iStabilize for Mac2.2.4

Poor support

I'm updating my review from a couple of years ago because neither the developer or anyone else has done anything to make this software usable. There are demo videos (NOT tutorials) that show that it works, and a few users who claim great things...but many, many more people who can't make heads or tails of it. Frankly, it doesn't matter how good a program is if you can't figure out how to use it, and if the developer refuses to respond to multiple requests (from multiple users) for clarification. Plus, now that iMovie has stabilization, that seems a better option for Mac users. Of course, I can't compare the quality of the stabilization because I've never gotten successful results from iStabilize.

Like many others, I bought iStabilize as part of the recent Mupromo bundle. I've played with the demo and read some positive reviews here, so let me ask - beg, really - that either the developer or someone who successfully uses the program write up some better documentation. The program is entirely non-intuitive, and the current documentation really doesn't help. If you try to use the "quick start" guide just to see what the program can do, you're unlikely to get any results at all (like others here, I couldn't even locate the menu choices the author was calling for...though I finally stumbled over them later). I suspect that this is a good piece of software, which is sadly almost unusable because of the baffling documentation. Please help, someone!

Recently used this app to help a friend recover/fix some footage of a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. "Preview Mode" is essential for someone like myself, who doesn't do a lot of video editing. Tracking takes a while for longer clips, big deal, it's worth the wait. Reading the documentation is a must, as there are steps you need to take (ie creating "Control Tracks") before you can actually begin editing. Overall, does what it says, relatively straight forward and painless (assuming you've read the documentation). Priceless tool for someone with good footage that has been tainted by a shaky hand or shotty "built in" image stabilization. Can't wait to try it out on some snowboarding footage, if we'd ever get some SNOW!!!!! Worst winter ever :-(

I was considering buying this program because it was featured by MacUpdate Promo and the videos on their website looked awesome. Thank goodness I tested this program before buying it. I can't comment on how good of a job it does, because after numerous attempts, I could not get the program to work! First off, the program is not easy to figure out. After playing with it for awhile, I gave up and turned to the quick start guide. Mistake. The quick start guide refers to menu items that do NOT exist! Furthermore, the help file is incorrect as carefully following its instructions does not lead you to the outcome stated in the help file. My file would initially process, but the output file could not be found anywhere, and the preview does not work. Because it takes 20 minutes to process a 2 minute clip on a Mac Pro, (which seems like a long time to me, esp. as it doesn't appear to fully utilize the CPU power) trying this software wasted a lot of my time. If you expect a software to be intuitive to use, (especially as a mac program) then you should avoid iStabilize! Note: This was tested on Leopard.

thinking i should buy.

doesn't look like FCE 4 added stabilization, but this isn't a plugin.

Glad to know that you got it fixed.

Does anyone know if the newly announced version of Final Cut Express has a stabilization function built in?

ANOTHER UPDATE: HINT - When working with pieces with people jumping around, dancing, or moving rapidly, you will want to have the application focus on the BACKGROUND. What happens is it tries to steady the background around the person, and it looks very awkward, like a camera is strapped to the person themselves (like a parachutist, pilot, etc.) because the person becomes steady, but the background rotates and tilts dizzily, and makes tremendously HUGE margins. So another bottom-line is: This is not necessarily a cure-all, save-all, super-smart app. It works well, but on complex clips, you will have to manually select what to steady... and this can be time consuming on longer clips, or clips with multiple angle changes and several people in it. Also, it means you have to watch and analyze every moment of your clips as well, to find all the potential issues with it and select what you need to for each part - again - could be very time consuming. So do not expect this app to do wonders easily on everything... however, it works very well on the basics! I have a feeling FCE might incorporate this feature in the next release though! But you got about 6-moths to a year to wait!

