Deshaker setting greyed out - need help

ajb wrote on 11/18/2009, 3:46 PM
I installed the Deshaker script for use with vegas 9.0 and it seems to work fine. Except, the Source pixel aspect and Video Type fields are greyed out in the filter preset (Pass 1 & 2 menu). If you run VirtualDub standalone and use Deshaker you can to set these values to match your source file, but you can't seem to do that in the Deshaker script when run in Vegas.

The reason I think this is a problem is the Deshaker output video is interlaced and my source file is 1080p and I can't seem to figure out how to fix it to create progressive output. I, of course, could be doing something else wrong, so that would be helpful to know also.

Any help would be appreciated.

Alan

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 11/18/2009, 7:09 PM
I didn't write the Deshaker DLL that you are using, but I do use it all the time myself. The field type cannot be set within the dialog because it locks onto the settings reported by the media itself. So the script is actually telling you something quite useful, namely that your media is mis-reporting its PAR and field information to Vegas. To both verify and then fix this, right-click on the event you want to stabilize (before running Deshaker). Select Properties from the pop up. Then, click on the Media tab. At the bottom, look at the field order and the Pixel Aspect. Do they match what you believe is the PAR and field order for this clip? If not, then change them.

WARNING: If you set the field order incorrectly, your output video will judder and look terrible. I strongly recommend that you render to your final format a test sample of 5-10 seconds. Look at it on whatever you intend to be the viewing device for the final output (computer, Internet, TV set, etc.). Some programs DO put the wrong information in the file header of video files and when you import these "broken" files into Vegas, you do have to make this change, so don't be hesitant to change it. Also, it is generally a good idea to match the Project Properties to exactly match the source media (at least when all the source video media is identical), so change that as well, if necessary. It makes the Preview much faster if you do this.
ajb wrote on 11/18/2009, 9:11 PM
Thanks for the reply John.

I swear I looked at that, however you are correct. The Field order is Upper field first. I must have been thinking of the Project properties which are set to progressive. This was shot with a Pany HMC-150 in 1080/30p but I believe it handles the footage internally as interlaced. However, the image in Vegas behaves like it is progressive.

So here is the situation that started this discussion. If I zoom in on the original image in Pan/Crop it looks great. If I zoom in on the deshaked version there are really bad interlaced zig zaggies on everything. I wanted to do this to clean up the edges from the deshaking and then render it out at 720p, but that apparently isn't going to work.

I just tried it again by changing the clip properties field order to progressive, ran deshaker and the deshaked clip now looks really clean, even after zooming in with pan/crop.

What do you or others do when you want to zoom in on the deshaked version of an interlaced clip? Is there something I am not setting correctly?

UPDATE:

OK, so it helps if you pay attention to what you are doing. I realized that the zig zaggies (when zoomed in using Pan/Crop) are because I had the Preview Quality set to Preview (auto). As soon as you bump up the preview quality the jaggies are minimized or go away. (Note that this is with the original clip's Field order property set to upper field first, so Deshaker was using both fields.

And as I stated earlier and with more testing, when I change the clips field order to progressive, all is good in the world. The deshaked image quality is basically identical to the original. I can zoom in really tight with pan/crop and switch between takes and I can't see any difference between the two images. So I think I am good to go.

Alan
johnmeyer wrote on 11/19/2009, 8:36 AM
When it comes to figuring out what is going on with interlacing, the Vegas preview display is of very little use. Since we will have interlacing forever (1080i isn't going away for awhile), it sure would be useful to have a "separatefields" function in the preview that would let you look at one field at a time. With this function, you can instantly determine if fields are reversed, which is the usual problem. You can also tell if the footage is progressive or interlaced.

I'm in the middle of some transfer of film from 1952. It was delivered to me with pulldown included. After I removed the pulldown, I re-import the footage to Vegas. However, Vegas insists on reporting it as still interlaced. If I forget to change this, the render is soft and fuzzy (a wonderful thing for teddy bears, but not so good for video).

So, it would be really useful to be able to tell if the video is TFF, BFF or progressive.
Grazie wrote on 11/19/2009, 8:44 AM
Sorry John, but "soft and fuzzy" AND teddy bears just isn't something I can easily get my head around, from one of your posts? Just goes against the grain, somehow.

I'll reverse out now . . . .

Eizarg