Stabilising HDV footage

hthfriese wrote on 11/1/2005, 2:51 PM

I am just starting my first HDV project with Vegas 6c. As there is still no scene detection for HDV in Vegas (about which a lot of justified complaints are posted in this forum), I work around this with the new function „Create Subclip". For the time being this is OK.
Now my biggest problem is stabilising some of the shots. A lot of the footage was shot with a very small tripod (the air - or better lack of it - in West Tibet makes carrying a solid one a real burden) and especially in those shots using zoom there is a noticeable shaking. For my DV projects I used Steady Hand, but that does not work with HDV. Has anyone used software, which can stabilise HDV footage ? I did read somewhere, that it should be possible with the Deshaker plugin for VirtualDub. Anybody using this, getting good results ?
To stabilise single scenes I would have to save my project with the „copy and trim" function in Vegas (and then re-import them). I remember some posts in this forum, which said, that Vegas is crushing, when there are a lot of HDV scenes in one project. Is this still a problem with version 6c?
Thanks for any help
Thomas

Comments

JJKizak wrote on 11/1/2005, 4:34 PM

I haven't tried it in Deshaker and Virtualdub but I suspect you would need a standalone HD codec like Mainconcept's new one for $499.00 or the Nero H.264. If you stabilized the widescreen avi after converting from m2t it might be just fine.

JJK

GGman wrote on 11/1/2005, 4:58 PM

hthfriese

Fusion 5 works with m2t (hdv), but it is not a cheap app. I couldn't get AE or Combustion to use m2t files.

GG

Coursedesign wrote on 11/1/2005, 5:02 PM

Combustion has a very good tracker (one of the best) that can handle HD and even beyond.

I have never used it on HDV footage, but I have heard of others who have done HDV chroma keying in it, so codecs must be OK.

If you don't have somebody locally with Combustion, I'd be willing to try this if you e-mail me a short sample to test with.

Coursedesign wrote on 11/1/2005, 5:22 PM

I just checked. No go with HDV footage directly, have to convert to uncompressed 1440x1080 AVI or QT first.

Note: Do not convert from YUV (HDV is ~YUV) to RGB (uncompressed codecs) in Quicktime, you are virtually guaranteed to get gamma shifts if you do. I guess this is the old Apple bugaboo...

MH_Stevens wrote on 11/1/2005, 5:25 PM

The latest release of the the Connect HD plugin scene detects perfectly. Prior to that I just captured the whole tape as m2t or an avi intermedairy and cut it into takes. Others have answered the stabilization issue.