Forum Archive Home -> Editing -> Removing Logos using DeLogo vdub filter
Removing Logos using DeLogo vdub filter | ||||
| Matt D posted 2005 Sep 21 16:35 | ||||
| Who doesn't hate those annoying logos that networks love to place over TV shows? If it's a white semi transparent logo, it can be removed from an AVI file. DeLogo doesn't work with MPG, so don't waste your time.
First step is to install the DeLogo filter for vdub. Next we will open our AVI and find suitable frames to work with. You will need 3 frames as shown below. The first is easy, just a pure white frame the same size as the video you are working with. It doesn't have to be from the video, just the EXACT same size, and pure white. The second is a good clean shot of the logo to be removed against a black background. Be sure to save these as BMP with names like frame1 & frame2 so that we can load them as a sequence later in vdub. 
Now we need to create a frame to use for analysis. Use the same black background frame, and use a paint program to color in the logo area with pure red as shown below. Going outside the lines is ok, just making a red box will work, just not as well. Name this something like analysisframe and save as BMP. 
Now we can close out the video, and load the 2 frames in vdub. Just "open video file" and browse to their folder and open the first image. Vdub will automatically load the second in the sequence. Now open the "video" tab and select "filters". Here is where you load the DeLogo plugin, do so and double click it to load. Here is the DeLogo screen: 
1. Under "mask properties" you will see a button to load your analyse frame, do so. 2. Press show preview. 3. Press sample frame 4. Use the preview browse window to move one frame forward to frame 2. Press sample frame again. Voila, your logo is now gone, and masks created! 
Before doing anything else, save the deblend, alpha, color and repair masks to disk. They can be used again. Also, TURN OFF "alpha to repair" slider! All the way to zero, as it will blur your video, not good. Now, while previewing the black background frame, play with the "deblend shift" and "deblend falloff" sliders until the logo area blends in as close to perfect as possible. Make sure you do this now! When done, click "close" and then "Ok". Okay, so we took the logo off one frame, let's do the entire video! Please be SURE that you have not edited anything out using vdubs delete selection feature. If you do edit before applying DeLogo it will get frames confused. Go to "file" and select "open video file". Browse to your AVI and open it. Once it opens, you should see that the logo has been removed, but the frames without a logo may look like they have a cookie cutter hole in the logo's shape. To get rid of this we need to scan through the video and make note of where the logo appears and when it disappears for a commerical or whatever. If the logo starts at frame 400 and is on the screen until frame 10000 we will note this as 400-10000. Now say it comes back from commerical and the logo re-appears at 13500 and stays there until 22356 when there is another commerical break. Note this as well and keep going until you've covered the whole video. Now go to "video" again, choose "filters" click on Delogo (it's already applied) and where it says "on frames" we will type in the frames we want processed. In our example the logo began on frame 400 to 10000. Enter it as 400-1000, then a comma, and the next set. Our example would look like this: 400-10000,13500-22356, etc etc. DO NOT play with anything. Don't reload the analyze frame or ANY other of the masks we saved earlier. DO NOT preview the video and press the "sample frame" button, it will screw up your work. Ok, now press "close", press "ok" and check out your logoless video. You may now cut out your commericals or whatever and frameserve to your favorite MPEG2 encoder. | ||||
| Stormin Norman posted 2005 Sep 21 17:30 | ||||
| Nice, never really figured out how to use the de-logo. Will give a try soon since just about every friggin cable channel displays logo identifications now.
Will it work with Avisynth? I dont like vdub. | ||||
| gadgetguy posted 2005 Sep 21 19:28 | ||||
| Matt D,
I gave your method a try and it works as well as I've ever been able to do using long range samples from the target video. This is definately a quicker method. However, I still find the results unacceptable with the logos I tested. Anywhere that the logo fades in or out creates distracting artifacts and if the logo is not completely semi-transparent, the results to me are more distracting than the logo itself. But that's not the fault of your methodology, but inherent to the filter. This definately makes the testing process of whether using the DeLogo filter will work or not a lot faster. Thanks Norman, I have not yet figured out how to use this filter in AviSynth. (But I'm by no means an expert :wink: ) | ||||
| lordsmurf posted 2005 Sep 21 20:18 | ||||
| A lot of stations also move the logo every time it comes back from commercial. And let's not forget those special promos banners and logos that pop up on screen. Or rotating logos that do something here and there.
