Hiding the Date/Time stamp on VHS-C

[RJ Johnston]

I found out that I could use Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition (1998) on Windows 10, although the help for VB5 doesn't work. I was actually a professional once upon a time and have my own copy of VB5. Something I always wanted to try is writing a program to remove the darn date/time stamp that appears on lots of frames of video my parents took with a VHS-C camcorder back in 1993.

Here are the results of a small portion of the videos. This is an After / Before comparison. It's standard definition 480p. The video was stabilized some years ago (the original video lost), so the stamp is jumping around like a moving target.

https://youtu.be/HzpCaOzDPAs

I thought it came out okay. I wanted to make the cover-up seamless, but I now realize that's beyond my skill level.

[Chris B]

Nice work. I'd imagine you probably need to move into previous/next frames to get any better - sort of "undo" the deshake and fill in the gaps.

You may not know that there's a free community edition of visual studio now which may be a lot more modern and able that VB5.
https://www.visualstudio.com/products/v ... mmunity-vs

[RJ Johnston]

Thanks Chris. I have already got the community edition installed, but I haven't gotten proficient with it yet. It's a little bit different than the 1998 version.

[sidd finch]

That looks pretty good.

I sometimes copy the video track then put a mask over the top track. I set borders so that they are the same size as the time stamp. I take a piece of the video that is close to the time stamp area and then just slide that piece over the timestamp. not as nice as yours but in a pinch it will work.

Sidd

[RJ Johnston]

Thanks Sidd.

I've done what you have done, but I thought there must be a better way. I can adjust the controls in my program so that the scene looks completely natural, but that only works if the video frame is still. If I create a slideshow out of it, it looks awesome. But once the video starts rolling, you can tell right away that a mask was used. I have been experimenting with settings to find the best for when the video is rolling. Some are definitely better than others.

Anyway, I've got a nice collection of algorithms to work with that I collected from the internet.

I can't process high definition frames with VB5 apps because they really bog down the system. Standard definition is just right for this. I think I might go back to shooting in standard definition. It's quite adequate.