Touching Up Old VHS

Jim Brennan

Jim Brennan

VHS Member Old Skool
I've been asked to transfer a video from VHS to DVD. It's just graphics and text on a black background with music. No problem with the transfer, but the video has degraded a bit over time and use, leaving a bit of ghosting and a less than clean background , and the music has a bit of a hiss.

I tried some filters on the video, including the sharpen filter, but it still looks kinda crappy. I've had nominally better luck with the music, using a bit of eq, but I'd still like to do better. I'd appreciate any suggestions if anyone has any.

Thanks,

Jim
 
VHS footage

VHS footage

If you have it, you might want to try Soundtrack pro filters. I had a problem with buzzing halogens and was able to fix it.
 
Jim, if you go to the .Mac website (if you have a .Mac account) it has a tutorial of sorts for noise reduction.

There is also a book with DVD that has lessons to learn Soundtrack Pro:
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Pro-Tra...f=sr_1_12/002-3284770-9618452?ie=UTF8&s=books
There are other books in the series and they are all excellent ways to learn and increase your knowledge of the FCP Suite.

I don't know if you still have the graphics and text but if you do, you might want to recreate it using Motion. I did that once for a client that brought me a 90 minute PowerPoint presentation.
 
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I don't have a .mac account, but I will look for the book.

I wish I had the graphics. It's an old presentation for the Colorado Department of Education that was made about 15 or 20 years ago. There's no way to track any of the source material down. My plan at this point is to clean up their version as best I can, but also to see if I can recreate it as closely as possible. Not just because of the existing problems, but because I think I can create a more effective presentation ;-)

Thanks for the tips.
 
Soundtrack can analyse your sound, and repair it.
See the manual for details.
You can also select a quiet area and make a noise print,
then select your audio and choose Process > Reduce Noise
The manual explains the adjustments you can make.
 
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