For general use, something like this is useless. Your video has to meet certain conditions that are just not that typical, not anymore at least. And when put into motion, you often end up with these blobs that are more irritating than just having left the logo alone. | ||||
| shiet posted 2005 Sep 21 21:17 | ||||
| would this work realtime with ffdshow? | ||||
| Matt D posted 2005 Sep 21 23:23 | ||||
| Norman- It should work with avisynth. Haven't tried it myself, but I'm sure someone has.
Gadgetguy- Some logos just can't be taken off cleanly. It's usually due to their construction, or even crappy source video. Some fault may rest with the plugin, but these two reasons are usually the culprit. Thankfully you understand that like any tool, sometimes DeLogo is useful, sometimes it's not. Smurf- Yes, we've gone around on this again and again. If you must have every millisecond of logo off, most channels have you beat. That Spike example only works during the 97% of the show where the logo isn't moving or sparkling gold. I'd rather have 100%, but c'est la vie. Put into motion, there are no blobs if you do it right, and the logo is removable. There are some instances of artifacting, but it's only occasional, and off to one corner, which is not the part of the tube most people watch. If anyone would like to see a moving example of DeLogo, right click this link and save as. I will leave this up a few days. Be warned, it's 10 megs, and to save space I encoded the video at 1/2 D1, so there is some minor noise. Who can tell me what logo I took off? | ||||
| Barnabas posted 2005 Sep 22 00:38 | ||||
| Matt D,
Great guide! I have gotten pretty good at removing logos with DeLogo, but thought I needed a white background WITH the logo, which is HARD to find so this will make it REAL easy! I think you removed the TBS logo btw. | ||||
| phelix posted 2005 Sep 22 03:33 | ||||
Here's the script to use it in avisynth. First, run it in virtualdub to generate the four masks and figure out the best settings. Then you can use the following code in avisynth:
| ||||
| Barnabas posted 2005 Sep 22 11:46 | ||||
| Here is a link to some samples of the before and after results of DeLogo using Matt D's method.
http://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=275574&highlight= Although a few stubborn people on the forums like to insist that removing logos will look worse that keeping them in, when viewing the captures that the samples posted in the link above are taken from on 52 inch TV, NO one I showed the captures to could tell me where the logo had even been! NO "Blobs" are left using this method, but there is increased noise where the logo was. | ||||
| gadgetguy posted 2005 Sep 22 12:32 | ||||
Matt D,
I can't tell at all on that clip. I'm not familiar with the show and can't guess what network it was on. Nice job. Barnabas, It wasn't my intention to badmouth the filter, I think it's a good filter. But it does have limitations and it seems that the shows that I want to capture usually have difficult logos to remove, and as such I find it less distracting to leave the logo as is. That is not to say that I think it looks "better", only less distracting. (Or maybe I'm just paranoid and you weren't referring to me as one of the "stubborn" ones.) phelix, Thanks for the AviSynth script. I've been trying to figure this out without any success and I, for one, appreciate you sharing it. | ||||
| dphirschler posted 2005 Sep 22 13:21 | ||||
TBS. Nice work. Darryl | ||||
| Barnabas posted 2005 Sep 22 23:32 | ||||
| Here is a before and after example of using DeLogo on an Alpha-Blended logo. While not perfect, I have not found ANY other VirtualDub filter that removes alpha-blended logos as well as DeLogo does.
Capture with logo intact 
Capture with logo removed by DeLogo  | ||||
| Matt D posted 2005 Sep 23 00:32 | ||||
| Yes, it was the TBS logo. Good eyes IMO!
