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Noise Reduction with Neat Video
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  • Thx Vitaliy, that was very informative. I'm surprised that NR software works that well. I do a lot of video where I can't use lights and this will help me in the future.
  • Edius is now supported by neat video!

    Got this email this morning. Dear Sir/Madam,

    You expressed your interest earlier, so I am writing to let you know that a new product - Neat Video plug-in for Edius is now available in: http://www.neatvideo.com

    This version of Neat Video supports Edius 6.5.

    Please try the Demo plug-in for Edius available in: http://www.neatvideo.com/download.html

    License for the Home and Pro plug-ins are available for $49.90 and $99.90 correspondingly: http://www.neatvideo.com/purchase.html

    Multi-user licenses are available with volume discount: http://www.neatvideo.com/purchase2.html

    Best regards, Vlad

    Neat Video team, ABSoft mailto:info@neatvideo.com http://www.neatvideo.com

  • Tried the free demo (just leaves a watermark) of this when it first became compatible with FCPx. Top NR software. Process heavy on the render, but all NR is. Best to cut without it and apply it in the finish. Just wish the bundle for FCPx and Aperture (NR being its main weakness for me) was a little cheaper. Well worth the money and a no-brainer if you shoot a lot of dark scenes at high ISOs, especially if they are intercut with cleaner ones. Pretty amazing results.

  • I don't agree that it is best to apply it after cutting. I think you will have real problems if you have fades going from scenes with different textures or lighting.

    Also, in the video they don't go into the advanced controls, which is a must if you want the best look. You can certainly slather on the NR using the defaults, but you can reduce more noise and take away less of your original even by simply hitting the fine tune button, and there is much more you can do with the advanced settings.

  • Not sure what the problems would be. Maybe I have yet to find the need to keep it active while cutting on my laptop. NR's never really informed a cut for me so it seems like a waste of processing power. In Final Cut, it'll just re-render all the transitions connected to a scene when it's applied to that scene. Simple transitions would be no problem. I could see using it on composite scenes where you need to match the quality of two or more different pieces of footage. Otherwise, I usually test a few selects to get a baseline of how to apply it, then only activate it when the cut is nearly done.

  • I went to buy it but was warned of several bugs in the FCPX version. Rather they say it's in Apple that has to fix it which will be done in the next update - .8. Gotta wait

  • Render a couple of fades both ways and see if you notice a difference in image quality, if the effect looks OK then you are good to go.

    I use a couple of different methods, one is to upsample to Cineform and apply the NR at that point, it depends on how much contrast is in the material. Of course, if you aren't using fades, just clipping between scenes, it doesn't matter so much. And I keep the effect turned off when trimming--it really slows down the playback.

  • Hi all, I've spent the last few days on this topic, Neat Video topic, and Production tips to get rid of artifats and digital limitations. All of a sudden my greatest enemy ( NOISE) is no more when I extract my files and analyse them, and then run them through neat video if necessary. Every camera test, with different patches, I did over summer now has valuable grabs and cut aways that I can use in my first alpha pilot, to flog to real estate agents in my area. Cheers.

  • Question for GH2 Neat Video users - how good is Neat Video at removing noise from ISO 1600, 3200, and 6400 footage? Also do you think Neat Video does good at removing banding? Also, how good at removing flicker from florescent lights? Thanks

  • Here's a link to a guide I wrote for Neat Video almost two years ago. Still useful.

    http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/13933#Comment_13933

  • @Ralph_B Thanks for the link! That's one of the better, no nonsense tutorials I've seen on Neat Video.

  • It's been my experience using Neat Video with hacked (IV2) GH2 footage that ISO1600 can be made to look noiseless without noticeable losses, but higher ISOs lose too much detail along with the noise. I don't like the plastic look too much NR creates, so to my eyes Neat Video is best used judiciously, on footage that isn't horrendously noisy. On my hacked GH2 that's ISO 1600 and below.

  • It doesn't help much with flicker or banding, that's not the purpose it was made for.

    Plus, if you don't like the "plastic" look, leave some luma noise in, just as Ralph_B is suggesting in his excellent tutorial.

    I'm looking forward to using it directly in Resolve 10!

  • The new version of Magix Video Pro X5 also supports Neat Video plug-in!

  • The new version of Magix Video Pro X5 also supports Neat Video plug-in!

    Yep.

  • If you use the temporal filter, Neat Video does help somewhat to reduce flicker and banding. It may not eliminate it entirely, but it definitely makes an improvement.

  • thanks all for tips

  • @kurt10

    This topic about specific software.

    Use other topic or make new one, please.

  • I would add, and I'm not a noise expert, that the GH2 plus Neat Video plus Premiere Pro is first off a very good combo. My two euro cents: there aren't really any hard and fast rules, noise looks different on different surfaces and in different light. There's a recent update which seems to work a bit better. You have to manually tweak the settings, then render out short clips to get it right.

    Having said that, if you have noise in shadows on the GH2 (which you will), best convert to Cineform, then denoise to avoid digital rain, and also be very careful how you sharpen. Almost all sharpening, even within neat video, will make the noise worse. It may look better as a still, but when the video rolls it gets ugly from sharpening, and also the detail that is there with the right lens will look oversharpened. The key to noise and IQ is to get the focus and exposure dead on, then add only the minimum of sharpening--the recommended sharpening values are way too high for use with the GH2 and a premium lens.

    The other thing is that with faces, you can create a soft filter effect with denoising that if handled carefully is an interesting look.

  • As fir sharpening, apefos had a great preset list somewhere and gave some advice on sharpening that i have found.pretty useful. When you go down to the custom sharpening levels, adjust the three levels, in descending order from top down, starting at30, then 20 then 10. Seems to add.just a hair.and not go overboard.