Hi Vicmilt,

Try to contact via e-mail with ProDAD support or sales team. They have pre-release offer for Mercalli V2. New version consist of two parts : stand alone application (with support for scene recognition) and plugin for Sony Vegas (for both versions : 32 and 64 bit). V2 wiil be launched to the end of this month.

Demo version, which you have installed, has only support for 32 bit Vegas instance (even if it is Expert version).

Best regards,

The New Deshaker script works very well under 64 bit too. Just follow PeterDukes instructions for the installation:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=703320

I trialed NewBlue's stabalizer. Good and straight forward plug-in.

Chad

I have tested the Vegas Movie Studio 10 version of the stabilizer under a variety of conditions during the trial period.
It was good in difficult situations, and outstanding at others!

i can't wait to see what is packaged with Vegas Pro 10!

I purchased VMS10, pretty much, just for this feature and agree w/ musicvid, VMSP 10's stabilizer is very good.

For $40 (w/ upgrade discount) I thought it was a deal over paying an outrageous $100 for New Blue's stabilizer plug-in.

Here's a quick demo comparing VMS 10 w/ virtualdub new deshaker:


The new deshaker video had some serious "jello" effect where as the VMS 10 was quite smooth, imho, and very easy to use, just one pass that's it.

Hi Byron K,

Engine of stabilizer in VMSP 10 is Mercalli :

http://www.prodad.de/gb/news.html

On ProDAD US site you can download Mercalli V2 demo for 64 bit Vegas. Commercial version of V2 is a little bit different then demo, but mostly the same features.

Mercalli V2 stand alone has additional features like graphs for all kinds of movement distortion, which can help in preparation of file to stabilization.

Best regards,

I thought that Deshaker had less shake, and it hadn't been cropped (as much?) because of its smart edge fill (which failed right at the end).

I've tried the following stabilization applications:

1) Mercalli: easy and intuitive to use, it offers a good enough (but not otimal) stabilization engine. You can find V2 demo (32 & 64 bit) at:

http://www.prodad.us/go/prodad/home/products/videostabilizing/300391667,l-us.xhtml

Version 1.0 was easier to use, IMO.

2) NewBlueFX: I don'y like it. Doesn't work so well, in my opinion.

3) Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum: I hope I made some mistake in using it, because results are simply horrible !!! An exaggerate zooming, a lot of artifacts and subsampling noise. Unusable. The worst I've tried. I don't know how it can be using proDAD technology. I repeat: I really hope I make something wrong (but there is only a button to push...) or my installed copy is buggy...

4) vReveal: just tried a moment ago. Results are very good, it doesn't need an analysis phase, but stabilizes in a single pass (pratical). It uses Cuda libraries, so if you have a fast nVidia card it runs well. It causes less zooming than Mercalli, and in my tests even more less shaking and other artifacts. Keep an eye on this, it could be worthwhile. The only drawback is that it's only a stand-alone application, not a plugin.

5) The Foundry Furnace Steadiness. Quite good, but it's a OFX plugin so it needs an host like, for example The Foundry Nuke, which works with image sequences, so you must export your footage in this way...

6) Syntheyes: maybe THE BEST at all. It's a powerful 3D tracker used at hollywood. It's incredibly fast and accurate and it can also stabilize your footage, other than track it. It introduce as few as possible artifacts, in most case unnoticeable. But it's very complicated to use: i don't recommend it as a first solution.

Bye.

"The new deshaker video had some serious "jello" effect "...

Just as a heads up, if Deshaker is giving you jello effect, it may be due to the rolling shutter of your camera. By invoking the "rolling shutter" button and use the default value in Deshaker it takes care of the defect rather well.

If you have a camcorder other than Sony or Canon, you may want to read the Deshaker instructions and table of recommended settings of the "rolling shutter" button for your camera.

I had the same jello problem with Canon HV20 and solved it with the setting described above. Good luck.