Gadgetguy- The clip was a Family Guy parody of the old tv show "Taxi". I'm glad you found the removal pleasing on the eye. Barnabus- Good work there! Hopefully more people like us that DO have a use for DeLogo will find this guide useful. | ||||
| Barnabas posted 2005 Sep 23 10:17 | ||||
| Here is a good example of just how well DeLogo can work on an Alpha-Blended logo versus LogoAway
In this example, note the vertical lines. With LogoAway, an ugly "smudge" is left where the logo was, but the same image processed by DeLogo shows NO smudge, and even reveals the details in the area behind the logo, in this case, note vertical folds the curtains, and the vertical lines of the item sitting just to the left of the vase. Original frame without any filtering 
Same frame processed with DeLogo 
Same frame processed with LogoAway 
Delogo can truly do a remarkable job of restoring the image behind an Alpha-Blended logo when used correctly. | ||||
| gadgetguy posted 2005 Sep 23 10:32 | ||||
| I don't believe anyone was able to tell where you captured it from by viewing the clip. I think they recognized the show and knew what channel it was broadcast on. :P | ||||
| Barnabas posted 2005 Sep 23 13:23 | ||||
| gadgetguy,
You can actually just barely see a slight "ghost" of the TBS logo in one scene, but you really have to be looking for it. The filter is not perfect, but still works better than anything else so far. | ||||
| gadgetguy posted 2005 Sep 23 14:02 | ||||
| Barnabus,
I see the distortion (by doubling the screen size and going frame by frame) but I cannot make out that it is the TBS logo. I contend that because you already knew it was TBS that you can see the logo, but because I didn't recognize the show and didn't know what station it would have been on, that mine is the more objective view. :wink: :) Not that it matters, since we both agree that Matt did a wonderful job of applying the DeLogo filter. :D | ||||
| Barnabas posted 2005 Sep 23 14:05 | ||||
| gadgetguy,
I have never seen that show and don't watch TBS as a rule, but know the TBS logo, and what to look for. And yes, I agree, Matt did a GREAT job. | ||||
| Methanoid posted 2005 Oct 17 05:19 | ||||
| Matt
You say no to using with MPEG but surely with VDubmod etc you could but obviously that would mean re-encoding? Also any way to get as good results with a solid white logo? | ||||
| jimmalenko posted 2005 Oct 18 21:32 | ||||
That's a great question, and one I've asked myself a couple of times to try to figure out why he said that. First off, I'm certain that this filter will require re-encoding even if you use AVI as source. That's why Matt talks about frameserving to an MPEG2 encoder. So the "re-encoding" argument is irrelevant and not the reason. Second, virtualdub can import MPEG (and virtualdubmod and virtualdub-mpeg2 can import MPEG2), and from then on you're dealing with decompressed (uncompressed) video frames, just as you are after opening an AVI. For this reason I don't see why you couldn't use an MPEG file as source. Unless there's something I'm missing. Matt ? | ||||
| Methanoid posted 2005 Oct 19 03:55 | ||||
| Well I tried it yesterday and managed to end up with a beautiful cyan logo instead so I clearly did something wrong. Other than that it was looking good. | ||||
| SatStorm posted 2005 Oct 22 16:52 | ||||
| I use years delogo with mpeg 2 DVB files on virtualdub mpeg 2 with great results
My method follows the delogo html manual included on the downloaded .zip file you load delogo filter, "save frame", you load the frame on photoshop, you paint "red" the logo area, you paint "blue" the rest but you leave an area untouch around the logo, you load the modified picture to delogo (analyze), you hit "sample video" and then adjust the slides Results can be from amazing to average | ||||
| edlomon posted 2005 Dec 17 17:16 | ||||
| tried this out and i cant seem to get it to work :(
just get blobs :cry: just wondering does the logo's color matter at all because i think thats my problem here. thanks. | ||||
| Nelson37 posted 2005 Dec 17 19:35 | ||||
| You have to use a pure red to color the logo in the one test BMP file. If you look in the setup page you will note a straight 255 value for one of the color parameters, you can use other colors but you must then change the numeric value, and they must match precisely.
This filter is more of a pain to setup but far superior to DeLogo, anything semi-transparent (alpha-blended) removes almost perfectly. Time Tunnel was one of my favorites, even today seems amazingly well done. | ||||
| edlomon posted 2005 Dec 17 20:49 | ||||
| i did the pure red color and the pure white bmp file too.
but i still get just blobs :cry: ill probabley give it one more go b4 i just give up on it. | ||||
| ChibiBoi posted 2006 Jan 24 20:25 | ||||
| hey, can somebody help me with the settings that'll make the disney channel logo go away? i've been working on it but so far, i get these pixels and stuff after i use the delogo filter.
