problems using New Deshaker

amendegw wrote on 10/16/2010, 3:51 AM

Doug,

I don't know whether my problem mirrored yours, but it was solved by using the "VirtualDub_and_Deshaker.zip" from http://homepage.ntlworld.com/a.edmiston/deshaker.htm

See the following thread: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?Forum=21&MessageID=698295

...Jerry

Doug_Marshall wrote on 10/16/2010, 7:06 PM

Thanks, that's very helpful info. I haven't gotten it to work yet, but I have a another question: Do I need to worry about the type of files on the Vegas timeline that I want to deshake? The ones I'm working on are AVCHD and I see most of the references to VirtualDub and Deshaker are AVI-centric.

I also had an odd corruption of files that had been processed with Mercalli, probably as a result of trying, failing and crashing with Deshaker yesterday: all the Mercalli-processed clips were showing either the wrong clip entirely or the wrong part of the clip. It was quite interesting in one case to see a still photo being shaken by the Mercalli script! All the Mercalli stuff got corrupted, yet there were no error messages.

I've been trying to see which deshaker will do the best job on these clips and I can't win for losing, it seems...

Sebaz wrote on 10/16/2010, 7:20 PM

First you have to install the latest version of Avisynth. You'll find it easy on any search engine. Since V. Dub doesn't load mts files by itself, you'll have to setup an Avisynth script to load on V. Dub. Basically open Notepad and type the following, making the necessary changes according to your own file path and fps to 25 if your footage is PAL.

DirectShowSource("E:\Biagio's wedding\Card copy\PRIVATE\AVCHD\BDMV\STREAM\00038.MTS", fps=29.970, convertfps=true)
AssumeTFF()

Then save that with the extension AVS and you can then open it in V. Dub. As long as you have the Haali Media Splitter and the AC3 filter (both free), it should open fine. For a tutorial on how to use Deshaker go to: http://www.sundancemediagroup.com/articles/deshaker_guide.htm

However, if you can upgrade to Vegas 10 (it's only $140 until 11/30), I found that the stabilizer in it is pretty good, after you run some tests with your footage to find the best settings.

johnmeyer wrote on 10/16/2010, 7:31 PM

I never bought Vegas 9, but I briefly tried to use the New Deshaker DLL in Vegas 10.0a. I still haven't gotten it to work reliably, but I did eventually get it to work sometime. I don't have time to complete the debugging, but the key to getting it to work somewhat is to make sure to use "uncompressed" for BOTH the inbound and outbound settings. Obviously you don't want to use uncompressed for the deshaken video, because of the size and performance issues, but using uncompressed to send the video out to Deshaker doesn't add too much time, and it avoids another recompression.

So, to summarize, set the codec for both inbound and outbound to uncompressed ("0") and see if that helps.

Doug_Marshall wrote on 10/16/2010, 7:35 PM

Hmm, I've been afraid to upgrade until I'm finished with this project, but maybe I *should* get brave and do it...

LReavis wrote on 10/16/2010, 7:57 PM

"Hmm, I've been afraid to upgrade until I'm finished with this project, but maybe I *should* get brave and do it... "

I almost never try to deshake from the TL on my projects. Instead, I open a new instance of Vegas, deshake and render that to Cineform, and finally put the deshaken Cineform clip onto the TL of my project.

Deshaking takes a long time, and by doing it in a separate instance of Vegas, you can continue using your computer while waiting for the output. Plus, if you render your project several times before feeling satisfied with it, you don't have to endure the slow rendering of the entire project each time just because it includes a clip that must go through the deshaking process.

Personally, if I were you and find trouble with New Deshaker, I'd buy V10 and use it only for stabilizing the shaky clips, all the while continuing work on your project with an earlier version of Vegas (I still prefer V8c for editing, with V9e-64bit for rendering; but I did plunk down my money for V10)

Opampman wrote on 10/16/2010, 8:25 PM

I have to say I never installed the "new" de-shaker and still use the one for which John Meyer wrote a script years ago. It works great in VP10a. To be honest, I have not found any instance with any settings where the new Sony stabilizer is better than John's de-shaker.

Sebaz wrote on 10/16/2010, 9:01 PM

I don't understand. You mean there's a way to run Deshaker straight from Vegas? Not the new stabilizer, but the V. Dub Deshaker? That would be great, since it's a great stabilizer, but at the same time it has way too many settings, which is great if you have the time to run dozens of tests until you find the perfect one, but I find the Vegas' new stabilizer easy to use and gives me good results.

However, if one day I have to kill a few hours, I'm going to try several settings in Deshaker to see what works best.

Opampman wrote on 10/17/2010, 6:55 AM

Yep - I even created an icon for the v-dub deshaker and put it on the tool bar. When I want to deshake, I select the event, click the icon and it's all automatic. The finished product is placed as an another "take" on the timeline just like th Sony stabilizer.

EDIT - John's default settings work great for me 99% of the time.

Doug_Marshall wrote on 10/17/2010, 8:26 AM

Thanks, that's a helpful suggestion. I did upgrade to version 10a last night and, sadly, disaster, which was already looming, struck. Version 9e lost its connection to the plug-ins being called (like track EQ). I uninstalled both 9 and 10 and reinstalled 9 and got those back.

But all was still not well. I'll call it database corruption. I had been experiencing some odd behavior for a couple of days in my project (this is a 103-minute presentation with dozens of slices from maximum-length AVCHD files, portions of which were steadied with the Mercalli plug-in from the timeline). Unexpectedly, parts of it began to play unrelated audio and all of theMercalli-steadied clips were applying their effect to the wrong video and, in some cases, a jpeg photo! It was very interesting watching the photo being manipulated by the Mercalli script...

So, I've got a mess. I've tried to cut and paste corrections from earlier versions and I ultimately went back to a known solid version to work from there - but whatever happened still lurks. When I reopen the project I can't trust that it won't be scrambled.

Doug