Serious problem with Sony's media stabilizer in Pro 10

[Jim Snow]

I just found a problem with Sony's media stabilizer that has created a huge problem for me in a 1:15 multicam wedding. When I have similar footage I like to white balance and color correct globally on each camera by applying Media FX to the files in Project media. It saves a lot of time to do it this way and allows much more uniform footage as well. I can subsequently make minor adjustments as required on each cut after I make the multicam track.

Here is where I ran into a HUGE problem by inadvertently stepping into a Sony bear trap. After I made the multicam track, I systematically went through the entire project and applied the Sony media stabilizer to various clips as needed to correct minor camera movement. This is a big wedding and the project has a few hundred multicam clips. Only after I did this did I realize that when you do this, a subclip is made AND all FX are removed from the stabilized subclip! Why? Why! Now I have a giant mess on my hands. It's going to take a huge amount of time to fix this. Approximately a third of the clips are now missing the WB and CC FX! Back to Mercalli for me. When you apply FX to a project media file, that means you apply them to the project media files - period. There should be no buts, excepts and ifs to this.

[Ian Stark]

Jim - ouch!

One thing does spring to mind though - isn't Sony's stabilizer actually the Mercalli product? i.e. wouldn't the same thing happen? Or have they changed the way it operates to be part of Vegas?

[Jim Snow]

The Vegas version has a completely different user interface. It isn't shown as a Video FX. It's under "Tools - Video - Stabilize media". Once selected the dialog box that controls it looks nothing like Mercalli. By not worrying about maintaining the filters that are applied to the Project Media, the programmer that incorporated this was able to bypass a whole bunch of code. Not nice! Mercalli behaves like a normal FX filter.

[Ian Stark]

I have to confess it's one part of Vegas I haven't bothered to look at yet. May not bother at all now!

Sorry you have all that extra mess to clean up :(

[Edward Troxel]

If you notice, the stabilized clips are added as new takes. You would need to apply the same color correction to those NEW entries in the Media Pool too.

[Jim Snow]

Edward, I'm sorry but the dialog box says "subclip" when you apply the stabilization. A SUB clip should still have FX that were applied to a project media file. You are just restating my problem. To need to go back through the entire project and reapply filters makes Sony's stabilizer useless to me. I like Vegas a lot but that doesn't mean I can't complain when Sony does something wrong. I'm afraid they took a shortcut when they implement this stabilizer.

[Russ Ivey]

I'm really glad you pointed this out, because I just recently upgraded to Pro 10. This is indicative that I will need to stabalize my media before applying any other FX. I'm sorry you're dealing with this and wish I had dealt with this in the past so I'd know how to assist you.

[Jim Snow]

Depending on your work flow and approach to editing, you may or may not want to use Sony's stabilizer. I find it very useful to have all derivative cuts still associated to the project media clip that it came from. I don't want to apply a global stabilization to the entire video file because there are generally sections where a tripod is moved while the camera is rolling or a tripod is bumped or where there are whip pans and tilts or other excessive camera moves are made. If the file is stabilized in one chunk, this will cause the entire file to be cropped too much.

I need to be able to stabilize individual cuts without creating new takes. Mercalli behaves as a normal filter and allows me to do this. I hope Sony fixes this because it is a very nice feature.

[James Donnelly]

I know this is a separate problem, but I thought I would use this thread.

When I stabilize files in Vegas 10, if I am using either Matrox I-Frame HD, or Neoscene, I see interlacing artifacts in the preview window. The original transcoded files render fine.

The original footage is from a Canon 550d/t2i. I set the properties of the Vegas project to de-interlaced. I am aiming for a progressive final file. In Neoscene, I select 'deinterlace'. I am not sure how to do this with I-frame.

Here is a grab of the problem:

http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_6B...AAAAACUA/vFEMd...

If I stabilize the original mov's I don't see the problem, but I really need to use an intermediate.

I have tried to use G-spot to see inspect the files at each stage to see if they are progressive or interlaced, but it can't seem to detect this information from any of my files.

If I'm not mistaken, the Canon 25 fps files are actually 50i, so it seems if I supply interlaced material to the stabilizer, it doesn't have the problem.

I would love to know what is going on here. Does stabilizer create temporary files? Are they interlaced?

-------------------------- Edit-------------------------------------

I will answer my own question.

The media properties of the clip were set to Field Order: Upper field first. Switching this to progressive solves the combing artifacts on the stabilized take.

How come Vegas couldn't detect that my Cineform clips are progressive?

Incidentally, the CPU usage for playing back stabilized clips is much higher. This is made less severe by going into the switches for the clip and changing from 'smart resample' to disable resample.

I don't understand this. My timeline is 25 fps, and my clip is 25 fps, so why would that setting have any affect.

Also, why would stabilized clips play back less smoothly at all?

Any answers to these questions would be gratefully received.

[Dale Guthormsen]

I hear your problem, I have had more than my share of issues with stabilizers. I have had mercalli for several years. I always copy the clip paste in a second instance of vegas, make corrections, render and put it back in place.

for small projects I use mercalli as the plugin like any other. There is also the stand alone.

as for base color correcection why do you not set each camera to its own track, color correct each track, then mess with the effects.

In multi cam I always color correct before hand too!


Dale