This program is fantastic! I tried it on two video clips that I thought I'd never be able to use because they were too shaky (one was shot while walking down a gravel road, the other was a telephoto shot of a moving fox). iStabilize did such an amazing job that I now notice the other flaws in the shots! That's good though, because I can work on preventing those the next time. Final Cut Pro 5 has a stabilization filter, and I tried it on the same clips. It did a lousy job and took 10 times as long as iStabilize. I don't have FCP 6 yet, but I see it has a new feature called "SmoothCam". I'm sure it is much better than the filter in FCP 5. However, in the comparison test linked to by another person, iStabilize looked better. Great job, Pixlock!

The resulting clips then have to be reimported back into imovie, right?

I'd love to see pistabalize as a promo. Maybe best as a bundle with this.

Definitely looks nice, but I might have not enough time to give it a try. I was almost sure that's something for me, but few of the comments made me cautious. Well, let's see...

Very impressed with the demo version. I have a suggestion: to minimize the distraction of the bouncing-around edges of the frame, perhaps automatically color the periphery to blend as best as possible with the subject of the video? I know the color can be changed manually, but it should be easy to automate with some averaging algorithm.

Nice piece of software... will have to try in more depth though.

Okay, I just did another test on a 20-minute segment. It took 3 hours to "track movement," 10 minutes to fine tune the controls, and 20 minutes or more to export. Almost 4-hours total to stabilize a 20-minute clip. The result? So-so. It has a hard time with zoom and fast movement of the camera such as turning/changing angles, and if a person suddenly walks on screen and they are too close. I assume 10-30% of live clips, such as at Birthday Parties, etc. will be like this - unpredictable and long takes. If the camera was still it was fine, but when people walked on-screen or if the angle changed suddenly - iStabilizer zoomed in too much, blurred the screen, etc. and did a terrible job. You'd have to manually edit all those things out, which can take a long time! Plus you get A LOT of MARGINS, even after adjusting the controls... and on a long clip, many controls stop working properly. This program is best for very short clips only! But in real-life, you will have many long-take clips... and these will be much, much more time-consuming and labor intensive to steady. So the program is smart for short clips, but not good for long takes, or ANY TAKE that has a lot of camera movement or people walking too close to the camera.

awesome. I was just looking for something like this.

I'm assuming you run your video through this and then edit with editor of choice? Maybe the other way around? I'm looking on their site and will definitely check out! Thanks!

How do you get rid of the Black edges on EXPORT?

If I look at some video sources I get, his one REALLY sounds useful...

Wow, this app is fantastic. I took a digital video camera to a football game to record the pregame show a couple of weeks ago without a tripod, and the results were a bit shaky. I processed it with iStabilize, though, and it looks nearly as good as if I had brought that tripod along. It's interesting in that it tracks the motion of your camera, so you'll see intermittent black bars along the edges when you've moved too far in one direction. I'm wondering if there's an option to eliminate all of the black bar areas and export just the area that's "common" in all of the camera movements. Perhaps I'll find that as I play around with the application more. :-) I'll definitely continue to play, but it seems well worth the cost (especially after discount) so the videos don't look so shaky anymore.

Finally I can watch Blair Witch project without getting seasick?! :-)

I have done some demos. It seems to work very well! And it is an indie app, so that means it is not a plug-in and can work with ANY movie editor. I wish however it had a batch feature, so you can just smoothcam all your DV files. IT IS NOT FAST! It will take about 5 to 10 times the length of your file to import, analyze, edit/tune, smoothcam, and export. However it does multi-task, so you can work on several files at once. It needs to come with the iMovie plugin instead of charging separately for it! It should be a BUNDLE! FINAL NOTE: Has anyone compared this to FCP smoothcam, fxStabilizer, and Slick iMovie smoothcam by GeeThree.com? The latter are all plugins and will not work with iMovie 08, but work with all previous iMovies or FCP.

I like the examples,it seems very easy. If you are not a professional , this would be a great solution.

