Video shake

[Tafflad]

I'll run the sequence ..
Open VD
File > Open [name]
Video > Filters > Add > DeShaker v3.1
Select PASS 1
PASS 1 options
Scale > Full (most precise)
Use Pixels > All (most robust)
File> Run Video Analysis

Video > Filters > untick filter Pass1
Video > Filters > Add > DeShaker v3.1
Select PASS 2
PASS 2 options
Edge Compensation > Adaptive zoom average + fixed borders
File > Save as AVI

The resultant file is huge I know, but the video is much worse than before – now has lots of blurred motion.

** I would prefer to end up with H.264 file to match what I started with, can I do that with VD ?

[jagabo]

The resultant file is huge I know, but the video is much worse than before – now has lots of blurred motion.

You need to crank up the motion smoothing settings to values like 10000 to 90000. The default values only work for tiny little shakes -- like you get when your standing on solid ground and holding the camera as still as you can. Try using less zoom -- the more you zoom the blurrier the picture gets. Use deshaker's ability to fill borders with data from earlier and later frames instead. And like I said, if your source has motion blur it will be much more noticeable after deshaking.

You should upload a sample so others can take a look.

Is your video interlaced? If so, be sure to select the interlaced option.

** I would prefer to end up with H.264 file to match what I started with, can I do that with VD ?

Then install x264vfw and use it.

[Tafflad]

Hi Jagabo .... I installed the codec x264vfw
How do I save it as mp4 ?

Source is mp4 ... it is set for full processing and in compression I selected H264

How do I save as MP4 ... I can only see the usual File > save as avi

I can change the file extn to .mp4 ... but is that the right approach ?


To confirm on your other point - it is not interlaced.

[Tafflad]

As suggested here are 2 files ...

Sample.mp4 a 20 sec sample of the original video

Output.avi the sample after running through DeShaker on VD

noticed that file size is very significantly less (~50%)... are there settings I need to change on x264 codec in VD to maintain same quality output.

[jagabo]

Why is your source full of ghosting? Was it originally interlaced video? Don't you have anything cleaner?

The additional blurring you're getting is from the zoom. Turn off the adaptive zoom and use the border filling from other frames option. That gives some artifacts near the edges though. Attached is an example (no audio) where I used border filling instead of zoom and set the motion smoothing values to 50000.

VirtualDub can't natively save as MP4. But it does have the option to use external muxers. I've never used them but there are several threads here that discuss it. You can always remux the AVI (or raw stream) output to MP4 with an MP4 muxer. If you want a larger file set x264 to a higher bitrate or use a lower quantizer.

[racer-x]

I thought this camera was supposed to shoot 1080 / 50p? All that ghosting is causing stabilizing errors. The same occurs in FFMpeg stabilize filter.

[Tafflad]

This is the MediaInfo off the camera film

It confirms 1920 x 1080 progressive 60 fps

[Tafflad]

I had used a program to 'cut' a small sample for upload, it does not look any different .... but in case splitting it had introduced any issues... I attach a short sample (24sec) taken on same day, same camera .. this has had no edit of any kind - straight off sd card

On the DeShaker web site it goes into some detail on Shutter Roll .... but I do not have figures for my Canon - would that be an issue as it is disabled by default.

[jagabo]

I don't know how you can say the new video doesn't look any different than the last. First of all it's 1080p60 whereas the previous one was 720p30. And more importantly it doesn't have the ghosting problems.

Your camera definitely has rolling shutter distortions. You should follow the deshaker instructions on how to fix them.

[pippas]

I've run your file using the Deshaker filter in Virtualdub with default settings (2 pass)..A copy of the result is attached. But as there is some quite dramatic movement, I've made no attempt to crop the borders. The final file would need some serious cropping to correct the borders. But the central subject looks OK.....not too much 'ghosting'.

What I have done is to convert the file to an intraframe intermediate format first (in this case Grass Valley HQX (it's a freebie!).
I personally feel that Deshaker works better with all frames as keyframes, rather than trying to sort out a highly compressed H.264 file format - with it's long GOP structure - 'on the fly', as it were.

Central subject seems to be reasonably well stabilised ?.....

[Tafflad]

I don't know how you can say the new video doesn't look any different than the last. First of all it's 1080p60 whereas the previous one was 720p30. And more importantly it doesn't have the ghosting problems.

Your camera definitely has rolling shutter distortions. You should follow the deshaker instructions on how to fix them.

The splitting out of a short portion had changed file structure then.

(edit - just checked - was my fault I did it in Vegas and used a 720p template, I did try using DGSplit but resulting files would not play)

[Tafflad]

What I have done is to convert the file to an intraframe intermediate format first ......
Central subject seems to be reasonably well stabilised ?.....

Can you add any more about the intra frame intermediate format ..... never come across this before, can you give some steps.



In Parallel I will also look at trying to figure out shutter setting.

[Tafflad]

Why is your source full of ghosting? Was it originally interlaced video? Don't you have anything cleaner?

The additional blurring you're getting is from the zoom. Turn off the adaptive zoom and use the border filling from other frames option. That gives some artifacts near the edges though. Attached is an example (no audio) where I used border filling instead of zoom and set the motion smoothing values to 50000.
.

I can see there are 4 variables for motion smoothness

a.Horizontal Panning b.Rotation
c.Vertical Panning d.Zoom

Do you mean apply 50,000 to a and b

[pippas]

Can you add any more about the intra frame intermediate format .....

In the 'old days' consumer video formats like MiniDV used 'intraframes' -- that is, every video frame was complete. with every frame a 'keyframe' - making the files much simpler to edit accurately.

Modern HD camcorders use Mpeg4 compression, which is an 'interframe' format. This consists of several different types of video frames, of which only the 'I frames' are keyframes. This type of video format is known as a GOP (Group Of Pictures) format.

