Video Judder - What It Is and How to Avoid It

This tutorial explains what video judder is; the causes of judder; and how to avoid it.

[@christopherverkuilen8388]

I've been banging my head against a wall trying to figure this out! Thank you very much for taking the time!

[@filmtrek3933]

This is huge....I have had many shooters I have worked with on multiple camera shoots where I could not isolate what was causing this problem when I got to the footage in the editing room....very thorough and easy to understand. You sir, are a very good instructor.

[@tech_progress]

Excellent video! This is something I have been experimenting with in my videos and haven't quite perfected yet. You have the best explanation I have seen to date. One factor I never considered was resolution. Thank you very much. I'm now a subscriber. Keep up the good work!

[@tarababcock]

This is amazingly thorough! Thank you!

[@jeremyhardy996]

THANK YOU - this is exactly what I was looking for. Well presented.

[@VocalMike]

Thank you so much for making this tutorial. I was really confused as to why I was getting judder in my video and now I understand. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.

[@afti03]

Very helpful! i was banging my head against my phone, trying to capture some judder free video with it when doing reveal shots and panning shots. Using the slowest speed possible, using my own hands, in 4-5 takes i was able to get THE smoothest, judder free, nicely flowing footage i have ever taken with this phone. I watched it 5 times already and i can't get enough of it, it's a simple pan shot, but it looks so damn good! thanks Mark!

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

Your welcome. It's nice to understand "the science" so that "the practice" works.

[@GastonShutters]

excellent info my friend. This is a topic not widely discussed here in KZbin and you have done a great job at explaining it

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

Thanks. I actually try very hard to make things that I "tutorial" clear. It is gratifying when it works.

[@WandererAndClicker]

Thanks for information, great tutorial , very crisp 👏🙏

[@ginotarabotto]

Gold tutorial. Thank you!

[@CassidyHansen]

Thank you for this video. Judder had been a bit of a mystery. Really appreciate it!

[@theadambar]

Excellent video!

[@ians3586]

Thank you! I've been having problems with judder and didn't realize how pan angle, frame rate, and resolution impacted it. I have a much better understanding now and will be putting the principles into practice.

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

I'm glad to have helped. Judder was a real issue for me but now I think I have a grip on it.

[@400080vikkash]

Thank you for perfect explanation.

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

Vik - Thank you very much,

[@thomaslegg8487]

Best explanation on judder and panning speed on the web.

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

Thank you. I'm truly pleased as I do endeavor to put out quality information in a way that viewers can understand and use.

[@iSpike]

Great tips thank You 👍🏻

[@MrNobody-tz6cg]

i have been looking for this and finally found it thanks ...

[@colinhoward2200]

This is the most excellent video I have ever watched on this issue. You have saved me and are a lagend. I just thought it was my camera and / or lenses. Now I know it is just me. Thank you :)

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

Colin - Sorry to not respond sooner but thanks for your comments. It made my day.

[@colinhoward2200]

@@MarkAJaegerVideo You are welcome :)

[@slimyelow]

My case was easy. I was so concerned about judder I shot at 60 fps all day. Since I have decided to go from 1080p to 4k and reduce my focal length by more than half I can safely shoot at 24fps. - Also keeping the 180 degree shutter rule. Thanks for this great lecture !!

[@fromthebackseat4865]

Thank you mark! Great video.

[@miniatureface]

great thorough video thanks so much :)

[@chris8458]

Great Video, thanks a lot!

[@geigy]

Wow - thanks. I thought I knew it all in terms of the 180 rule. There is so much more to it.

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

Even though I have shot stills and video for a long time there is much to learn. I won't say I learn something on every shoot but it is almost completely true. Aspiration to high quality means that there is all the little stuff to learn. And it is the little stuff that makes the difference between bad, good, better and best.

[@ElizaATkaczMusic]

Oh thank you! Finally I understand what is happening

[@clancyrobertsFoC]

good video- great info

[@konotoasita]

Thanks! Best video about jitter problem.I subbscribed🙃

[@grzegorzporowinski]

Thank you for your time, really helpful! :)

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

'Thank you' is such a nice thing. Simple but nice. It, at least sometimes, makes the production effort worth it.

