It is really GREAT to see some more filters for Vegas. Congratulations to Mike. I will definitely use this filter.

Sony, please start working with the developer community and get all those great Premiere, AVISynth, and Virtualdub filters to work with Vegas! Third party support is what distiguishes the market leaders from the also-rans. Now that Sonic Foundry is part of Sony, you have the name, the money, and the allure to attract these developers, but you still have to actively go after them and support them. Look at all the third party developer conferences hosted by Microsoft, Sun, Oracle, and Adobe.

Sony: When are you going to host your first developer conference??

Outstanding and what’s even better is that the Dynamic Noise Reduction filter is in development. I use the DNR VirtualDub filter on all my analog captured VHS tapes and it does an excellent job of removing analog noise. Now I won’t have to preprocess all my AVI files. I can’t wait!

~jr

I use the DNR VirtualDub filter on all my analog captured VHS tapes and it does an excellent job of removing analog noise. Now I won’t have to preprocess all my AVI files. I can’t wait!

JohnnyRoy: Ditto that. A good dynamic noise reduction plugin for Vegas would be on par, or maybe even beyond, the usefulness of Satish's plugins (which is saying something, because they are more useful than 80% of the native Vegas filters put together). I could see using it on not only the VHS tapes, but also on those unfortunate scenes, shot in DV, taken in situations where I was forced to shoot with available light.

My only concern is that the Vegas SDK is not capable of supporting this. The reason Dynamic Noise Reduction doesn’t work with Satish’s Adapter is because it needs to look at adjacent frames to determine what is signal and what is noise and unfortunately the Vegas SDK only gives you access to one frame at a time. I don’t know how Mike is going to get around this but I hope he does.

~jr

I only have had a chance to play with the new filter for a few minutes tonight, but it looks really promising. The only concern for me is the lack of any documentation or some of the extra features of the Graft version over on VirtualDub.

I love this plugin. Excelent! I'm using it to help out with some Hi8 footage. But.... (always a but) I have a problem. :)

If I apply the plugin to video (or open up a veg with the plugin applied to some video) everything works fine. But, if I openup another veg with the smoother plugin applied, I always get this error when the plugin is being used (playback video with it or try to edit the props of the plugin):

Sony Vegas 4.0
Version 4.0e (Build 239)
Exception 0xC0000005 (access violation) WRITE:0x4 IP:0x76A516B
In Module 'SSMOOTH.DLL' at Address 0x76A0000 + 0x516B
Thread: Engine_RenderFromCookedSlices ID=0x250 Stack=0x46EE000-0x46F0000
Registers:
EAX=00000005 CS=001b EIP=076a516b EFLGS=00010297
EBX=00000168 SS=0023 ESP=046ee714 EBP=046ee82c
ECX=00000000 DS=0023 ESI=046ee898 FS=0038
EDX=076b2694 ES=0023 EDI=076b2518 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
076A516B: 89 41 04 8B 8F 98 01 00 .A......
076A5173: 00 B8 C8 00 00 00 3B C8 ......;.
Stack Dump:
046EE714: 076B2520 076B0000 + 2520
046EE718: 00000001
046EE71C: 076B2518 076B0000 + 2518
046EE720: 00000000
046EE724: 001D8EF0 00130000 + A8EF0
046EE728: 001CC868 00130000 + 9C868
046EE72C: 00000000
046EE730: 00000000
046EE734: 00000000
046EE738: 00000001
046EE73C: 00000001
046EE740: 00000000
046EE744: 06C1A5E8 067F0000 + 42A5E8
046EE748: 00000000
046EE74C: 00000000
046EE750: 00000168
> 046EE758: 010E0000 01000000 + E0000 (vegas40k.dll)
046EE75C: 00000000
046EE760: 00000000
046EE764: 00000000
046EE768: 00000168
> 046EE7A4: 076A705D 076A0000 + 705D (SSMOOTH.DLL)
046EE7A8: 046EE850 045F0000 + FE850
046EE7AC: 00000000
046EE7B0: 00000000
046EE7B4: 046EE850 045F0000 + FE850
> 046EE7E0: 076A7C40 076A0000 + 7C40 (SSMOOTH.DLL)
046EE7E4: 046EE8A0 045F0000 + FE8A0
> 046EE7E8: 076A7C4E 076A0000 + 7C4E (SSMOOTH.DLL)
046EE7EC: 046EE7FC 045F0000 + FE7FC
046EE7F0: 076B2520 076B0000 + 2520
046EE7F4: 00000000
046EE7F8: 046EE968 045F0000 + FE968
> 046EE830: 076A6E14 076A0000 + 6E14 (SSMOOTH.DLL)
046EE834: 000000F0
> 046EE838: 076AB48C 076A0000 + B48C (SSMOOTH.DLL)
- - -
046EFFF0: 00000000
046EFFF4: 0054A8A0 00400000 + 14A8A0 (vegas40.exe)
046EFFF8: 03FCF9A8 03F80000 + 4F9A8
046EFFFC: 00000000

If I try to edit the plugin settings, I get this error:


Sony Vegas 4.0
Version 4.0e (Build 239)
Exception 0xC0000005 (access violation) WRITE:0x4 IP:0x5A6595E
In Module 'SSMOOTH.DLL' at Address 0x5A60000 + 0x595E
Thread: GUI ID=0x42C Stack=0x12E000-0x130000
Registers:
EAX=00000005 CS=001b EIP=05a6595e EFLGS=00210246
EBX=00000000 SS=0023 ESP=0012e5ec EBP=0012e604
ECX=00000000 DS=0023 ESI=05a72970 FS=0038
EDX=77fcf320 ES=0023 EDI=00000000 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
05A6595E: 89 41 04 89 46 68 8B 0D .A..Fh..
05A65966: 48 B5 A6 05 6A 19 58 89 H...j.X.
Stack Dump:
0012E5EC: 7C4FC22C 7C4E0000 + 1C22C (KERNEL32.dll)
0012E5F0: 05A72970 05A70000 + 2970
0012E5F4: 05A614DA 05A60000 + 14DA (SSMOOTH.DLL)
0012E5F8: 00000000
0012E5FC: 00000000
0012E600: 8007000E
0012E604: 0012E618 00030000 + FE618
0012E608: 05A612A1 05A60000 + 12A1 (SSMOOTH.DLL)
0012E60C: 00000000
0012E610: 0012EF58 00030000 + FEF58
0012E614: 0012E67C 00030000 + FE67C
0012E618: 0012E62C 00030000 + FE62C
0012E61C: 05A648C6 05A60000 + 48C6 (SSMOOTH.DLL)
0012E620: 00000000
0012E624: 0012EF58 00030000 + FEF58
0012E628: 0012E67C 00030000 + FE67C
> 0012E630: 77ABF210 77A50000 + 6F210 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E654: 77A55E48 77A50000 + 5E48 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E6A0: 77B0DFD1 77A50000 + BDFD1 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E6A4: 77B2C710 77A50000 + DC710 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E6B4: 77B2C750 77A50000 + DC750 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E6BC: 77ABF9D7 77A50000 + 6F9D7 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E6CC: 77B2C754 77A50000 + DC754 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E6E0: 77ABF5BE 77A50000 + 6F5BE (ole32.dll)
> 0012E6E4: 77B2C750 77A50000 + DC750 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E6FC: 77ABF526 77A50000 + 6F526 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E700: 77B2C750 77A50000 + DC750 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E71C: 77ABF435 77A50000 + 6F435 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E720: 77B2C754 77A50000 + DC754 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E734: 77ABFD7A 77A50000 + 6FD7A (ole32.dll)
> 0012E760: 77ABF3E6 77A50000 + 6F3E6 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E764: 77B2C754 77A50000 + DC754 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E778: 77ABFD7A 77A50000 + 6FD7A (ole32.dll)
> 0012E788: 77B0DFD1 77A50000 + BDFD1 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E78C: 77B2C754 77A50000 + DC754 (ole32.dll)
> 0012E7A4: 77ABEE9D 77A50000 + 6EE9D (ole32.dll)
> 0012E7B4: 003A0043 00310000 + 90043 (DINPUT8.dll)
> 0012E7B8: 0050005C 00400000 + 10005C (vegas40.exe)
> 0012E7BC: 006F0072 00400000 + 2F0072 (vegas40.exe)
- - -
0012FFF0: 00000000
0012FFF4: 00000000
0012FFF8: 0067ABBA 00400000 + 27ABBA (vegas40.exe)
0012FFFC: 00000000

The only work around is to close vegas and re-open the file. Annoying, but workable. Here's my specs (if it helps):

AMD XP 1800+
512mb DDR
Asus A7V8X-X mb (latest bios update)
ATI AIW 9600 (latest catelyst drivers installed. Same problem with previous versions though)
DX 9.0b
Vegas 4.0e

Ironicly, it doesn't crash vegas, just pops up an error window. I can still move on the timeline & if I move the playback bar to someplace else (on a place where plugin isn't assigned), the message won't popup. Wierd.

Excalibur, Neon, Boris, Pixelan, Zenote, Batch Converter Pro, Heiroglyph/Prodad, Debugmode, Mike Crash(+ some others) are providing very compelling video plug-in packages that compliment the 70+ native plugins we ship with Vegas, never mind that TONS of DX audio plug-ins already work with Vegas and the rest of the line...so make sure you support your favorite plug-in developer by buying their product, and don't forget to offer them suggestions for their next releases.

Any audio or video or file format plug-in developer plug-in interested in integrating with our product line can do so relatively easily- we offer sdks and developer support with very few restrictions; all sdks are downloadable and only one (file format) requires an NDA. Often times there's a marketing opportunity as well- we've set up bundle arrangements many times.

If you are at NAB, please swing by the booth- plenty of Vegas developers and marketing types will be there to discuss opportunities.

>>...Boris, Pixelan, Zenote, Heiroglyph/Prodad, Debugmode, Mike
>>Crash(+ some others) already have written video plug-in packages
>>that compliment the 70+ native plugins we ship with Vegas...

This is PRECISELY why you should have a Vegas page with links to all of these. I have never heard of some, and I have been using Vegas 4.0 for over a year, I believe.

You really should have a master plug-in page...

DNR plugins would be good although I imagine they'd be slow to render. You can get the same thing in hardware, both the ADVC-300 and Digital 8 VCRs / Cameras have it in hardware. Big plush to a software implementation is being able to tweak more of the settings or use a larger buffer.
If you're really serious about extracting video off poor grade analogue tapes look for machines with drop out compensation. This cannot be done outside of the machine as far as I know as they work on the RF signal coming off the tape.

Can this filter be used to eliminate still picture flickering instead of using gausian blur which definately loses some detail?