If you have an earlier version of Vegas (before 10.x), you can use an excellent free tool called "Deshaker." Search this forum; there are dozens of posts. Also, search on my name, both here, and elsewhere on the Internet, and you'll find lots of other information:

Deshaker

Hi,

Same experience here, the VP10x built in deshaker most often zooms in too far, makin it totally unusable. Sadly there is no way to adjust that parameter... So even if there is nowadays a built in deshaker, you nou need an 3rd party external application for the best result.Unfortunately the same is tru efor Vegas titling, white balancing and HDV capture, you need other applications to get the best results with least effort....

Christian

In my experience, Mercalli V2 does a considerably better job of stabilizing and minimizing zoom/border issues than the built in Vegas stabilizer (which was based based on Mercalli V1, to my understanding). Of course, Mercalli V2 must be purchased as a plugin FX.

The following video was completely handheld and stabilized via Mercalli V2:

Peacock the Sequel

In the following video, I used Vegas to place a masked still in video track above the stabilized clip to recreate areas lost by zooming



That said, NewDeshaker uses a clever technique that looks at past & future frames to recreate the border areas lost by zooming. It's not perfect as I've seen some strange borders when there is movement in the border area, but appears to do a much better job than the Mercalli V2 method of merely blurring the area.

YMMV,
...Jerry

Can you run deshaker right from vegas, or do I have to have virual dub installed too?
Thanks:)

You need virtualdub installed as well.

The following video was completely handheld and stabilized via Mercalli V2: Peacock the SequelWow! That is extremely impressive stabilization. I would have bet good money that it was taken on a tripod. Are you sure it was stabilized?? If so, it is finally time to spend the money to purchase Mercalli. I've been impressed with what the version included in V10 can do, but haven't been able to use it for anything serious because of the zoom issue (its tendency to zoom in way too much.

Now if they would try to include an edge creation feature, like Deshaker, I'd pay full retail.

"Wow! That is extremely impressive stabilization. I would have bet good money that it was taken on a tripod. Are you sure it was stabilized?? "Yup! The optical stabilization on my TM700 is pretty good out-of-the box, but the Mercalli V2, indeed, will make it rock steady. When I get home (in a day or two), I'll render a side-by-side so you can see the original vs. stabilized. btw, the video you watched is zoomed & cropped, but the zoom was not excessive.

...Jerry

PS: I'll also put up a clip of the Mercalli V2 edge correction, but it's pretty worthless (imho).

Where would I find the stabelization tool in Vegas 10? Thanks:)

"Where would I find the stabelization tool in Vegas 10? Thanks:)

Select your clip: then go to "Tools" > "Video" > "Stabilize Media"

or

Right click on your clip and select "Stabilize Media".

I down loaded a demo of Mercalli 2.0. I used it in vegas. It renders to an avi? Imy clips are all MTS full hd. When it renders the file, I have no idea where that files goes, or how to render it. can you help?

PS: I'll also put up a clip of the Mercalli V2 edge correction, but it's pretty worthless (imho).I'd be very interested in seeing that. Also, if you have an additional minute, perhaps you could give me a general idea of what settings you used to get that rock-steady result. I spent ten minutes with the Mercalli stabilization that is built into V10, but could get anything even close to the perfection you achieved.

You can't do "Rock Steady" with the built-in stabilizer. You'll notice that the sliders go up to only 60, so you can get only 60% of rock steady.

mvpvideos2007 said: "I down loaded a demo of Mercalli 2.0. I used it in vegas. It renders to an avi? Imy clips are all MTS full hd. When it renders the file, I have no idea where that files goes, or how to render it. can you help?"First, I assume you're using the Vega Plugin. I've have been unable to get good renders from Mercalli V2 StandAlone (SAL) and .mts source. However, the plugins seem to work fine.

I'm not sure exactly how the Mercalli V2 plugins work. It is however different from the Vegas builtin stabilizer. When you perform an analysis, an avi render is made to a temporary video track in avi form - but then it disappears when the analysis is complete and the FX is applied. What exactly happens to the avi is a mystery to me. Unfortunately, it will be a couple days before I can get to a computer w/ Mercalli v2 to test.

