Laurence - yeah - I figured that one out -so, any other codecs that can be used with the deshaker script???

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt | SoloVJ.com

There are TWO codec settings: the one that transfers the video from Vegas to VirtualDub/Deshkaer; and the one that VirtuaDub/Deshaker use to save the stabilized result.

I strongly recommend always using uncompressed to send the video from Vegas to VirtualDub/Deshaker. This is a temporary file, and is erased after each event is deshaken, so it doesn't "eat up" disk space. It avoids all sorts of issues because unlike all the other codecs, the uncompressed "codec" doesn't need a template or settings because these are passed through from the project properties (something that I wish Vegas would allow for other templates, at least as an option).

For the codec used to render from VirtualDub/Deshaker, when using HDV, Cineform would definitely be my top choice; not even sure what to recommend for a second choice.

>Laurence - yeah - I figured that one out -so, any other codecs that can be used with the deshaker script???

For SD you can use the http://www.mainconcept.com/site/prosumer-products-4/dv-codec-771/information-783.htmlMain Concept DV codec[/link].

I tried uncompressed a few times and found that it creates ENORMOUS HD files for many of my clips, which can be as much as 5 minutes long. Plus, the large file sizes slow down the whole process due to data transfer rate limitations. HuffYUV is okay, but last year I settled on an MJPEG codec by PicVideo because it was (1) very fast, (2) transparent, (3) compact, and (4) cheap.

If you decide to go this route I can forward the settings for this codec that seem to work best for me.

Yes - please do - I have the codec but have never used it within Vegas (used it for the oddball still cameras that shoot video type thing)

I've had the same experience as well with file sizes - will it work with 1080i HDV footage???

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt | SoloVJ.com

I use PicVideo MJPEG often with 1080i x 1920 square pixels in order to get the best resolution out of scanned 35mm stills included in my HD video (Cineform 1440-pixel width & compression definitely lowers the resolution during playback of those stills, even though it produces no visible degredation of HDV). Setting PicVideo to "19" or "20" on the quality slider produces slight degredation of stills, so if I want absolute best quality I set it to "subsampling 1:1:1." Doing so does produce very large files, about the same size as HUFFyuv (which, as I recall, yields file sizes about 70% as large as "uncompressed"), and perhaps 40% larger than MSU lossless (which Vegas never seems to like). But they play back in Vegas tolerably well from my RAID 0 drive and the image quality is spectacular.

PicVideo remembers its last settings, so if you use it once and find a setting that you like, you should then be able to use it with DeShaker and automatically get video compressed at that same setting (I haven't tried it with DeShaker).

I use PicVideo too (though not with the Deshaker script). It really is a useful codec to have on hand. Some of the advantages include:

1/ It reads really well from utilities like the DivX encoder, Quicktime Pro and Flix.
2/ It is extremely fast
3/ It is very high quality at the high quality settings.
4/ You have control over the colorspace.
5/ It works at all sorts of sizes: for instance I can use it at 1920x1080 (which you need to buy one of the expensive versions of Neo to do) as well as highly useful sizes like 960x540.
6/ It is very reasonably priced.
7/ It is intra-frame rather than inter-frame compression. In other words, it is not long GOP but rather each frame is compressed independantly.
8/ It is an absolutely wonderful proxy format since you can make it any size you want your preview window to be and it previews extremely efficiently.