VLC Filter. How to get much more details from NIGHT video footage.

niko

niko

Well-Known Member
Retailer
Joined
May 1, 2013
Messages
10,668
Reaction score
6,561
Location
Dublin
Country
Ireland
Dash Cam
Street Guardian UK / EU / EEA Distributor
Your dashcam video playback footage ( especially at night ) is quite dark ?
There is a solution how to get much more details by using a VLC Multimedia Player Filters.

This technique may not work on all dashcameras. Its all depends on dashcamera CMOS sensor type / model used and how dashcam firmware is tuned up to process / save video footage.

Below is example from Panorama X2 which uses Sony Exmor IMX322 CMOS sensor.

P.S. VLC Mediaplayer filters "trick" will work only for playback.
If you want to save video with filtered footage, you need to use Video Editing software which allows to play around with video filters.

 
Last edited:
That is the single most useful post i have come across !!!

Thanks. Good for G1WH.

( Hey niko, any chance of a bit of enthusiasm. !!!! )
 
Last edited:
petepete said:
That is the single most useful post i have come across !!!

Thanks. Good for G1WH.

( Hey niko, any chance of a bit of enthusiasm. !!!! )
Click to expand...
You are welcome [emoji6]
 
This button
VLC_video_EQ_button.jpg
does the same thing

Sorry it it was mentioned in the video.
 
Great video niko. I wish the X2 shows by default what the activated filters show in VLC. Maybe one day with all the tweaks in the FW, we'll get to a point of not needing to tweak the video file in order to see what we want to see at night.
 
Awesome, It's amazing how much night detail is captured that you can extract from the Sony Exmor IMX322
 
Last edited:
It's not as much as the sensor's contribution as the Zoran chip's. I have a similar model with OV2710 sensor (Pilot 21 DVR), the amount of detail is similar with filter and without.
 
As always, great and useful post from Niko!
Thank you.
[emoji106]
 
And this is a demonstration of what a g1wh can do with vlc set ...

first is the cheap model that is listed with cmos 3 retailing at £31 ish..

http://screencast.com/t/ArpuoFtQ4

second is the dearer model that is listed with cmos 5 retailing at £42 ish..

http://screencast.com/t/i3mxA40c8PSb

vlc settings stayed the same and when trying could not extract anything better out of the cheap g1wh.. ( very dark area at night )

obviously if you are going to buy a g1wh , pay the extra £10 !!!!
 
This thread seems to be kind of a repeat of a previous thread on the same subject from 8 months ago, "How to "sqeeze-out" more Night Vision from CMOS using Video Editing software".
The older thread has some additional useful information that may be of interest to people who find this one interesting.

As mentioned in the other thread, VideoLan, the creators of VLC Player have been working for quite some time on an editing program based on VLC called VLMC (VideoLAN Movie Creator). When the software eventually gets released there will finally be a free open source method of correcting Gamma in dash cam videos that can be saved and exported.

FYI, although the gamma slider control in VLC makes it seem like you are "adding" gamma, the brighter appearance is actually due to a lowering of the gamma curve values. A good explanation of Gamma correction can be found on wikipedia.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Dashmellow said:
This thread seems to be kind of repeat of a previous thread on the same subject from 8 months ago, "How to "sqeeze-out" more Night Vision from CMOS using Video Editing software".
The older thread has some additional useful information that may be of interest to people who find this one interesting.

As mentioned in the other thread, VideoLan, the creators of VLC Player has been working for quite some time on an editing program based on VLC called VLMC (VideoLAN Movie Creator). When the software eventually gets released there will finally be a free open source method of correcting Gamma in dash cam videos that can be saved and exported.

FYI, although the gamma slider control in VLC makes it seem like you are "adding" gamma the brighter appearance is actually due to a lowering of the gamma curve values. A good explanation of Gamma correction can be found on wikipedia.
Click to expand...

Good to know, fun stuff. By the way the hyperlink to the related 8 month post you refer to isn't working. I'm looking forward to VLMC.

Does the free GoPro Studio Editor have Gamma correction to achieve this effect?
http://shop.gopro.com/softwareandapp/gopro-studio/GoPro-Studio.html
I know it has nice FishEye correction and other good stuff.
 
I believe GoPro Studio Professional does gamma corrections but I'm not sure about the other versions.
 
Pier28 said:
So they have both a free and a paid professional version ? We should try the free version and see what it can do.
Click to expand...

I've not used the software but my understanding is that it really only works properly with video from GoPro cameras. (and other specific HD cameras)
 
Dashmellow said:
I've not used the software but my understanding is that it really only works properly with video from GoPro cameras. (and other specific HD cameras)
Click to expand...

I guess we should try, see, and report how well it works. The examples @jokiin did worked from his non GoPro testing.
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threa...-correction-enhance-color-detail-filter.7403/
I didn't think to try using it to enhance night detail this dramatically though as shown in VLC.
I prefer the upcoming open source VLMC though, GoPro has enough advertising as it is.
 
Apparently, there are three versions of GoPro Studio software.

GoPro Studio - free (branded, limited and somewhat restricted to GoPro cameras)
GoPro Studio Premium - $299.00 (works with all formats and cameras HD-4K)
GoPro Studio Professional- $999.00 (high end 3D workflow, broadcast- Blu-ray, etc.)
 
While waiting for VLMC to be released, I'm using "Fraps" version 3.5.99 to record the video after using VLC to change the gamma setting and then playing the video with VLC while using Fraps to record the playback. Just have to remember when playing that video back in VLC, you must uncheck the 'Image adjust' box if you left it checked!!! My first post and hope this helps!
Fraps at: http://www.fraps.com/download.php

I've had Fraps for such a very long time that I forgot that it cost $. One can also use a free program called "CamStudio" to record the playback while playing the video with VLC. Camstudio can be
downloaded from this site: http://camstudio.org/ latest version is 2.7.2
If you have trouble recording the audio, as I did, click Help and click 'Camstudio FAQ'......I'm using this on windows 7 Pro, so your setup will differ.
 
Last edited:
Thank you to everyone that has contributed to this thread, I've since been tinkering with the gamma settings of VLC on my Mac and have managed to extract far more details from video recorded at night using the 0806 and the Mobius dash cameras than I ever imagined possible.
 
The filter boost slider bars are built into the bottom right of http://dashcamviewer.com now as well.
HeeuEYI.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top