Mercalli V6 OFX Works Nicely with V22

andyrpsmith wrote on 7/11/2025, 11:30 AM

My go to 1st choice stabilizer is the old legacy one under depreciated features. Is is Mercalli V2 from Sony days and as it seems to have been built for HD as it is prone to crash Vegas on some 4K footage. When this happens in the past I have used Mercalli V4 and V5 (trial, never bought it as it did not work well enough to supersede V4). Some Newblue versions which were quite good but took ages to render.V21 and V22 would not use MerV4 or any of the Newblue versions so I was left with the legacy and Vegas in built (which seems to be similar but not identical to Mercalli V6. Mercalli currently does not provide a specific NLE version for Vegas but the generic OFX version of V6 does appear and is available for 30% off at £30.80 - a good price I would say. So how does it perform? I have been testing it over the last two days on XAVCS 4K footage and I really like it. It has three analyse modes - Turbo, AI, AI+3D a simple initial Analyse (Turbo) and an Advanced Mode. The features are similar but not exactly the same as the Vegas Stabilization. It provides even with simple mode excellent removal of wobble and rotation common with hand held footage and as good as the legacy version I have used for years. It has not crashed Vegas and turbo mode is fast. It shows up as Mercalli Pro in V22 OFX list along with CMOS Fixr Pro and Picture Enhanzr RT (which provides real time image enhancing, useful, I used it a few times). Worth a try - trial version available to see if it out performs what you are currently using.

Back to post

Comments

rgr wrote on 7/17/2025, 2:24 AM

Yes I agree that having a number of different stabilisers is helpful as none are perfect.

I still consider the Deshaker plugin for VirtualDub and its options to be the best. Unfortunately, it doesn't fix common CMOS sensor issues, but it does handle rolling shutter issues. The source code is available; perhaps someone will port it to OFX someday.

J-Toresen wrote on 7/17/2025, 7:45 AM

@rgr

You can use Deshaker in Happy Otter Scripts for Vegas Pro.

Jøran

rgr wrote on 7/17/2025, 12:48 PM

Oh wow, I didn't even know something like this existed. I'll have to look into it. Thanks for the info.

3POINT wrote on 7/20/2025, 4:40 AM

@rgr I send the stabilization results to you in a personal message.

andyrpsmith wrote on 7/24/2025, 5:41 AM

@andyrpsmith I can't tell you at the moment because I'm on vacation and do not have access to my PC. I can tell you on Sunday.

I would be grateful to know how you managed to get Mercalli V4 working/showing up in V22 - many thanks Andy.

3POINT wrote on 7/24/2025, 6:22 AM

@andyrpsmith I can't tell you at the moment because I'm on vacation and do not have access to my PC. I can tell you on Sunday.

I would be grateful to know how you managed to get Mercalli V4 working/showing up in V22 - many thanks Andy.

Actually I didn't do anything to get Mercalli V4 Plugin showing up in VP22. Mercalli V4 Plugin I got as freeware with a former Vegasversion, I believe it was VP14. Since then I upgraded to each new Vegasversion and Mercalli 4 plugin showed up in each new Vegasversion I installed. (also in every version of Vegas Movie Studio)

Screenshot from my actual VP22 Prodad FX folder:

@andyrpsmith Did you try to (re)install your Mercalli V4 Plugin into VP22?

andyrpsmith wrote on 7/24/2025, 6:38 AM

Yes I have reinstalled V4 a number of times but is does not show in the FX options.

3POINT wrote on 7/24/2025, 6:47 AM

Yes I have reinstalled V4 a number of times but is does not show in the FX options.

Is your Mercalli 4 plugin purchased at Mercalli or did you get it like me as a Freeware with VP14?

andyrpsmith wrote on 7/24/2025, 7:28 AM

It's purchased from Mercalli. Looking at various file locations there are V4 and V6 folders together,

andyrpsmith wrote on 7/24/2025, 7:36 AM

I just received a reply from ProDad, they say:

You can use only one Mercalli Plugin in Vegas Pro 22.

We think Mercalli V6 OFX is the best solution.

3POINT wrote on 7/24/2025, 8:03 AM

Strange, I have both Mercalli 4 Plugin and Mercalli 6 OFX (trial with logo in output) working in VP22. I can even batch stabilize in VP22 with Mercalli 4 plugin through Vegasaur.

andyrpsmith wrote on 7/24/2025, 8:34 AM

Where are the mercalli 4 files located maybe I have them but not in the right places. Thanks.

3POINT wrote on 7/24/2025, 9:54 AM

I have only a ProDAD folder in C Program Files/ProDAD/MercalliPlugins-4.0 . I do not see anything under Program Files/VEGAS/VEGAS Pro 22.0 which i could relate to Prodad Mercalli.