I'm impressed! I downloaded the trial and gave it the KraigMac test run on some video that my boss shot that is very jumpy. iStabilize did the job but when I export the .mov I get the black mask bounding box in view. How do you get rid of this? Also I currently use Final Cut Express HD 3.5 and I thought this is something built into it? Maybe I'm thinking of Adobe Aftereffects. Looks like this may be a nice software to add to my collection.

Image stabilizers, if artifact-free, are very useful as they make rough shots look acceptable while at the same time helping to conserve batteries if on wishes to shoot without using onboard camera/lens stabilizers. They can also literally save your ass by salvaging shots!

I just tested it on some of my files and results are quite amazing! Now I only need to justify enough this purchase...

Great promo and excellent software!

This application is a must for any videographer who does a handheld shots (and who doesn't?). Once you try it, you won't be able to imagine your life without it. The picture is worth a thousand words - you owe it to yourself to see the sample videos on the Pixlock website. It's THAT impressive! For me the demo version worked without a glitch on mp4 clips. Love this one!

The demo is very impressive. I had looked at this software aout two years ago but did not buy it. Does iStablize work with iMovie '08? I am switching from iMovie version 6 to iMovie '08.

aaaawesome!

Great idea and very useful. The main question is whether there is a significant change in qualtiy.

MacAndy, please stop posting so many replies to people's posts, it amounts to spamming and looks like you are trying to post as much as possible to have more opportunities to win a free copy of the software(s). I've looked at your user account, you've posted mainly to the MUPromo and rarely if ever to the actual product pages here at MacUpdate.

@MajorPb: shure. And because iMovie 08 didn't support Plugins you need to have such a app...

@Mindbender: I'm not a friend of the camera stabilizer because if you want to follow a first standing and than moving object (is this understandible?) the stabilizer will kill your first pictures...

@Silverity: Hopefully your girlfriend will never read this ;-)

This looks like a very good software for an amazing prize! The comments are really positiv and I think the app will not crash while exporting.

@fonix: thank you very much for your information. I like to hear such necessary information from an user. I'll will definitly give it a try!

I seem to be taking more video with my digital still camera (because it is there :-) ) and I'm trying out iStabilize on some of that video. If it works half as well as people's comments then it could be just the thing.

always wanted it but it was too expansive

Now that I am studying video editing (fcp), I can see how helpful something like this would be. I am looking forward to trying out the demo on some footage.

Sound interesting, and being a video editor for my church this could come in handy. I'll have to check it out.

The demo videos on the developer's site are indeed truly impressive. I have some old analog video I'd love to run this through - which begs the question, anyone care to suggest how best to digitize my old analog video tapes? :-)

I tried this app demo, and found it amazing. No more shaking videos! And I can even let my girlfriend take movies now, as I can process them and they will look fantastic.

This is about the best deal on video stabilization software you can find.

Oh, my, God. This may be the most amazing software EVER. I've made some shaky clips in my time when I have to walk quickly with a camera, this thing is awesome.

Nicely done! I like the examples too. If you are not a professional or you don't have the expensive equipment to stabilize your video, this would be a great choice.

UPDATE, part 2: I have been in contact with the developer (who apparently doesn't sleep much, as he has responded VERY quickly throughout the night and this morning), and it would appear that I had a movie issue, and it was not his app that was the problem. I have since tested several more movies with amazing results. This is a great product, and the developer is GREAT. I suggest buying the app just to support great Mac shareware developers.

For more info, click on the "Developer: Pixlock" link.

I'm also wondering if this is compatible with HD footage. Also, in eliminating the shakes, are there noticeable artifacts introduced into the resulting somewhat-enlarged picture?

Impressive software! I don't have a need for it at this time, but I'm going to be sure to bookmark it for another day's consideration.

Our Institute studies and teaches about the facial aspects of human emotion, and the fleeting nature of these displays requires that we get tightly focused images of a constantly moving target. This video stabilizer may allow us to do more with the material brought us by non-professional videographers.

I tried this too....amazing... I just realized how friggin' shaky I must be when I film something!