[@grzegorzporowinski]

@@MarkAJaegerVideo I will tell more, in my opinion, this is one of the most important video about filmmaking on YT. Seriously :) I'm really sad that I found this so late :)

[@evanlee93]

Very useful info, and I'm not even into videography! Glad to know why this happens in various movies and shows that I'm watching. Now I can properly critique them hehehe

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

Don't be too hard on the shooters. Sometimes judder is hard to avoid.

[@89cheese]

Thanks for the clear explanation. A lot of cinema movies have a lot of judder in panning scenes, is this a director choice or just limitation of used techniques?

[@eatsimplefood]

thanks

[@aldo.brustenghi]

Thankyou, hopefully I will be able do some smoother videos

[@sjmedia_official]

nice one

[@spl1949]

Wow. Great tutorial. A question though if I may. How do I figure out which Red camera is a close comparison to my Sony a7III? Thanks and keep up the good work.

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

If you go to Red.com, then top row "Cameras", then drop down list "DSMC2" you will see the overview specifications for the 4 DSMC2 camera bodies. Among the parameters are the sensor size and pixel pitch. Choose the body closest to your Sony specs and then you can use the RED app.

[@relaxingbliss]

Great video, just the info I needed, turns out I am moving to fast when panning and with a wrong shutter speed, Looks like I will have to pull up the nd filters :)

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

Daniel, Christopher, Film Trek, Tara, Tech Progress. Mihaly, ISpike, Ceves, Clancy, AN, Adam and Rajesh. - Thanks for your favorable comments. It is very meaningful to me that you like my work.

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

You may be able to reduce judder in post using stabilization in your NLE.

[@TheDIYFilmmaker]

Hi Mark, awesome tutorial. My conclusion: slow down :) One question: in case I have judder in my footage, would it fix it if I slow down speed in post or is it too late?

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

Indeed, keeping the pan rate slow helps avoid judder but it's not always the look someone wants. My understanding of judder being a timing issue between the frames per second vs the rate of pan drives me to think it can't be fixed by changing playback speed. However, I might be tempted to try Warp Stabilization (Premiere Pro) or similar, to see if some judder can be eliminated.

[@mihalydozsa2254]

Great work. Good explanation. But these days there is one more cause, and i think that is the main problem Three-two pull down for the 60hz screens. Before i realized this, i even tried 1degree/sec instead of the RED dragon 4K 16:9 calculated 3.1 (also with motorized setup), 4K 23,987fps 1/50shutter f1.4 , 50mm full frame and it was still juddery, then i tried the same speed 16mm apsc and gave up, i'm not going to be able to pan that slow.

[@DungarooTV]

Hi Mark, I’m a beginner and just want to make smooth cinematic family videos and noticed that panning often will have butter. So would the rule of thumb be to just pan horizontally as slow as possible, eg 7 seconds? I shoot in 4K 30 fps 1/60 shutter. Many thanks

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

Kevin, You don't mention what lens focal length you're using or how many degrees of pan you want but both are influential. I suggest you use the panning speed calculator from the RED website. Here's the link: Panning Speed. I suggest you shoot some pans at your house or some other convenient place and see what works with your setup and your goal for the "look". The "look" may dominate the choice for pan speed (for example - you might want a whip pan). Also, the content of the scene (foreground, mid-ground, and background) will influence whether judder is noticeable. No worries - You'll master this with some experimentation based on the science (resolution, frame rate, focal length, pan angle)

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

Isn't it nice that spell-check helped you out with "butter" instead of "judder"?

[@TaranVH]

I don't see how going from 1080p to 4K means you can pan faster. Even if you're shooting 1080p, you're still going to upscale it to fit on a 4K frame, and vice-versa. The size of the logical pixels doesn't matter if the final frame size is the same.

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

I suggest you go to RED.com -> "Learn" -> "tools" -> "panning speed". This calculator will allow you to change the parameters that affect judder. Resolution is one of those. With a little experimentation you can see the effects. Basically the number of pixels crossed in a pan affects judder. 8K will have 4 times the resolution (versus 2K) which avoids the "jumps" that manifest as judder. It's motion vs capture capability.

[@TaranVH]

@@MarkAJaegerVideo Oh, I think I know the problem. That is assuming that the SCALE has NOT been changed. If you assume that the frame SIZE is always the same because all videos are scaled to match, then resolution doesn't matter at all. They should communicate that better.

