ArcSoft Video Stabilizer

by Mark Richards

As you can guess from the name, the ArcSoft Video Stabilizer steadies shaky video and makes your video footage look a lot more professional. This is a new product from ArcSoft and I was able to test a recent beta version of it, which worked very well.

 Have you ever gone out to shoot some video of an important occasion and you forget to bring your tripod? Have you ever shot some video that despite the camcorder’s built-in optical or digital stabilization, still jumped around enough to disturb and irritate? We all have. I must admit that I found it easy to find some annoyingly shaky footage in my personal video archives to try out the program with.

 With a list price of $79.95, ArcSoft Video Stabilizer can make your videos look better by removing much of the video jitter and shaking.

 First the technical details – Video Stabilizer requires a Windows computer with a minimum of a Pentium III 500 Mhz processor though ArcSoft recommends a 1.2 Ghz P4. I tested with a 2.4 Ghz P4 and it worked great. You also need at least 138 MB or RAM – 256 MB recommended. Once again, like with all video projects, the more processor power and RAM you can throw at it the happier you will be. You’ll also need to be running DirectX 8.0 or better.

 Video Stabilizer is so easy to use that there is really no need for a manual or tutorial. The instructions are printed right on the GUI screen when you launch the application!

 The program features two view screens – one for the original video footage and one for the stabilized footage.  There is a timeline that runs underneath and two big buttons dominating the screen. One is for getting your original video clip and one is for starting the stabilizing process. 

 You use the GET VIDEO button to search your hard drives and removable media for video files. These can be raw video files captured directly from your camcorder or from edited files on your hard drive. My beta version only accepted DV-AVI files but according to ArcSoft, the shipping version will be able to input MPEG1 and MPEG2 files as well.

 When you select the video file, it appears on the timeline, ready to be previewed. You can simply choose to stabilize the entire video clip or you can choose to stabilize only parts of it. If you want to stabilize only the worse parts, use the preview window to start it playing in real time.

 Whenever you get to a spot on your video clip that needs stabilizing, hit the Insert a Fix button and two bars will appear on the time line. You can do this over and over again as the original tape plays. After the clip has played through, you go back to each spot and then adjust the length of the stabilization section by clicking on each spot, and then stretching the bars over the bad spots.  When you are all done picking the spots to be stabilized, just hit the big red Stabilize Video button.

 You will be prompted to save the video in either an AVI format for computer playback, MPG format for DVD or VCD format for video CDs. The DVD and AVI save modes also offer the option of saving the video clip in a non-interlaced mode for computer only playback.

 The save command also prompts you for a location to save your new stabilized video as well as offering a name. You can use the default naming procedure which simply adds the word “stable” to the end of the file name, or you can create your own new file name.

 Hit Save and the process starts. All you have to do is wait as the program does its thing. On my 2.4 Ghz P4, it seemed that to take about two to three minutes to process each minute of raw video. The faster your processor and the more RAM you have, the faster the stablization process will be. When it’s all done, hit play and watch your stabilized video.

 How does it work?

 ArcSoft Video Stabilizer is not a miracle program. It won’t save horribly shaky footage but it will make it look a lot better. It’s very impressive how the program can eliminate much of the shakiness associated with handholding a camcorder instead of properly using a tripod.

 If you watch carefully, you will notice that the program zooms in a bit on each frame, centering the frame and then stabilizing it by cropping away the outside the edges. Yes, any time you do this sort of zoom and crop, there will be some minor degradation to the image. Looking carefully, I could see some differences between the unprocessed and processed clips. The stabilized clips looked a little softer, a little bit out of focus, but nothing to really be concerned about. For most hobbyist and home applications, you’ll probably never notice the difference.

 For just $79.95, this is a great little video tool that can come in handy when it comes time to save a specific clip or scene that is just a bit too shaky to appreciate. Click on image below to get it.   

Is your video shaky and look unprofessional. Get ArcSoft Video Stabilizer. It really works.