Hi,
1. Use a tripod - Sorry, but that's a very basic and essential video editors tool.
For PD editing:
2. Split the clip into smaller sections so the "average" used by the program is restricted to a limited number of frames.
3. Be prepared to dump rubbish footage that has poor quality video technique.
4. use sparingly - any changes to a track eats your PC's resources.

I mentioned "tripod" in point one. Hand held camera-work produces some of the worst video. I use a "head camera" and that is by far the best footage I have when out at sea - our head compensates whereas our arms waggle about. We do the same on land. Prevent poor videoing technique and use the Stabilizing tool sparingly.

Hi, Dafydd - Thank you for the reply.

Very good reminder about using a tripod, but that's not why this particular footage is a bit shaky.

Now that I'm a registered user (as of yesterday) I'm still continuing my experiments with the program to help me learn it. Last night I imported some silent movie footage from the 1920's. The image is jumping a bit in the film gate throughout the whole clip.

So I tried the stabilizer to see if that jitter could be reduced. It didn't have much effect, but it zoomed in, destroying the composition. So, at least in this test, the plug-in was unusable.

You made no mention of this zoom artifact in your reply. Are you saying that if one works in smaller sections, the zoom effect doesn't happen--?

rbowser

Oh the zoom effect happens and there are posts on the forum from editors on the subject. The zoom in is a method to achieve a "mean average" area to stabilize. If one expands the clip to too long a period you'll find the need to crop or a green line appearing at the bottom of the clip.

Old film flicker, screen jump, darn you made me feel so small Best of luck with your project.

Quote: Oh the zoom effect happens and there are posts on the forum from editors on the subject. The zoom in is a method to achieve a "mean average" area to stabilize. If one expands the clip to too long a period you'll find the need to crop or a green line appearing at the bottom of the clip.

Old film flicker, screen jump, darn you made me feel so small Best of luck with your project.

Thanks for the reply, Dafydd - A reminder to use a tripod is always good advice, I just had to explain how a tripod wasn't involved with the issue I was trying to work on. The way the stabilizer zooms in would probably not be a problem when used in the more usual situation.

rbowser

There are external stabilizer software available which only deal with stabilizing ... not true editors ... such as vREVEAL (which I do not think violates the no competitor rule) which gives more control over edge/zoom etc.

There is also free software (virtualdub/deshaker), but these are complicated to use, but I have salvaged a lot of old footage with these.

Always end up editing on PowerDirector for final production.

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Thanks for the tips, Rocket-Scientist - Considering how the stabilizer plug-in is rather prominently promoted at the Cyberlink site, I'm surprised it has these limitations. The program I used previously had anti-jitter filters which did just that - no zooming, just instant, clean stabilization.

I'll look into the tools you mention here, thanks.

rbowser

I have used the stabilizer of the DP, is not perfect but good result of restraint use with 10 to 15% for larger values ​​can have bad side.
I posted a test here
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Thanks for that demo, PlayVideo - I guess maybe it's not uncommon for stabilizers to zoom in some. I'm trying out the free version of vReveal, and it also zooms in.

But in your sample, that cropping isn't too bad. I just don't know why the anti-jitter/stabilizer I used in a previous program simply reduced shakiness without zooming at all. Just different programming in the plug-in apparently.

rbowser

I understand may need to zoom image, for stabilization, you can review your old video, maybe you did not see at the time. AMD-FX 8350 / 8GB DDR3
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You can control the zoom more in vReveal, and also turn off the zoom ... you get black edges moving around, that is why the zoom in. Deshaker has other options, color fill from previous frames (up to 100 or so, blurring and extrapolations) to fill the black areas.

PD also works well, does better with non-interlaced formats.

Another trick is to run it thru stabilizer twice (produce it at low setting, then bring back into PD and run again) you will loose some sharpness due to motion blur, but gives you another option.

Dafydd had it right on isolating sections with real bad shake, cut those into separate clips, will definitely improve the result (some may be unsalvageable, but you can save the audio for continuity if you need to.) RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB GDDR6
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Just wanted to double-up on Rocket's post.
There is NO stabilization without loss of edges (zooming). The edges are replaced by other softwares using various tricks like extrapolation.
PD does not have any tricks other than zooming, and the actual intended function of stabilizing itself is notsogood. HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
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