Hey,

I'm trying to apply the Vid.Stab Detect and Transform filter to some of my clips in a project. I can successfully add the filter to a clip and adjust the properties. When I render (making sure to select 2-pass), the final video is not stabilized. Any hints on how to debug? Has anyone had the same problem?

Stabilizing and transforming the clips in the clip menu works, but then I have to redo a lot of work in my project, so I would like to get the filter to work.

I am using sunabs Ubuntu build of Kdenlive, and I manage to stabilize video using melt.

Need any more information?

Hi, it happens exactly the same to me. I can add the effect "Vid.Stab Detect and transform" to a clip, change its settings etc but regardless of the used codec during the render, it does absolutely nothing to it. I have transcode installed and tried to apply vid.stab directly to an input.mp4 file using the terminal (Konsole) and there it works almost "perfect".

Code: Select all

transcode -J stabilize=shakiness=10:accuracy=12 -i input.mp4 -y null,null -o dummy

Code: Select all

transcode -J transform=smoothing=30:crop=1:optzoom=2:interpol=2 -i input.mp4 -y raw -o output.mp4

The only problem I get is that the output.mp4 file is huge. From a 35MB it get into a 1.5GB file. All other settings like xvid produce a very bad quality video (lighter but terrible).
So at least I know vid.stab is functional despite inside Kdenlive it does nothing (not even the report file is produced during the analysis step).

This is an AMD box with NVidia
OpenSuSE 13.2_64
KDE 4.14.9
Kdenlive 0.9.10
transcode 1.1.5-111.1
ffmpeg 2.7.2-1.4

I think the Vid.Stab Detect and Transform filter has made it into the Effects > Misc section of Kdenlive 0.9.10 by mistake.
I don't think we expect this to work from here. - Vpinion / jbm might care to comment.

To do video stablization in kdenlive you run a clip job. See https://userbase.kde.org/Kdenlive/Manua ... /Stabilize
And this works very nicely.

Oh, OK. That's too bad, but thanks!

I have a large project now, with many clips. As I understand it, the clip job will create new clips, that have to be inserted into the timeline again, where the old clips were. Do you have any tips on how to do this quickly? (this is my first Kdenlive project).

ttguy wrote:To do video stablization in kdenlive you run a clip job.

However this seems to call just the one pass stabilization. Also I have tested it and it is not stable, crashing Kdenlive often (at least that is my case).
Vid.stab produces way better results using its intended 2 pass steps: one to analyze and the other to apply the adjustments and produce an output file. On each step it has several settings you can adjust based on your needs. The "run clip job" method looks limited compared to what vid.stab does. Kind of like SONY Movie Studio's stabilization tool.

Personally I will stick with the konsole way despite I totally agree it would be awesome to have this tool properly embedded in Kdenlive as an effect, able to be applied to specific areas of clips. Very sad that this approach was "a mistake". Somehow it is a case like Slowmotion. Very nice and accessible tools that would make Kdenlive outstanding, but they are not implemented and thus we have to use them externally.

gps wrote:However this seems to call just the one pass stabilization

I don think that it true. The clip job runs the first pass. And then you put a .mlt file onto your timeline. This .mlt file is not a video file. It is a file that contains all the transformations that the video stab algorithm calculated to stabilize your video. Then you render the project and this is the second pass were the transformations are rendered.
So it is a two pass job.

The clip job method in 0.9.10 is using thee vid.stab functionality described here http://public.hronopik.de/vid.stab/

I too have in the past have stabilize crash kdenlive. But it is working for me now - kdenlive 0.9.10 with package libvidstab1.0 ver 2:1.0~trusty1.3

You might have more options on the command line version. But the extra options are actually useless. Some effort was done on the kdenlive interface to remove the useless options. See see https://userbase.kde.org/Kdenlive/Manua ... /Stabilize for details

Hello ttguy, thanks for your advices about distros.

So you are using the Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS (trusty) ?

you said you installed the "package libvidstab1.0 ver 2:1.0~trusty1.3"

I will download the Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS now...

Can you teach us how to install this "package libvidstab1.0 ver 2:1.0~trusty1.3" ?

Also, can you tell us why you prefer ubuntu instead of a multimedia audio/video distro like ubuntu studio, or avlinux or kxstudio and instead of a kde based kubuntu or netrunner or another recommended distro called Arch Linux?

your experience can be very helpful for us, thanks.