Reyfox wrote on 7/24/2025, 12:53 PM

C:\Program Files\VEGAS\VEGAS Pro 19.0\OFX Video Plug-Ins, just change the version number.

Also look here? C:\Program Files\Common Files\OFX\Plugins

Dexcon wrote on 7/24/2025, 7:33 PM

To get the two Mercalli 4 plugins to appear as FX in Vegas Pro 22, I copied the two proDAD folders from an older VP version (21 or older) in C:\Program Files\VEGAS\VEGAS Pro xx.0\OFX Plug-Ins and pasted them into Vegas Pro 22's equivalent OFX Plug-Ins folder.

andyrpsmith wrote on 7/25/2025, 5:24 AM

Thanks Dexcon, I need to try that but at the moment the older version of Vegas are on my old PC which is not connected up so I cannot access it at the moment. I have both V21 and V20 on my current PC but they too do not show up Mercalli V4.

andyrpsmith wrote on 7/25/2025, 6:50 AM

I connected up the old PC. Many thanks it worked V4 and V6 appear in V22. I like the option of having 1). The old legacy stabiliser (Mercalli V2) as it is great for subtle shake and rotation, no massive movements or it will crash with 4K footage. 2). Vegas stabiliser based on a Mercalli version. OK but is not the best for panning as it tends to be a bit jerky. 3). Mercalli V4 had some pretty good results in the past. 4). Mercalli V6, very fast in turbo mode but zooms in a fair bit closer than V2 to get a similar result. It does have however a +/- mode to zoom out which is handy. Overall V6 is the best I have tried and has great flexibility.

Reyfox wrote on 7/25/2025, 7:23 AM

I suggested this 11 days ago.

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/mercalli-v6-ofx-works-nicely-with-v22--149262/?page=1#ca938923

andyrpsmith wrote on 7/25/2025, 7:39 AM

I suggested this 11 days ago.

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/mercalli-v6-ofx-works-nicely-with-v22--149262/?page=1#ca938923

Thank you, you did. It seems that I got lost in all the posts - but got there in the end.

Reyfox wrote on 7/25/2025, 8:20 AM

No problem! As long as you get there!

rgr wrote on 8/4/2025, 5:24 AM

@rgr I send the stabilization results to you in a personal message.

Thanks.
Did you use Perspective mode in Resolve?
Well, in some places, Resolve's stabilization performed better than Mercali. Mercalii is practically useless for such videos without a CMOS Fixr filter.

3POINT wrote on 8/4/2025, 8:51 AM

Definitely there are different situations which need different stabilisers, but in most cases I just want to make my handheld recordings look like rock solid or just smoothen my pans. I don't have recordings which are that shaken that it needs a special treatment. I try to record as stable as possible by using a gimbal or camera stabilisers. For me it's important that stabilization in post is done directly on the timeline and only on trimmed parts of events and that I can batch stabilize selected events. In Vegas I use for thise purpose Vegasaur with Mercalli 4 which gives good results but could be faster. In Davinci Resolve I use the built-in Stabilization which can also batch stabilize selected events and which is extremely fast and with results that sometimes beats Mercalli.

3POINT wrote on 8/4/2025, 10:18 AM

@rgr I send the stabilization results to you in a personal message.

Thanks.
Did you use Perspective mode in Resolve?
Well, in some places, Resolve's stabilization performed better than Mercali. Mercalii is practically useless for such videos without a CMOS Fixr filter.

@rgr As far as I remember, I just used the standard perspective mode in DR, but using translation mode is just one click to see/compare the difference.

rgr wrote on 8/12/2025, 6:51 AM

Here's a quick comparison of Resolve Stabilization vs Mercalli AI:

a) Frames 1-2:
Mercalli with the rolling shutter enabled generates a frame shift, while in the original material, Resolve, and Mercalli with the rolling shutter disabled, this doesn't occur.
b) Frames 9-11: Resolve handled the vertically compressed image much better.
c) Frames 20-22: And here, Mercalli with the rolling shutter enabled handled it better than with it disabled. Resolve also managed it.
d) Frames 31-33: Here, neither managed the vertically compressed image.
e) Frames 41-43: When zooming in, you can see a slight image shift in Resolve.
f) Frames 49-51: Here, neither managed the compressed image.
g) Frames 59-61: As above, but Resolve did it best.

To summarize, Resolve performed best in 4 places, Mercalli with the rolling shutter on in 2, and with it off also in 2.

Notes: Mercalli had AI mode enabled, but the other settings produced identical results. Mercalli CMOS Fixr, however, was completely useless for this type of video and generated image distortion. Resolve - Perspective mode, 0.96 crop.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ro1hVlRP1vzxWWjZ2GU-_9NERHXk3Jkj/view?usp=sharing

I don't know if it's worth checking in Vegas... anyone have experience?