Much improved. I tried a version 1.x of this before and was not please. Nice improvements in version 2.2.2 and I hope they continue to improve on it.

Does this work with HD???

The sample videos on their site are amazing. I downloaded the demo and am looking for a video to test this on.

Wow, I could really use this. I have some shaky videos, especially when I zoom.

This will likely help make my old Hi-8 movies watchable -- and gives added incentive to dititalize my box full of even older Super-8 films. (My current digital camcorder has built-in stabilization -- I wonder if this software would even improve that.)

Wow. No longer do I have to worry about giving relatives motion sickness when sharing vacation videos. "Honest, the forest stroll we took was relaxing. Honest!" (No crashing while exporting during my tryouts with an iMac G5.)

I'm curious how worthwhile this is for the average joe taking xmas videos, etc.

wow - this is amazing! Already an affordable price for this functionality but the MU Promo makes it a complete no-brainer!!! Adding to my basket as we speak!

Examples on the website are looking good but I would need to test it on my own footage before press "BUY NOW" button. Nice promo!

hmm.. looks really good and it seems to be perfect for my old home movies I have.... remember the time when there was no stabilizer built in to every cam? ;-)

We captured lots of video from the deck of our sailboat last year and this may be the ticket to making it viewable.

seems to be a great software... but i also exp. crashing during demo.

This looks like something that a couple of friends would give their right arm for! I'd better let them know, that it's on a special!

WHEN will Final Cut Express include a stabilization/steadicam effect like this? FC Pro already does! Why not express? There are several plugins like this such as GeeThree Slick, and digitalthoughtsoftware.com fxStabilizer - however iMovie 7/'08 doesn't take plugins. THIS will work with iMovie 7/'08, as it is an indie app. This might be the most important iMovie software you can buy. Can people make more comments on it crashing or how useful this version is, so we can all know how good/bad this one is VS. its competition?

This is very good at what it does. I use it when I need stabilization in pro work. It is simple to use and fast even on my slow computer.

Here is an awesome post on the comparisons with iStabilize vs other smoothcam effects. iStabilize came out looking great. http://www.scottsimmons.tv/blog/2007/06/02/smoothcam-vs-some-others/

I just downloaded the demo, tried it out on some footage I shot on my motorcycle trip this summer. Very impressive! The roads I travelled on were extremely bumpy mountain passes, and the footage was a bit nauseating like something out of "the Blair Witch Project". I'm going to do some more testing today, but it looks like this program may have saved my summer memories! Thanks!

After reviewing their examples and some of the feedback, it makes me want to consider taking video again... I usually have taken videos while waterskiing and snow skiing, and to tell you the truth - I felt that I was better off taking multiple stills instead of a video... This utility actually could get some of us who gave up on video, back taking it..

This is really great. Previously, the one way I've known to be able to achieve a similar effect is through Final Cut. However, this reduces the time required for this type of editing by a fair margin.

I didn't know anything like this existed either. Definitely worth a look!

This looks great - will have to download and give it a whirl on some of those home movies I have!

Samples do look really good. It seems to be a pretty good price, too. Unfortunately, if it does have an export problem, that wouldn't be good. Also, doesn't work in iMovie that I can tell. That's a separate project and it doesn't work in iMovie 08.

WOW, I didn't even know anything like this existed. I am totally into video items, and this would be a great addition to my arsenal, such as it is.

I just got a shaky video footage this evening. Lets see if this helps.

Nice! Be curious if it introduces too much anti-aliasing, especially with HD video.

This software looks like a valuable addition to my amateur video toolkit! I could have used this to fix some video when I was trying to film footage from a moving chase car a few months ago.

Looks really cool! I just may have to buy it.

Looks interesting, funny thing is I shot some video recently that would benefit from some stability :)

Nice- does it work with the new iMovie?

