Film 9: Film restoration software.

[Paul Thrussell]

Absolutely incredible what open source software can do. I've been testing this a bit lately between university finals for improving old 8mm family films that were miserably underexposed and look like absolute garbage after the massive levels adjustments needed to make them acceptably watchable. It works absolute wonders! I've been doing all my color correction and such beforehand and then I afterward just use the stabilization, degrain, etc. filters in Film9.

The result is certainly very processed-looking when you apply filtration as heavily as I have to, but considering how bad they looked before, and the target audience for old family films (who prefer something that looks artificial and clean to something that looks authentic and rough), I'm not too upset. (Using heavy noise reduction on movies for Blu-ray release, on the other hand, I would call a travesty, especially when the grain is part of the beauty of the original photography rather than a noisy mess like it is in my case.) The final result compresses so much better for streaming (very important in this day and age when you're sharing these with family all over the country), and in order to hide the artifacts and the frozen grain patterns that tend to result I add a thin bit of grain afterward to make it look more natural.

Many thanks, Gelinox! You've truly made AviSynth accessible to everyone!

[Paul Thrussell]

One question that I have - I've noticed that the first frame or perhaps first few frames of every shot tend to retain all their grain and dirt, almost as if there's sort of a learning delay on the algorithm before it adapts. Is there any way to fix this? (That might be a stupid question.)

[Tscan]

I'm pretty keen on this software too. It's really cool to see what it can come up with on the raw negative film scans. It tends to give it a good pop on the colors and contrast, kind of looks like reversal but not mucky or blown out. I tend to use the minimum grain reduction and make a few other adjustments. I'm still trying to find a good processing chain. I start with an image sequence that i have to render to a video first. Most file types work, AVI, MPEG ect... But i can't get a 720P 50P AVI to work. If I stay at 720P rez, i can only render a 50P AVI with my NLE. 1080P has more AVI options and if i go that route a 24P AVI will work just fine.

[Gelinox]

Paul, we're glad you like it Film9.
I am not alone to program Film9. I work with Gilles who handles image processing.

Film9 cleans images by comparing them, which explains that the first images of a plane can be untreated.
Personally, I cut them with my editing program.

Best Regards

Gilles et Roland

[Gelinox]

Here is a short demonstration Film9 that will help understand its operation:

https://vimeo.com/115445683

[Gelinox]

A new version of Film9 is available here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hk2mlo1rbpdeu ... 9.zip?dl=0

The changes are:

- Each filter can be set ON or OFF
- Optimization of FullHD based on recent updates to some filters
- Improved Responsiveness

[Gelinox]

In response to several questions on this forum:

We confirm that FILM9 is based on Fred's studies and thank him once again for his wonderful work on Avisynth.
We specify that the studies and some modifications Fred scripts developed by John Meyer were also used.
And we also thank John for his daily work.
Some parts of the filters come from our own study, but always based on the work of the developers of Doom9, we also thank them.
And we have (Gilles and me) synthesized all this in an application of 8500 lines of code.
This has already been said, but the main objective of FILM9 is to allow as many people can use the wonderful functions Avisynth for the restoration of films,
and this for FREE.
The AviSynth scripts are not always accessible for the novice and the work of the people mentioned above deserve to be highlighted.

FILM9 is available (in French and English), for free on our forum:
http://letransfert.soforums.com/t809-FI ... -Films.htm

[vintagefilm]

I would like to thank you Fred for your work on your scripts. I have been following you for a while (not stalking ) and have tried to work with the scripts. It is good to know about both Film9 and the FilmFabriek software being based on your work. The whole avisynth environment is difficult to understand for me, as I am accustomed to working with commercial software. I am glad the folks at Film9 have packaged the scripts into something a little less daunting, though I am not fully up to speed on Film9 either. I do want to thank the guys at Film9 for their work as well. I think we all benefit from your work!

[VideoFred]

In response to several questions on this forum:

We confirm etc.......

Thank you very much Gelinox! And you are doing a great job with Film9 to make the use of Avisynth more accessible for everybody.

many greetings,
Fred.

[VideoFred]

I would like to thank you Fred for your work on your scripts.

You 're welcome ;)

I have mentioned it because some people out there (not the Film9 people, they have always been very correct about this) are using my scripts commercial, pretending they have made it .

Fred.

[Gargamel]

Fred !

[Will2]

Almost makes me want to use a PC (instead of a Mac) in my workflow.

[newuser]

Hello!
I have few questions.Can anyone help please?
My english is not so good so sorry if answers are on the previous pages.
I can't load any avi file in Film9-what can be the reason?
Is it normal that after restoration the file are SO BIG? I had file about 800Mb and the filnal was 12GB.After Compiliance was 40GB.How I can make it smaller? I tried pinnacle but after fewa hours the process was at the same stage. What king of program maybe another I can use? Please help. This program is amazing.

[Gelinox]

Hello !

My English is very bad ... but thank you google ...
This is a codec problem, try to install a codec pack KLite.
The file is very heavy, but this is normal, this allows you to process the video with an editing program without degrading the image quality.
But with a normal computer, this should not last for hours ... should retest after installing KLite!

Roland

[newuser]

Thank You for reply. I admit the file must be that big. The result is amazing after further processing in Sony Vegas and adding Neat Video plugin. I almost have HD like view after Film 9 and Neat Video. This is unbelivieble.

Thank You for sharing Film9.