Mercalli and rendering

Steven Myers wrote on 7/10/2011, 5:31 PM

Mercalli 2.0.88 plug-in does a good job stabliizing the footage, or at least it seems so in preview.
When I render the project, however, that footage has not been stabilized.

Win 7 64-bit
Vegas Pro 10.0e 32- or 64-bit makes no difference.
Doesn't matter which file format or codec to which I render. No render setting matters.

---------------
Media Info reports this about the file in question:
General
ID : 1 (0x1)
Complete name : C:\RAW PANASONIC video\00029.MTS
Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 21.5 MiB
Duration : 6s 765ms
Overall bit rate : 26.7 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 28.0 Mbps

Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.2
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=30
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 6s 473ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 25.4 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 26.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 59.940 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.204
Stream size : 19.6 MiB (91%)

Comments

Andy_L wrote on 7/10/2011, 7:03 PM

When I was testing/using Mercalli (heavily), I noticed that any more than one instance of it on a timeline led to erratic results.

My solution was to stabilize clips in separate tiny projects, and then render those out immediately to avi/lagarith, to be imported into my actual projects.

Robert Johnston wrote on 7/10/2011, 10:24 PM

No problems using Mercalli 2.0.92 with the Universal preset on 3 different short DV-AVI clips on the timeline. I'm using 32-bit Vegas. Exported using Sony AVC. I sure don't do anything special to get Mercalli to work.

amendegw wrote on 7/11/2011, 2:32 AM

Steve,

I've found that I get best results if Project Settings and Render Settings exactly match the clip I wish to stabilize. See:

antishake software for Vegas

In that thread, Robert Johnston suggests, "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." however, if the project, clip & render properties do not match, it seems safer to me to use Andy L's procedure to, "...stabilize clips in separate tiny projects, and then render those out immediately to avi/lagarith, to be imported into my actual projects."

Good Luck!
...Jerry

Richard Jones wrote on 7/11/2011, 3:10 AM

I've had no problems using it in 64-bit Vegas on Windows 7 64-bit but have found that it is usually better to make Mercalli the last FX in the chain as FX applied afterwards tend to cause problems.

Richard

amendegw wrote on 7/11/2011, 3:18 AM

Robert Johnston says: "No problems using Mercalli 2.0.92..."Tell us about Version 2.0.92. It's not in the list of service updates. Does it fix any Vegas issues? Where did you find it?

http://www.prodad.de/gb/history-mercalli-20.html

...Jerry

Steven Myers wrote on 7/11/2011, 4:53 AM

Please see my initial edited message.

Meanwhile:
Jerry:
I've found that I get best results if ...
Thanks, but I'm getting NO results.

Richard:
Mercalli is the ONLY FX in the chain.

Andy:
I am applying Mercalli to only one 6-sec. clip. It is the only clip in the project.

PeterDuke wrote on 7/11/2011, 7:01 AM

The latest version is 2.0.92. You see the version number when you go to install it. I wish Prodad would indicate versions explicitly. I find out if there is a new version by downloading the latest from time to time and then checking it.

Robert Johnston wrote on 7/11/2011, 7:46 AM

To download Mercalli again, you need to go to your email from Prodad with the serial number and click on the download link again. That will download a "downloader" which you execute to download the real thing. As Peter pointed out, there's no way to know what version you're downloading unless you read the history on Prodad's website.

Former user wrote on 7/11/2011, 8:05 AM

I have the standalone version and it shows: 2.0.3931.28493 - 10/6/2010

So, I went through the download process this morning and installed it again. It reports the same version number. So, I guess there hasn't been any updates to the standalone version since 10/6/2010.

Jim

Andy_L wrote on 7/11/2011, 10:25 AM

Let's see...

As I recall, Mercalli also didn't seem to like working with interlaced footage, so I'd first deinterlace to 60p, then apply Mercali to that 60p in an intermediate project, and render out the clip to avi to be used in my final project (with no other fx/crop/anything applied).

I think the interlacing issue may have been fixed in a subsequent patch, but I'm not sure. I do specifically remember encountering the issue where Mercalli would stablize in preview but render out unstabilized (or poorly stabilized) results.

I would also experiment to make sure you're matching project properties and render settings exactly. I'd match the actual clip format as well. So my workflow would have been, create a deinterlaced 60p clip (from a 60i HD original), import that into a 1080-60p project, apply Mercalli, and immediately render out the clip for use in the actual project.

Yes, this was a really tedious workflow, and while it was necessary for that project, it impressed upon me the importance of making sure I never needed to use software stabilization again...

Steven Myers wrote on 7/11/2011, 11:37 AM

Thanks, everyone. There's an education in there somewhere.

The solution, finally, was to uninstall/reinstall Vegas. No education there, because I don't know what changed to break things, then changed back to make it work.

PeterDuke wrote on 7/11/2011, 6:51 PM

"there's no way to know what version you're downloading unless you read the history on Prodad's website."

That doesn't help because the history page is out of date.

amendegw wrote on 7/23/2011, 12:53 PM

Here's a clue to solving this problem.

I knew Mercalli V2 was picky, but now I know how "really picky" it is. I just rebuilt my laptop and since I didn't save my render templates, I went about manually recreating them. Most of my source is Panny TM700 source 1920x1080 59.94 Progressive, so I recreated a MainConcept AVC template at that format. I then tried a test render using Mercalli V2 as an FX. The result was no stabilization. So, I looked at the "Default Template" and noticed that the framerate was actually 59.940060 fps.

Once I changed my Custom Template to that framerate, the stabilization worked perfectly.

...Jerry

PS: Other encoders seem to work okay with the "59.94 (Double NTCS)" setting. Also, the Project Properties (using the Match Media Settings) show "59.94 (Double NTCS)" Furthermore, MediaInfo doesn't report to that precision, so it isn't any help in further diagnosing the issue.

Steven Myers wrote on 7/23/2011, 2:19 PM

I hate it when settings get into the 7-significant-figures world.