Where is old video stabilization?

clement5 wrote on 3/3/2022, 9:50 AM

The early versions of MEP had a decent video stabilization that could be coerced to do what you want. It had a window to set on the area to monitor for stabilization which allowed background stabilization without interference by moving objects. As far as I know it was a Magix product, but it became hard to find when they added other vendors products. Now it seems to be gone in 2022. I generally use deshaker in VirtualDub2 for initial dejitter, but now I would like to use the old dejitter software, but poof. The current Vegas dejitter just does the same as VD deshaker, but without the extra features in that software.

Comments

kamshing wrote on 3/3/2022, 12:42 PM

I also noticed the old stabilizer was missing, as have some others in other threads here. There was also the ProDAD stabilizer which let you modify the amount of the stabilization, etc. But the currently included Vegas stabilizer does not seem to allow any of those adjustments, Some of the recent MEP 2022 upgrades included NewBlue Essentials, which lists a stabilizer, but I don't see it under my NewBlue effects. Did your MEP2022 include the NewBlue Essentials, and if so, do you see a stabilizer under the NewBlue Essentials effects? And does any one else see it who got the NewBlue Essentials?

Photo_G wrote on 3/3/2022, 1:56 PM

@kamshing Unfortunately, the stabilizer and transitions in NewBlue TotalFX don't work with MEP/MS 2022. The VEGAS Stabilizer is really limited too, so I bought Video Pro X12 from HumbleBundle to get a better option (Mercalli v2.0).

kamshing wrote on 3/3/2022, 5:47 PM

So that explains why I can''t find the NewBlue stabilizer even though other NewBlue effects are showing up. Thanks for the Video Pro X12 tip. Luckily I didn't upgrade MEP2021 on another computer, so I still have access to the earlier two stabilizers, the original one that clementS refers to and the ProDAD version..

clement5 wrote on 3/3/2022, 8:23 PM

I just found out they also broke the frame match. It turns my target frame into almost completely white. If I adjust the intensity I can get something that is almost right. I am correcting B&W frames. It used to work! They seem to break more things than they fix! They still havent fixed the problem with the NTSC standard frame rate of 23.976 or exactly 240000/1001

kamshing wrote on 3/4/2022, 9:39 AM

@clement5 I never had much luck with the frame match, so didn't use it enough to notice any change. Not sure what you mean about a 23.97 frame rate. Is that what it actually is in MEP rather than the 29.97 standard? This probably should be a new thread, but since you mentioned it, I have noticed when I've imported an mpeg movie file created in MEP that sometimes (at least I hope it was just sometimes!) it would not be the correct length. Yet it was fine when played back with other programs, like VLC. I think I ended up just re-saving with VLC and it would import back into MEP at the correct length. Maybe that's related to the frame rate problem you mentioned. These were video segments from frame-by-frame digitized movie film where I had to correct the frame rate to the original speed, so I had thought maybe that had something to do with it..

johnebaker wrote on 3/4/2022, 11:13 AM

@clement5, @kamshing

Hi

The standard NTSC framerate is 29.97 for video and TV, the 23.976 framerate is the converted framerate (pulldown) for movies shot at 24 fps so that they play back correctly on NTSC systems.

What is the project framerate set to?

What is the true source video framerate - a MediaInfo analysis will tell you this if you analyse one of the clips and post the results, see this tutorial on how to setup MediaInfo and analyse a video clip for all the data required.

An additional issue you may have if the MediaInfo analysis indicates framerate mode as Variable, this causes further complications and are best converted to Constant framerate.

Note:

Editing 23.976 fps can remove the pulldown conversion in order to edit at a true 24 fps depending on the editor used. The removal of the pulldown can cause issues if the video is not interpreted correctly.

John EB

Last changed by johnebaker on 3/4/2022, 11:24 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

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clement5 wrote on 3/4/2022, 12:37 PM

23.976 is a standard NTSC frame rate which can be used on Blu-Rays. Removing the pulldown by detelecining is necessary for restoration and editing a telecined NTSC movie. Also, if you wish to do upscaling, this has to be done. I know how to analyze the video and generally do it by rotoscoping it as well as using a good metadata reader that provides most of the information. The project frame rate is set to match the input which is 23.976 or more properly 240000/1001. MEP simply doesn't do things correctly for some codecs. Uncompressed and MP$ work well. However when making an AVI MEP ouputs Lagarith at 239760/1000 which causes problems. I do frame editing with 2 minute clips that are reintegrated into the original film, so I need the exact frame rate. Then when the result is done, I can burn a Blu-Ray or properly telecined DVD. Many non-commercial DVDs are improperly telecined with ghost telecining or nasty patterns Then there are the online videos which also mess up the tlecining. I know of one where the person posting it increased the vertical size to make a proper 4:3 aspect ratio, but did not detelecine the original. Yeuch. BTW I use lagarith to prevent artifacts in multiple passes of editing. That way there is only one conversion at the beginning and another at the end of the project. However MEP still has problems with outputting proper 23.976 fps in Lagarith. So to save space I use uncompressed output from MEP which is then converted to lagarith using VirtualDub2. Thiis is easily time shared with the plodding frame editing task.

Of course there are other problems with the plethora of standards. NTSC can still have judder because older US monitors/TVs cannot handle 23.976 or 25fps correctly. Some playback programs on my PC will change the frame rate of my monitor to match the video. I think the newer TVs and blu-Ray devices may handle things correctly, but I am not sure about 23.976 vs 24fps. The monitor specs never seem to quote the actual frame rates available.

clement5 wrote on 3/4/2022, 12:52 PM

In reply to Kemeshang, MEP can handle a plethora of frame rates. For example I can edit digitized 8mm movies which are shot at 16fps. Often MEP will show 23.98 as the frame rate when it is really 23.976 which is supposed to be exactly 240000/1001. 29.970 is supposed to be exactly 300000/1001 neither of the decimal qualities match the exact spec. MEP will do all kinds of things like add extra frames or drop frames when necessary. The eye is remarkably sensitive so some problems and completely insensative to others. So at scene changes many defects are not noticeable but the same type of defect stands out in the middle of the scene. NTSC zone TV watchers are less bothered by duplicate frames because they are used to the NTSC judder in movies which adds 1 frame for every 4 originals. MEP simple has problems with frame rates, probably because it is a European product where the standard frame rate is 25fps or 50 half frames/s. MEP may be using the the floating point number instead of the exact integer ratio for the frame rate, which then changes the length of the result. Japanese and US editors probably do a better job with NTSC. VirtualDub2 handles this perfectly.