Help with stabilizing video. Any help is appreciated!

[tyrophagia]

I made the mistake of agreeing to edit a play that I didn't record. It looks as if it was recorded on a VHS tape, but it wasn't. I have the Adobe Suite and I'm fairly familiar with it but I've never ran into an issue like this. I'm not looking to make it perfect, just slightly better. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
http://youtu.be/MlstYL9IOd4

[transporterfan]

Holy sh..! Run away!

[LMotlow]

Welcome to the forum.

I made the mistake of agreeing to edit a play that I didn't record. It looks as if it was recorded on a VHS tape, but it wasn't.

Pray, then, what was it recorded to? That is, what video format are you working with?

I have the Adobe Suite and I'm fairly familiar with it but I've never ran into an issue like this. I'm not looking to make it perfect, just slightly better. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
http://youtu.be/MlstYL9IOd4

The only reasonably priced (i.e, free) tool I know of that could work with it is Avisynth. It wouldn't be Adobe.

Did you notice that the frames are geometrically warped?

[smrpix]

I have the Adobe Suite and I'm fairly familiar with it

Do what you can with warp stabilizer in After Effects -- but this will never look good.

edit: Can't put my finger on it, but I suspect someone already tried to stabilize this with blunt tools like YouTube and added more damage. Is this the original?

[LMotlow]

Yeah, I use After Effects but never used warp Stabilizer (forgot about that). But smrpix is correct: it's wrecked.

We couldn't work with a UTube piece anyway. No telling what they did to it.

[transporterfan]

Looks like someone set an in-camera effect. 'Ripple', something like that. I doubt it can ever be reverse engineered.

[tyrophagia]

Welcome to the forum.

Pray, then, what was it recorded to? That is, what video format are you working with?

AVCHD Video (.MTS)

Did you notice that the frames are geometrically warped?

I have not checked on that.

Can't put my finger on it, but I suspect someone already tried to stabilize this with blunt tools like YouTube and added more damage. Is this the original?

No... this is the original video straight from the video card.

Thank you all for suggestions and comments. I knew I wouldn't be able to make this perfect. I just wanted to at least minimize the affects of it. I'll try Warp Stabilizer in After Affects and see what I can do.

[jagabo]

DeShaker in VirtualDub has some rolling shutter compensation. That will help with the jello effect once you figure out what setting to use.

[LMotlow]

Can't put my finger on it, but I suspect someone already tried to stabilize this with blunt tools like YouTube and added more damage. Is this the original?

No... this is the original video straight from the video card.

Mmm, probably not. The Utube mp4 has been resized to 640x360 progressive at a 690 kbps bitrate. That's not valid for AVCHD. I doubt the camera shot it that way. But, whatever.....

[racer-x]

Here is a quick Stabilization with ffmpeg. It's better, but it still sucks....

Script:

SET PATH="D:\FFMpeg\64-bit"
for %%a in ("*.mp4") do ffmpeg -i %%a -vf vidstabdetect=shakiness=10:accuracy=15:result="%%~na.trf":show=0 -an -f null NUL
for %%a in ("*.mp4") do ffmpeg -i %%a -vf vidstabtransform=crop=black:input="%%~na.trf" -c:v libx264 -level 40 -pix_fmt yuv420p -crf 20 -c:a copy "stabil_%%~na.mp4"

pause

Result:

[tyrophagia]

Here is a quick Stabilization with ffmpeg. It's better, but it still sucks....

WOW! Absolutely wow! That is exactly what I was looking for. I knew I wouldn't be able to get it perfect, but that is better than I expected. I will use this method to stabilize the rest of the video. Thank you so very much!

[altarvic]

Try ProDAD Mercalli V4

[racer-x]

Try ProDAD Mercalli V4

Seriously........I doubt that $200 s/w is as good as DeShaker (free) for VirtualDub or even the Stabilizer filter in ffmpeg (also free). I can't stand when people claim something is "Great" without providing proof!

Show us what Mercalli can do on that source....................

[altarvic]

Here it is:
PieceToFix-tryout-Mercalli.mp4

I used demo version

[altarvic]

visual compare:

[Attachment 29787 - Click to enlarge]

[jagabo]

Mercalli did a great job removing the rolling shutter jello effect. I think it could have used more stabilization but I assume that could be adjusted.

I used DeShaker in VirtualDub to further stabilize your Mercalli video as an example.

[racer-x]

Mercalli does handle rolling shutter better in this example, but it's not enough to justify the $200 expense in my opinion. Here is a direct comparison between Mercalli and DeShaker with rolling shutter @ 50%.