The format is highly compressed, making for smaller file sizes, but making the files more difficult to edit natively.

Modern video editing software uses a variety of tricks to improve the editing experience (proxy files, smart rendering etc..) but actually converting these mpeg4 files into an 'intraframe' format makes them much easier to handle, editing wise.

There are several intermediate intraframe formats -- the obvious ones probably being Grass Valley HQX and Cineform HD . The codecs for these formats are now available as freeware.

I personally like Grass Valley HQX ( the technical details of which you can read about here: http://www.grassvalley.com/products/hqx_codec )

You can register with Grass Valley for a free account and download both the codec and their useful AVCHD2HQ converter utility, or you can find copies of both without registering (slightly earlier version of the utility)

Here for the codec: https://www.videohelp.com/software/Grass-Valley-HQX-Codec

and here for the conversion utility: http://www.canopus.com.tw/PC/Download/Program/TOOL/AVCHD_File_Conversion%20Utility_(v4.10).html

Although originally intended for use with Grass Valley's own Edius editor, the utility and codec work well outside Edius - although not all the covnerter utlitity options work.

It's certainly possible to convert your mp4 file into HQX, and you can select various conversion options from the utility GUI.

The downside is that the files tend to be a bit big, but they are only working files, so can be deleted afterwards.

HQX files work well in Virtualdub.

For your mp4 file I converted it to a 1280x720 progressive HQX file (it made it smaller as it was only a sample file), using the 'online standard' setting.
I opened the HQX file in Virtualdub, and applied the Deshaker filter.

I exported the file from Virtualdub using the Vfw x.264 codec with default settings, and then converted it to an mp4 using mp4box

The options are of course virtually endless, but with HQX files, editing HD is much more like working with DV files... which I personally prefer to trying to edit highly compressed .mp4 files natively.

Just my own view of course!

[Tafflad]

Thanks for great response.

[Tafflad]

I don't know how you can say the new video doesn't look any different than the last. First of all it's 1080p60 whereas the previous one was 720p30. And more importantly it doesn't have the ghosting problems.

Your camera definitely has rolling shutter distortions. You should follow the deshaker instructions on how to fix them.

I have taken the video as per the steps on DeShaker web site (attached)
It requires 5 x-position measurements within the frame ?

There are for progressive video: Pick a still frame and two consecutive panning frames.
Then, find the horizontal position (x-pos) of the vertical line at 5 places, namely at:
St = top of still frame,
Sb = bottom of still frame,
Ft = top of first panning field/frame,
Fb = bottom of first panning field/frame,
Nt = top of next panning field/frame.
Now, the rolling shutter amount can be calculated as: 100 * (Fb - Ft + St - Sb) / (Nt - Ft).


How do I find the X position is there a cursor or similar tool I can use in VD ?

... or could some nice person give me those 5 numbers

[jagabo]

How do I find the X position

Use an image editor that reports X,Y positions.

And I think the motion is way too slow in panning your clip.

[pippas]

If you scroll down this post: http://nch.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/20929-questions-around-deshake/#entry47447

there's a list of Deshaker rolling shutter values for several cameras. If yours is on the list, it might save you the trouble of having to do the calcs........

EDit: I've just realised there is a more comprehensive 'rolling shutter' list on the Deshaker site itself : http://www.guthspot.se/video/deshaker.htm

......So you've probably already seen it ... sorry about that...

(As my own camcorder has a CCD sensor, I've never needed to look at the list before.... and my earlier clip in post #40 used my own default settings - so did not include any rolling shutter compensation at all)

[Tafflad]

How do I find the X position

Use an image editor that reports X,Y positions.

And I think the motion is way too slow in panning your clip.

I can easily redo panning speed ...

I'll go see if I can find a suitable piece of software ... I have ADOBE Lightroom but don't know if that will do it

[jagabo]

Pretty much every image editor can show you the cursor coordinates over the image. Even Microsoft's useless Paint.

[racer-x]

A good free image editor would be Paint.Net or Gimp. You can also use Irfanview to see X,Y coordinates by clicking a location on the image.

[Tafflad]

I just downloaded irfanview ..... now a practical Q ..... I obviously have a video file .. and Irfanview wants a picture file ...
Should I use VD to select frames is there way to 'convert' fames to a snapshot and save as a picture format ? .....
Or do I just use 'print screen' and save that way ? (could also do print screen from within VLC for example)

[pippas]

Should I use VD to select frames is there way to 'convert' fames to a snapshot and save as a picture format ? .....

Using Virtualdub, select the frame(s) you want as images then 'file - export - image sequence', and select the format you want your individual image(s) saved as...

[Tafflad]

For example I get the fame I want on screen eg frame 55
I go to file - export image sequence and it has all frames 1 0 through to last frame and I can't change the selection there.

Is there a way to export just that frame currently on screen .. or do I need to use VD to delete all frames before it and after it first then export

would assume I could mark somehow the frames or range of frames to be exported

[pippas]

or do I need to use VD to delete all frames before it and after it first then export

That's the way I do it....otherwise you have to wait until they're all exported, and then you delete the images you don't want afterwards. Much more long winded

[jagabo]

To export one frame as an image file: Mark-in on one frame, mark-out on the next, then File -> Export -> Image Sequence.

Even easier, navigate to the frame you want. Select Video -> Copy Source Frame To Clipboard. Then in the image editor paste as a new image or paste into an existing image.

Or use VirtualDubMod which has the ability to save the current frame as an image with Video -> Snapshot Source Frame.

[pippas]

Even easier, navigate to the frame you want. Select Video -> Copy Source Frame To Clipboard. Then in the image editor paste as a new image or paste into an existing image.

That's a much better way!...thanks jagabo