...Jerry

johnmeyer said: "Also, if you have an additional minute, perhaps you could give me a general idea of what settings you used to get that rock-steady result. I spent ten minutes with the Mercalli stabilization that is built into V10, but could get anything even close to the perfection you achieved."Hopefully, I'll get back to my laptop in a couple days and post this.

...Jerry

For those who use deshaker plug in for vegas...
I am trying to fix a full HD clip. When the clip is analized with deshaker, the preview
screen splits in half horizonally showing double. I then go to render this clip and nothing happens. How do I render the fixed clip. Thanks:)

I understand this may be way outside the realm of what you're considering but the warp stabilizer in the new After Effects 5.5 is amazing at reducing shake.

Seperately, kudos to SCS for the fine job on 10.d. I edit my raw 5D Mark II files with no crashes, no pain. As someone who was very critical of previous versions I've been reduced to a humbled user busily eating my words.

My MC 5.5 will wait whle I get work done and out with Vegas.

(MC 5.5 might be "The World's Fastest Film & Video Editing System" but it's a SLOW learning process!)

JJM

mvpvideos2007 said, "Mercalli 2.0... renders the file, I have no idea where that files goes, or how to render it. can you help? "Okay, I'm home now where I can do some testing. It looks like Mercalli V2 renders a file named proDAD-Mercalli.avi to %username%/AppData/Local/Temp

However, everytime Mercalli V2 does a "video analysis" it re-uses this same file. And the file is a little bitty thing (267KB for a 5 second 1920x1080 60p stabilization). Also, it doesn't play in WMP or VLC; nor does it drop on the Vegas Timeline. So, I think it is just a file that Mercalli uses for its analysis.

Hope that helps,
...Jerry

johnmeyer said, "Are you sure it was stabilized??"Okay, johnmeyer, here's the "proof" it was stabilized (Heh, heh). Watch it 1080p.



There are four segments here:
1) Original vs. the "Rock Steady" zoomed version I used in the clip, Peacock the Sequel
2) Original vs the "Non Zoomed" showing the wandering borders.
3) Original vs the Mercalli built (crappy) borders.
4) Finally, a little trick I sometimes use were I place a masked still above the non-zoomed stabilized clip to build my own borders.

Next, here are my Mercalli V2 Settings - essentially the stock "Rock Steady" preset.


Finally, I'll mention more thing that seems to be an idiosyncrasy of Mercalli V2. I can only get good results if I set Project Properties to match my media and then render to those properties. In other words, every time I attempt to render with a deinterlace or framerate change or frame size change, I get strange renders. So, if I absolutely need to render to new properties, I render the stabilized event to a lossless intermediate file and re-import to Vegas.

Hope this helps,
...Jerry

Thanks for the wonderfully detailed response. Very useful. The next time ProDad has a deal going for Mercalli, I'll pick it up.

Jerry, I believe you only need to change project settings to match your video when you run the Mercalli analysis. Afterwards you can change the project settings back to the way they were. No need for the extra render.

I can't remember if it's the NewBlue stabilizer or the Mercalli stabilizer that needs preview settings on Good or Best. I'm leaning on NewBlue's, but you may want to recheck the documentation for Mercalli.

Thanks for sharing. Where does the rendered video go? I can't seem to find it. When it does it's render, it is in a avi format on the timeline, then when it finishes, the clip in the timeline vanishes. All of my footage is 1080 AVCHD. Can it render that format? Thanks:)

The prodad-mercalli.avi file is only a temporary file, in your hidden "temp" local folder. When viewed with MediaInfo, it shows no useful information. It can't be played back. It's overwritten when you stabilize another clip. The stabilization data is evidently stored in the VEG project file, not in one of those auxiliary files with the same name as the video file that's been stabilized. I deleted all the auxiliary files, but the clip remained stabilized when I opened the project again.

So your AVCHD clip on the timeline is still the same AVCHD clip after stabilization. Mercalli plug-in is offsetting and rotating the frames during playback.