [a script actually that uses a few other plug-ins] LimitedSharpen(). Check out the official page for details -- http://avisynth.nl/index.php/LimitedSharpen .

Although I've never compared it to all the sharpeners, I like the approach it purports to implement to better sharpen images (read it from Internet Archive to see the important but now missing graphics from the Doom9 forum):
https://web.archive.org/web/200610280949...adid=84196

Let's have a look at a simple transition from dark to bright, and what our standard sharpeners will do to it:

. . .

In reference to the graphs above, the script's results look like that (basically) :

Get the up-to-date filter and supporting plug-ins from Avisynth's official webpage.

Off hand, I don't know if there is an HSL separator/recombiner filter or plug-in, which is crucial to my particular approach.