Wow! The example videos on their website are really impressive, given the pretty-low pricetag of this piece of software. I have tons of footage that was either shot without a tripod or shot on old media and transferred to digital, and this application can fix both. UPDATE: It did a great job on a few test movies I stabilized. However, so far, it has crashed every time I try to export. I really want to get this software, but crashing while demoing is a Bad Thingâ„¢.

I didn't know such an application existed.

This looks like a great fix for all the movies I've taken with my little digicam that's impossible to keep steady.

Until I can afford a steadicam rig, this looks like a handy substitute!

Bloody awesome!

The developer has added some new features that are extremely useful for videos that are unstable due to their age. iStabilize was originally designed for video shot with a shaky camera. The problem of jitter in old videos is related, but there are some fundamental differences. The solution of the stabilization problem is not unique. This isn't an issue for many videos because all that really matters is to find a solution that appears smooth. One case in which it does matter is when you have an old video that has text on the screen (for example, the score of a football game). In this case, a stabilization algorithm will find a smooth solution, but the text may slowly meander around on the screen. The new features in iStabilize take advantage of known aspects of the video to make the solution unique. One of these is to key in on the black strips on both sides of the video. These can be used to perfectly remove side-to-side shake. I have gotten amazing results using this feature. Another common problem in old videos is a small vertical vibration. This problem can also be eliminated very effectively. The other new feature allows manual adjustment of the position of an individual frame. This is useful when there are only a small number of frames out of place (sporadic jitter or bouncing). These new features are a godsend if you are trying to restore old videos. They can turn an unwatchable video into something very nice. If you are interested in these new features, you will have to request them from the developer. They are not yet available in the regular version of iStabilize.

This software is fantastic and the developer is very helpful and receptive to suggestions. I have used it to obtain results that are just as impressive as the samples on the iStabilize web site. I have applied it to stabilize videos that were filmed with a shaky camera and to restore videos that are jittery due to their age. The performance of iStabilize has been exceptional for both applications. In a previous review, I posted a concern regarding problems in connection with iDVD. I have determined that the problem was system related. It went away after extensive system maintenance. It was merely a coincidence that the problem occurred when using videos processed with iStabilize.

Wow, V2 is a whole lot more user friendly! I can now, scrub the video, use FCP JKL and io for shuttle and in out setting points. The new tracker is very acurate and seems to be just as fast as v1. If you need stabilization this is the easiest and cheapest solution you will find. I am looking forward to being able to stabilize 24p 16:9 footage, but thats not my bread and butter work, 60i NTSC is, and Istab works like a charm. I am so happy with the new user interface, it makes working in istab so much smoother. Maybe someone at Apple ought to talk with this guy and make this built in to FCP, that would rock.

Wow, V2 is a whole lot more user friendly! I can now, scrub the video, use FCP JKL and io for shuttle and in out setting points. The new tracker is very acurate and seems to be just as fast as v1. If you need stabilization this is the easiest and cheapest solution you will find. I am looking forward to being able to stabilize 24p 16:9 footage, but thats not my bread and butter work, 60i NTSC is, and Istab works like a charm. I am so happy with the new user interface, it makes working in istab so much smoother. Maybe someone at Apple ought to talk with this guy and make this built in to FCP, that would rock.

One thing-way too much money for this meg and a half app. WAY too much

I was hoping and praying 2d3 would release their Steadymove for the Mac platform. At $99 I thought that the results that they were getting were really nice. But alas, they don't seem to have any plans to port their app to the mac. I downloaded the demo for istabilize and was impressed with the speed and ease of use of this app. I could Use high end apps for stabilizing, like commotion pro or AE 6, but to do the same thing as istabilize, would take about 3 to 4x longer. Once you account for setting it up, loading the footage, manually finding tracking points, then tracking and all the rest.. for 99% of the shots it is not worth the extra effort. The Author of this app is open to suggestions and responsive to answering email. I am looking forward to new features that will make this app better and easier to use. Considering the competition this app is very reasonably priced. Given some time to blossom, this will be a great tool in any video editors toolkit.