AFTER: 
BEFORE: 
it looks ok, but the logo is still really noticable at some times | ||||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 24 20:38 | ||||
| It looks to me like the Disney logo is not entirely transparent. Parts of it are too opague to allow alpha removal so it reverts to "blending", which results in the artifacts. As I said, it's a good filter given the right conditions, but it does have it's limitations. | ||||
| Barnabas posted 2006 Jan 24 21:34 | ||||
| Nelson37,
Time Tunnel came out on DVD today! ChibiBoi, How did you make your masks? Matt's method is usually far better at making good masks than having delogo go thru the whole file. Did you make sure to turn off/set Alpha to Repair to zero before you saved your masks? | ||||
| ChibiBoi posted 2006 Jan 24 22:47 | ||||
| yes, i did. i followed through matt's method and the only thing i'm having troubles with the the artifacts | ||||
| Barnabas posted 2006 Jan 24 22:54 | ||||
| ChibiBoi,
As a rule, reds are the thing that delogo has the most trouble with, as far as leaving a trace of the logo. I have sometimes had to make a couple of different masks for a capture before I can get one that works the best. Depending on the source, it's sometimes better to use a very whiteish grey, rather than a pure white for the white part of the mask, just depends on the source. Another thing that can help at times is to run a 2nd instance of delogo. Use the first to get rid of most of the logo, and the 2nd to get rid of what's left. You will have to make a new set of masks to try that. | ||||
| ChibiBoi posted 2006 Jan 25 20:13 | ||||
| ok, i'll try that. thanks | ||||
| mgy999a posted 2006 Apr 21 11:28 | ||||
| Nice guide. Wish it would work for me. :( I tried it out on TVLand’s alpha-blended logo. I can get it to erase the logo on ‘frame2’ but it does not work on the rest of the video clip. On frames with a light colored background, the logo is unaffected. On darker backgrounds, the logo tends to ‘fade’ some. The darker the background, the more it fades but it never entirely disappears, even on a black background.
Am I doing something wrong or is it the nature of the video clip I am using? The clip was first recorded in XP mode on a dvd recorder, then imported into VirtualDubMod and saved as an AVI file using PICVideo MJPEG set to 19 and then re-imported back into VirtualDubMod before trying Delogo. I have experimented quite a bit using different settings, different masks, different frames, off-white colors for ‘frame1’, etc but doesn’t help. :? Suggestions? | ||||
| Barnabas posted 2006 Apr 25 11:24 | ||||
| Try making up several masks to use. Also, you may need to adjust the white to more of an off white. That's worked for me on tough logos. | ||||
| spanky123 posted 2006 Oct 31 09:23 | ||||
| Can anyone please explain how to setup the avs script for delogo?
I'm using gordian knot Havin some troubles | ||||
| Barnabas posted 2006 Oct 31 10:01 | ||||
| Delogo is a VirtualDub filter. | ||||
| spanky123 posted 2006 Oct 31 10:04 | ||||
| Gordian Knot uses virtualdub and avisynth scripts. Can't I do it through Gordian Knot ? I can edit the avs script in there
Here's a script from a few post back http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1376541#1376541 I'm just unsure bout how to put it together | ||||
| AlanHK posted 2006 Nov 01 00:51 | ||||
I just worked through it. First get and install the delogo filter in Vdub. The address wasn't given, it's at http://neuron2.net/delogo132/delogo.html Then follow the instructions in the first post in the thread using VDUB. In the delogo screen, save the four mask bitmaps in the same directory as your AVI file, using the names "deblend.bmp", "alpha.bmp", "color.bmp", "repair.bmp". Then take note of the numbers on the sliders of the "repair parameters" to plug into your script. eg, my Avisynth script for MPEG encoding was: AVISource("tw-103.avi",false) ConvertToRGB() LoadVirtualDubPlugin("P:\VirtualDubMod\plugins\delogo.vdf","delogo") delogo(0, "", "deblend.bmp", "alpha.bmp", "color.bmp", "repair.bmp", 15, 40, 0, 0) ConvertToYV12() LanczosResize(720,576,0,0,640,352) The number "15" corresponds to a "repair depth" of 1.5, the "40" to "repair power" of 4.0 as was generated by the analysis. | ||||
| spanky123 posted 2006 Nov 01 04:01 | ||||
| Thanks heaps for that.
