MultiDecimate

Abstract

author: Donald A. Graft
version: 1.0.7
download: http://neuron2.net/mine.html
category: Deinterlacing & Pulldown Removal
requirements: YUY2 Colorspace

Introduction

This filter provides extended decimation capabilities not available from Decimate(). It can remove all the duplicate frames from a clip, or it can remove N out of every M frames, where N and M can be selected by the user, removing the frames most similar to their predecessors. Special modes are available to protect static scenes from decimation.

This filter uses a 2-pass approach to allow for full timeline random access navigation, random decimation, and the later addition of a GUI-based manual tweaking capability.

This filter is valuable when traditional 1-in-5 decimation is not sufficient. For example, many silent films are transferred to DVD by adding duplicates in unusual patterns, because the original frame rates are not 24fps. It is not unusual to see clips requiring strange decimations such as 20 in 43. Sometimes these strange decimations can be attained, or nearly attained, through repeated application of Decimate() using different cycles, but that is a cumbersome approach that cannot always attain the exact decimation ratios required. This filter tries to approach the problem more directly, but at the expense of 2-pass operation.

Another typical application is removing 3 out of 4 frames for clips that were rendered at 120fps to properly present hybrids of film and video.

This version supports YUY2 only for Avisynth 2.5. YV12 will be added when the functionality stabilizes.

Initial Setup

Place MultiDecimate.exe and ProcessMD.exe somewhere in your DOS executable path. Put the MultiDecimate.dll in your Avisynth plugins folder (or load it manually in your scripts). If you are clueless about DOS paths, just put MultiDecimate.exe and ProcessMD.exe in your script directory.

Process

Step1. Make your script for pass 1:

...
MultiDecimate(pass=1)

Load the script and play it straight through from the beginning to completion (do not jump around on the timeline first!). This makes the metrics file, mfile.txt, in your script directory. If you want to examine your video for duplicate patterns, comment out the MultiDecimate() call, do not try to do it during pass 1, as any timeline jumps will corrupt the metrics file. Finally, after pass 1 completes, immediately exit VirtualDub; do not scroll around.

It is a waste of time to include any filters after the MultiDecimate() call in the first pass. Comment them out for faster performance. Comment them back in for the second pass.

Step 2. Execute MultiDecimate.exe to run the GUI. Browse to select the mfile.txt file. Select the desired mode (see below for a description of the modes). Set the remaining configuration boxes as required (see below). Then click on the Create button. This makes the cfile.txt and dfile.txt files in your script directory.

Step 3. Edit the script to change pass=1 to pass=2. Now you can load the script and it will have the correct decimated video, and timeline random access navigation will be supported. Pass 2 reads the dfile.txt file into memory and uses it to determine which frames to deliver.

GUI Decimation Modes and Configuration

The following modes are available:

"Remove duplicates: Global: Naive": This mode will remove all frames determined to be duplicates as defined by the configured Threshold. Frames with a metric less than threshold will be considered to be duplicates. Examine mfile.txt to examine the frame metrics.
"Remove duplicates: Global: Protect static scenes": This mode will remove all frames determined to be duplicates as defined by the threshold configuration, but static scenes will not be removed. A static scene is defined to be one with a run of duplicates equal to or greater than the configured Run Length.
"Remove duplicates: Cycle-based: Naive": This mode will remove N out of every M frames, where N is defined by the configured Cycle, and M is defined by the configured Remove.
"Remove duplicates: Cycle-based: Protect static scenes": This mode will remove N out of every M frames, as above, but static scenes are "protected". In naive mode, a static scene within a cycle may be preferentially decimated. This may be bad because you may lose too much of the static scene, and because taking extra duplicates from the static scene means that extra dups are being left in the action scenes.
To address this, use the "protect static scenes" mode. When you choose this mode from the drop down list, two extra edit boxes appear. Threshold is the metric below which duplicates are declared. The metrics are the same as those used in the mfile.txt file, so you can use that to help you. The fields in mfile.txt are as follows:
FrameNum IsADup Metric
Run Length is the number of duplicates (thus defined) in a row that defines a static scene subject to protection. A protected static scene is decimated by the ratio remove/cycle, no more and no less (subject to integer truncation).

Avisynth Filter Parameters

Following is the syntax for MultiDecimate (replace parameter_list with your comma-separated list of named parameters):

MultiDecimate (parameter_list)

pass (1 or 2, default 1): This parameter defines the processing pass as described above.

quality (0-3, default 2) This option allows the user to trade off quality of difference detection against speed. Following are the possibilities:

quality = 0: Subsampled for speed and chroma not considered (fastest).
quality = 1: Subsampled for speed and chroma considered.
quality = 2: Fully sampled and chroma not considered.
quality = 3: Fully sampled and chroma considered (slowest).

show (true/false, default false) enables information to be displayed on the frame. Also displays the software version.

debug (true/false, default false) enables information to be printed via OutputDebugString(). A utility called DebugView is available for catching these strings. The information displayed is the same as shown by the show option above.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Tom Daniel ('manono') for suggesting this new decimation functionality.

Copyright

For updates and other filters/tools, visit my web site:
http://neuron2.net/

$Date: 2004/08/13 21:57:25 $