How to denoise video in Mamba — Quick Start Guide

This guide is for Neat Video v5 plug-in for OFX hosts being used with Mamba 8.6.9.

If you use another Neat Video plug-in or another video editing application, please select the corresponding quick start guide.

1. Installing the plug-in

To install the Neat Video OFX plug-in:

Make sure you have started Mamba at least once before installing the plug-in. If you have not done it yet, start Mamba and exit it.
Download the installer of Neat Video for OFX hosts:

If you already purchased the product and have a current license for the Pro (or Studio) plug-in, please download the Pro (Studio) plug-in from My Products page
If you want to try Neat Video before purchase, please download the Demo plug-in from Download page

Start the installer:

For Windows:

Double-click the downloaded EXE file to start the installer

For MacOS:

a. Double-click the downloaded DMG file to mount the disk image
b. In the mounted disk image, double-click the Install file to start it
(you may be prompted to enter the Name / Password of the MacOS administrator account)

For Linux:

a. Double-click the downloaded TGZ file to open the archive
b. Extract the contents of the archive to the desktop and then double-click the extracted RUN file on the desktop to start the installer
(you may be prompted to enter the Name / Password of the MacOS administrator account)

Proceed through the steps of the installation process. Use the default settings offered by the installer. This should automatically make the plug-in available to Mamba.
Start Mamba and in the FX panel go to Neat Video > Reduce Noise v5.

If Neat Video has not become available in Natron, please contact Neat Video support for assistance.

2. Running Neat Video on a sample video clip

Please download the test-kit prepared to help you start using Neat Video. Having downloaded, please unzip it to a new folder on the hard disk.

The test-kit includes a sample video clip: SampleClip.mp4. This is a typical video clip captured by a digital video camera in high-gain mode. Some technical information about the sample clip is available in the SampleClipInfo.txt file.

Please start Mamba and go through the steps below to clean the clip using Neat Video.

2.1. Add the sample clip to the project

1. Configure a new project in Mamba

Create a new project in Mamba with these settings: HD 1920x1080 25p.

2. Add the sample clip file to the project

Click the Media tab, navigate to the folder with the input clip and select SampleClip.mp4 .

Double-click the file and in the popup window select Link as Progressive Sequence:

The Mamba preview window will display the sample clip and you will see that there is strong noise in it. The task of Neat Video is to reduce this noise.

2.2. Prepare to add Neat Video to the clip

At this stage you can see a node with the sample clip in the Node Graph panel on the left side of Mamba.

Click the FX tab to open the effects window. Then find Neat Video > Reduce Noise v5:

2.3. Configure Neat Video

1. Open Neat Video plug-in window

Click the Reduce Noise v5 button/icon in the FX tab. This will add a ReduceNoise v5 node to the node graph in the Mamba's main window.
Select a frame for noise analysis using the timeline selector.
Under Controls, click the OK button in the Prepare Noise Profile panel. This will open the main window of Neat Video plug-in.
(If you run the Demo plug-in, click OK in the popup splash screen of the plug-in to proceed further).

The Neat Video plug-in window will open and display the current frame from the clip.

At this point Neat Video will ask to specify the scan type of the clip. Please select Progressive.
Click the Input Data Type button in the bottom of the Neat Video window and select Linear:

2. Build a noise profile for the clip

To reduce noise in this frame and in the whole clip, Neat Video generally needs a noise profile describing the noise properties of the clip. You can prepare such a profile using the Auto Profile function:

In the Device Noise Profile tab click

Neat Video will automatically find an area without details and will analyze noise in that area to build a new noise profile:

Visually inspect the selected area. It should contain no visible details, only noise; otherwise the noise profile and subsequent noise reduction may be inaccurate.

If the selected area does contain any details, move the selection to a featureless area or simply draw a new selection in such an area (the selection must be at least 32x32 pixels large). Then click the Build Profile button.

After that the noise profile is ready and Neat Video can reduce noise in the clip.

3. Check Preview

Switch to the Adjust and Preview tab

You will notice that Neat Video has already applied noise reduction based on the default filter settings and the preview shows a clearly visible difference: there is less noise than in the original frame.

You can try to adjust the filter settings and see how that affects the results. For example, try to adjust the Temporal Filter > Radius setting (in the Temporal tab in the Filter Settings box in the right part of the window) from 2 to 1 or to a higher value. This will apply weaker or stronger temporal noise reduction to the frame (see the user guide for more details).

4. Apply the changes

Click in the bottom of the plug-in window.

Neat Video will save the current settings and close its main window.
(If you run the Demo plug-in, it will also describe the limitations of the Demo version at this point).

Once this step is completed and Neat Video window is closed, the filter is ready for work.

The Mamba preview window now shows the clip with noise reduction applied to it:

2.4. Render the video

To apply Neat Video noise reduction

Use the output of the ReduceNoise v5 node in your project further.

The noise reduction is automatically applied to the video data produced by that node.

Please see the User Guide for more details about adjusting the filter settings and other aspects of using Neat Video. These Video Tutorials will also help you to get the most out of Neat Video noise reduction.

Get the full version

Happy with the denoising results provided by Neat Video Demo? Then it is time to get a full license for your current and future projects.

Updated on March 29, 2024