I'll give it a shot soon and see how it goes. | ||||
| homersimpson123 posted 2006 Dec 14 22:16 | ||||
| good filter. thanks alot. | ||||
| PUBLICENEMY posted 2007 Nov 17 04:41 | ||||
| hi
i can't make it work in order to enable the filter, the video tab in virtualdub's main vindow must be in "full processing mode" option.right? well i can load delogo and proceed and see in preview of it that the logo is blurred but when i hit ok and want to save avi and choose "direct stream copy" in video drop bar, the result is the same as input video and if i choose "full processing mode" video size gets realy huge so what am doin wrong? | ||||
| AlanHK posted 2007 Nov 17 05:08 | ||||
"Direct stream copy" is unfiltered. To see the results of filters, you need "full processing". And then you probably want to compress it, so the button below "full processing mode" in the "save as" dialogue click "change" and choose your output format (eg, DivX 5) and the settings for that govern the quality and file size. | ||||
| PUBLICENEMY posted 2007 Nov 17 08:07 | ||||
| sorry for askin again
but theres only 1 option for savin which is "save as avi". on the other hand in video drop bar theres a botton "compression" which u can choose between compression formats or stay uncompressed, my file is xvid but when i choose xvid it gives me "stats not found" error what should i do? also whats the average time for you to complete delogo-ing | ||||
| jimmalenko posted 2007 Nov 22 21:57 | ||||
| "statsfile not found" means your XVID codec is not configured properly. You need to set the statsfile location to .\video.pass (you can do this by selecting XVID and pressing the configure button). | ||||
| incrediblej posted 2008 Mar 08 09:25 | ||||
| LOL, I am stuck on the first step, can someone tell me how to get the all white background the same size as the video (tut is not very specific).l
Do I just make a white .bmp image in photshop? I dont get it... thanks | ||||
| AlanHK posted 2008 Mar 08 11:12 | ||||
Yes. Simplest way: make a screencap (you need several anyway), copy it, fill with white. | ||||
| vhelp posted 2008 May 26 00:53 | ||||
| I've been researching how to remove (de-logo) watermarks in my videos. I've D/L'ed other
peoples images with watermarks to use as examples -- there's so many types of logos on stations these days. Anyway. I'm building a tool to remove logos. I"ve been interested in it for quite some time, prob since I first came across this discussion back in Sept/2005 but had many other things going on. The one thing that has stopped me many of times in this endeavor was the fact that there doesn't seem to be any tutorials on the machanics of logo removal. I mean, I searched for all kinds of keywords and phrases and still can't come up with any to this day. So, I've decided to just attempt at it from scratch. Ok, even though this topic does not cover the mechanics (algos) of how to remove, this discussion is the closest I've come to it and am just mainly trial 'n error 'ing it as I go. So far, they way I've gathered it, removing watermarks requires the use of multiple types of masks, and then some kind of analysis is performed with these masks and then an end result image without the watermark logo is gone -- or, almost gone. I am hoping to uncover the mechanical secrets and ultimately learn how to apply it to my tool, and who knows, a plugin could be next. If I get closer to the goal I'll post a screen shot of the tool's progress. So until then.. -vhelp 4698 | ||||
| gadgetguy posted 2008 May 26 08:46 | ||||
| @vhelp - You might start by looking at the source code for the DeLogo filter this thread is about. It's available from the same site as the filter itself, (posted above).
For anyone interested... I use the following AviSynth script to build my filters files.