Hi ttguy,

you were right. I finally got Kdenlive to finish a two minute file "clip job" without crashing. It did produced a temporary file as well as the output as a render with the stabilization. The result was comparable with the one I get using the command line. Great!
However this process did not helped me very much. The reason is that the "clip job" method does not allow to have a hierarchy on the tasks to apply to the clips neither allow to apply vid.stab to specific areas of the clip. As an example the alternative "effect approach" allows to set a list of effects producing different outcomes depending on the order they are set. As a "defisheye" then "rotation", "zoom", an just then some effects like saturation and others. My attempt to use the "clip job" method, does not allow me to set when to apply that stabilization in relationship with all the other treatments the clip must get. Therefore, to apply the lens correction or defisheye AFTER the stabilization, produces completely different results if they are applied after or before the stabilization. I prefer to apply defisheye, then rotation, zoom, etc and then the stabilization to then apply the color corrections. The "clip job" makes me to render several times in separate task the clip to get this result. One to produce a lossless file to mess with (huge size), then apply over that version the "defisheye" or "lens correction". Then over that rendered file to apply the stabilization and render again to have the file to which apply the other effects or filters and fine cuts, transitions etc. So at least I am rendering four times the same material. This provides no significant advantages to work the clip externally (Konsole) and later to add it on the materials.
The "effect method" sounds better to me as it seems to allow to organize all the effects in a task list that is intended to be applied in order. I know it still has some glitches. Like black corners when rotating and zooming in. Despite the rotation being set prior the zoom in, the render still includes those black corners as if the zooming in was applied to the original image and not the rotated one in a frame different to the real size. It is confusing to me but I had some struggle with this issue. It is like if Kdenlive does not apply one effect over the result of the previous as it seems it is intended. Despite of that, I would prefer to have the stabilization as an effect to be added in a task list in one step with all the other steps. Then I could live the machine working while I am asleep instead of getting up for each in between step of the several renders.
I hope the "mistake" is fully implemented. It would make Kdenlive a great step forward. And slowmotion as well. : - )

About the question about the distros, I prefer to not develop on that. Too many ideologies on that area. I mess with it, use specific repertories to my needs and I am fine with OpenSuSE and KDE. As most would say the same about other distros as well. It is a personal preference.

gps wrote:neither allow to apply vid.stab to specific areas of the clip

How could you possibly apply vid.stab to specific areas of the clip. Maybe you mean specific time codes in the clip?
You are correct. You apply it accross a whole clip in the project tree. But if there are parts of that clip that you do not want stabilize on then just use the unstabilised version of the clip for these sections in your edit.

As to wanting to to stabilize after other effects have been applied - I can not see why you would want to do this. This would only make the video stabilizations algorithms job harder and less likely to succeed.

PS we already got slow motion - https://userbase.kde.org/Kdenlive/Manua ... tion/Speed

How could you possibly apply vid.stab to specific areas of the clip.

We agree, it is not possible in the actual status of implementation of vid.stab or other tool, but that does not mean we cannot recognize the utility of other ways of implementation. I am sure you can see it would be very useful to be able to apply stabilization to specific areas of a clip rather than being obliged to do it to the entire file. All I am doing is describing the differences between a "clip job" v/s "effect" implementation approach. It would be great to have a tool that allows the user to stabilize sections rather than the entire clip. Just the resulting rendering time would be a significant benefit.

I can not see why you would want to do this.

Me neither because I never said that. What I posted was the opposite. The main idea was to stabilize and then use other effects on top that do not affect the stabilization, like applying color correction but in one step of instructions rather than having to render in between. However, this does not exclude to apply effects previous stabilization. I do not agree with the idea that it will always damage the stabilization process. In my case I have found that the stabilization process is improved if you previously apply "lens correction" or "defish" to clips produced with a Gopro. The fisheye of this camera is extreme, and correcting some of the lens distortions prior stabilization, at least in my case, has produced better stabilization results.

However, my point was another. Back to the "effect" v/s "on clip" approach, it is a personal preference and in my case I like more the "effect" approach because it would allow to instruct several treatments to the clip or sections of it, in stack and organized hierarchically rather than single tasks to the entire clip. Some stacks may need in between renders before applying next tasks. But the result would be for the user to edit, set the effects and then just leave the tool do its job instead of having to render so many times to produce the new material to work with. Why to do this? to give the machine all the instructions at once in a list of tasks, and leave it to its job instead of having to do it in parts. No video editing tool has this level (yet) but I like Kdenlive and wish it to have this approach in mind during its development so someday it can do this sort of tasks lists at once. Compare it with the "adobe" approach forcing the user to pass from sections and clips between Premiere to/back After Effects (among several others apps) to do something that a single holistic tool should be able to do. SONY Vegas has a better approach compared to Adobe, way more simple (except the trimming tab), but you have to get so many adds-on/plugins to finally have a complete tool that just the cost of it ends being too much. KDEnlive is simple, fast, and I wish that whenever is possible, new abilities were introduced as effect or tool rather than "clip job".