How to make old transferred video look and sound better

katmack7

I've been using Videopad for awhile now - mostly just to edit client demo's or trim video for the internet. So those things are easy for me. Now I have a more difficult task.

I have some video files that were transferred from VHS tapes many years ago. They're from when we were on location making movies in other parts of the world. There's some stuff that's fun to revisit but the quality is often less than great. The sound can be inconsistent (loud from the person who was shooting the video - and quieter from who was being filmed). So first question -

Is there a way to normalize the sound throughout? And if there's ambient noise in the background can that be fixed at all?

There are some portions where the video has part of the picture distorted. The way old VHS tape would sometimes go bad if you can remember that. So second question -
Is there a way to trim off the bottom of the video?

I have these files as VTS so once I import them into Videopad and finalize my edits my next questions are -
What is the best way to save as Mp4? What resolution? Can my choices here make the old video look worse?

Maybe I'm hoping for something that just can't be fixed but if anyone has any experience with this or suggestions to try I am very open to hearing from you!

Thanks!

borate

1. Various audio effects can be utilized. Experiment with COMPRESSION, NORMALIZE, and AMPLIFY.

2, Use ZOOM or SCALE to enlarge the image slightly, to rid video of bottom-edge switching pulses, at the slight expense of image content.

3. Yes, certain choices can degrade quality. Choose a resolution equal to or less than that of the source material. Play with various quality options....

Save Project File AS routinely, giving it a unique # or name, so as not to overwrite prior saves. Using Save Project Files (no AS) will overwrite. Then you can restore a project to the state it was in when saved. Just double-click the VPJ file (which isn't playable).

If you make an error while editing, click <ctrl-Z> to backtrack, step-by-step. (Same as EDIT | UNDO)

Effects can be deleted by clicking the X at the right of a specific effect's menu bar.

katmack7

Thank you SO much! I had never looked at effects before so that's definitely something I can try. All of your tips look to be helpful for me so thank you again!

borate

If you run into issues with the old VTS files, drop back here with specifics.

katmack7

As I'm looking at these VTS files I do have a couple more questions.

As I work on fixing sound and then zooming in on the video in the few places where I need to do that - should I first save the files in the VPJ format? And keep working on fixing in that format? Or should I save as mp4 and then continue doing any editing necessary? Thanks!

borate

The VPJ file tells the program what to do. It isn't a media or playable file.

If the VTS files load and audio/video are synchronized, just work with them. If not, you may have better success by first converting their format to mp4, using one of a number of utilities. One of them is NCH Prism.