I open the script in VirtualDub, add the delogo filter, and follow the instructions above. This lets me easily try different variations of grey without having to keep several .bmp images on my hard drive. | ||||
| vhelp posted 2008 May 26 09:33 | ||||
| EDIT: 05.26.08 Mon AM
@ gadgetguy Unfortunately, the source is c/c++ and I have no strength to contend with that language :x Thanks for trying to help. I'll stick with pascal and wing it on my own from scratch. I know I'm missing something in my project and that is part of my problem in finding how its done. EDIT: 05.26.08 Mon 12:56pm Rather than continue in this one, I might start a new topic on the subject on the development of a potential watermark removal tool because its more specific about designing the tool and the functions that make up the process. This way, I can post my progress as I go. Plus, I think I mgiht be on to something, finally. -vhelp 4699 | ||||
| TCmullet posted 2009 Feb 28 00:20 | ||||
| WOW! This method of Matt's ROCKS!!! I used delogo back in '03 for awhile and spent (wasted) gobs of time picking majority sections of the show to scan to do the analysis. Now with this "2 frame" method, all that trouble goes away! Thank you, Matt!
But I have one problem. Playing with the "deblend shift" and "deblend falloff" sliders is impossible as my monitor cannot be made bright enough to see the quasi-removed logo at ALL. I really need to adjust the sliders WHILE I have brighter and more normal video behind it. But if I load my video file to do that, the sliders freeze up at their last locations. Of course you did say "Make sure you do this now" before closing the filter for the 1st time. Is there anyway to get around this, short of either creating a new file with the 2 frames at the beginning, or asking the author to fix this? Another unrelated thought: In '03 I did a great deal of experiementing, making adjustments to all the different features of that big window. I concluded that in all cases, it was best to leave just about everything at default values. This included (I believe) "alpha to repair". While it's true we don't want to blend much of anything, wouldn't it be appropriate to slightly blend away those few cases of some stray sharp pixels (or groups of pixels) that stand out after the filter has been applied? I'm not suggesting we move it toward "repair" but merely leave it on the default of 160. Would be glad to hear any thoughts on this. Of course, I'd need my first problem solved in order to experiment with this 2nd problem. | ||||
| gadgetguy posted 2009 Feb 28 08:25 | ||||
| Use the AviSynth script I posted above and feed it into Vdub, then open the DeLogo filter and search for a "logo on black" frame and sample, then to the end for an all white frame or one of the different gray frames (sometimes gray works better than white) and sample, then you should be able to move to any frame in the video and still make adjustments on the sliders. However, keep in mind that adjusting for one frame might make it worse on a different frame. | ||||
| TCmullet posted 2009 Mar 01 20:02 | ||||
| Thx for the script. I've tried it but can't figure out how to restart the test for each grey-color without deleting and reloading the filter. I thought that "Reset stats" would do it, but it doesn't. I understand that for each restart of the test (to find which grey level works best), I must sample the grey frame, then sample the frame in my program that has all black surrounding the logo.
And could you tell us which greys have ever worked better for you than the pure white? BTW, I'm not loading from an AVI; I'm using an MPEG2 file with the plugin MPEG2.vdplugin. I see that by loading it thru Avisynth with Directshow, I lose the ability to jump around via the I-frames, but for this testing, that's okay. Also, Directshow doesn't seem to keep the same frame numbers as Vdub, so going to the same framenumber I had picked in Vdub didn't work. | ||||
| gadgetguy posted 2009 Mar 01 21:20 | ||||
| The output from Avisynth is uncompressed so all frames are key frames. Scrubbing (especially backwards) is often a problem when using directshow to open mpeg2. I use DGIndex for mpeg2 files, works much better (accurate), although it's slower than opening the mpeg2 in Vdub.
I had a clip a while back that Grey1 worked better than White, but I don't remember what station logo it was. White usually works best, but if it doesn't try some of the greys. I think it depends on whether the original logo was done in white or grey, but depending on the level of transparency, it can be really hard to tell how it originated. And yes, It's also been my experience that I had to delete the filter and start again to try a different grey. | ||||
| Rogert posted 2009 Aug 14 11:03 | ||||
| Ive just started experimenting with Delogo and Virtualdub .Im trying to remove a fairly large timeclock on black background at the top of the screen.Im getting good results but not perfect.Any one offer any advice.I was thinking of maybe running the software twice to remove it completely | ||||
| Barnabas posted 2009 Nov 01 21:15 | ||||
| Rogert,
If it's a timeclock and the time displayed keeps changing what's on the screen this won't work well for you. Anything about the logo that's changing will effect the masks. You would have to make up a mask for each different digit that's displayed and use THAT mask for it only. |
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