Neat Video 5 is here to give you more resources to target video imperfections. We’ve already talked about the new Flicker Reduction tool in a previous post, so the next big thing we want to explain is the addition of another new feature called the Jitter of Details tool. This tool has been included to help deal with another video imperfection known as “jitter.”

What is “jitter”?

It’s a little tricky to describe, but essentially “jitter” refers to the appearance of fine, trembling distortions affecting adjacent objects in a shot. It’s often visible around the borders of separate objects which makes it appear as if there is some hot air present between the viewer and the fine details or small objects of the scene. These details and objects appear to be trembling in place with a so-called “heat haze” effect.

Jitter of details is an artifact of post-processing, which is usually introduced by video compression and/or poor noise reduction. In some cases, jitter may be caused by an inaccurate noise profile in Neat Video itself. So, it’s important to spend time perfecting your noise profiling skills to avoid this phenomenon.
 
It goes without saying that this is a less-than-desirable manifestation to appear in your shot. The good news is the Jitter of Details tool within Neat Video 5 is a great new weapon in the fight for perfect video quality and we’ll explain how it works in this article.

How to use it:

Jitter of Details is found in the noise filter settings. Prepare your noise profile as normal and then navigate to the noise filter settings.

Click temporal filter and click “Jitter of Details” to toggle the dropdown menu to reveal the slider which controls the jitter threshold.

Increase the threshold to reduce the appearance of jitter. As you adjust the threshold slider, monitor the preview to achieve the best level of filtration to reduce the appearance of jitter in fine details without creating unwanted side effects.

If you increase this value too far you will risk losing some fine details and you may create some unnatural residual noise. On the other hand, setting the value for Jitter of Details too low can lead to a loss of sharpness without eliminating the jitter completely. So, make fine adjustments and try to achieve a balanced result.

Tips:
If you still find jitter in the processed video, you may need to get more aggressive. First, try maxing out the temporal filter threshold to 300%. If that doesn’t do the trick, click the checkbox below the threshold to enable Extended Filtration. This will apply more aggressive filtration to Jitter of Details. Note that doing this may slow down processing speeds.

If you’re still not satisfied with the result, your noise profile may not be accurate enough. Try rebuilding the noise profile – remember to choose a frame in the clip with the most noise. Also, remember to select a frame at least 5 frames from the beginning of the clip since the temporal filter analyses several frames at a time. If you choose a frame at the very beginning of a clip, the temporal filter will have less data to work with.

With Neat Video 5, video keeps getting better!

Jitter of Details joins a bunch of features and tools in Neat Video 5, which will help bring you closer to perfect video. Check out our other articles for more explanations, tips and advice. You can also check out the Neat Video User guide for in-depth information to get the most out of Neat Video 5.