[@Matt658]

Hi there! I have a question please as your video is very informative. I got a Sony a80j OLED tv and it had a lot of the judder you talk about when i play movies. Do you know why that is and is there anything I could do to fix it? Thanks

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

Juddder is baked-in during image capture. There is not much that can be done about it within video editing. Even less can be done about it during playback (I know of no way to improve judder in playback). IMO it's not your TV if it actually is judder.

[@Matt658]

@@MarkAJaegerVideo thanks for your response. I found a way to eliminate the judder. I can turn on motion interpretation which I guess adds fake frames to smooth out the judder I see. The only thing is it adds artifacts to the movie because I guess it’s trying to add fake frames that weren’t there in the original content. I don’t see that judder in the movie theater.

[@JonPais]

@@Matt658 OLED TVs suffer from bad stutter because of their instantaneous response times. Stutter is not the same as judder.

[@thehoggattproject]

Is it possible that judder can be created by a faulty HDMI cable? For example, I'm recording externally and have tested 2 different high-speed cables which provided me with the same results. Judder. What's odd, is my camera screen shows smoother movement and/or less judder. I'm also wondering if this could just be an optical illusion, since I'm comparing results in real-time on a 2.5" vs a 5" screen. Thanks, enjoyed learning about all of this. Your video is very thorough!

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

From my understanding of judder the HDMI cabling to a second monitor or the normal on-camera monitor will have no effect on whether you get judder or not. It is a recording issue.

[@thehoggattproject]

@@MarkAJaegerVideoThat makes sense. The monitors are just tools to see the outcome of the recording and how they do that differ from one to another. If anything, I'd imagine seeing dropped frames, freezing and/or lag if the HDMI cable were the issue (which I have before with other cables). I'm looking forward to more testing to combat the judder. Thanks for your reply!

[@spl1949]

Another question. This may sound dumb but does panning only refer to horizontal movement? If I pan vertically up a tall building for example judder still is an issue? I assume it is but just wanted to ask. Thanks again.

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

The direction of pan (horizontal, diagonal, vertical or combinations) doesn't really matter. The prominence of the judder can change (how easy is it to see) can change depending on the background.

[@spl1949]

thanks again for your quick response

[@saMediaProductions]

I used 180 degree ,as I always do but still had bad judder and now I understand why !! many factors to take in consideration ...Now is there any fix in post ?

[@indierockweddingband]

Clips at the end still juddered. Could be KZbin though

[@NarWhat]

Probably because the video was uploaded at 30 fps instead of 60 so you couldn't see the difference >_>

[@Albinswede1]

@@NarWhat The video is uploaded @24fps but i don't know if this may cause judder in this video.

[@mbarupa]

The clips that are panned too fast are supposed to be, to show you how it improves. So for e.g. only the 24 second pan is nice in his first example at the end

[@bedoinuk]

My personal advice would be to avoid panning shots if you can. And if you can't, set your shutter accordingly and take your time.

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

More-or-less your advice about set your shutter accordingly and take your time (pan slowly) IS the essence of avoiding judder.

[@jameskennedy9474]

Brilliant breakdown, but I have one question..... how do I mop up the brains that have just leaked out of my ears after turning to mush!?

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

They say that pollution is mitigated by dilution. As such, I suggest application of medicinal alcohols to the mush problem. For example, the Scots have some lovely examples of Isle and Highland Whiskey's. If it doesn't fix the problem you will, at least, care less about it.

[@philsnewaddress]

In an analogue world where all video was either PAL or NTSC there was no judder no matter how the camera panned. One day a progressive TV will be able to match the timing of the myriad digital formats automatically. The transmission rate won't the issue and any judder will just be down to really low end cameras.

[@rajesh-mkd]

iPhone does all this automatically, why not in mirrorless?

[@J_HNP]

There is a fundamental principle that is ignored in this video explanation, which is also the reason why judder is still visible in all the end clips. Judder is exacerbated by the 3:2 pulldown method used to display 24fps footage over a 60hz display. Because 24fps doesn’t evenly divide into the 60hz refresh cycle, 6 additional frames must be created each second to display correctly (3:2)

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

The 3:2 pulldown problem is different from judder. If you don't like my explanation, go to RED.com and read theirs. Judder pre-dates video (it was present in the film era).

[@alancarter4525]

The judder, not only limited to pans, when using my drone, seem to be when the clips are put into an editor. The frame rates are all the same so that doesn’t seem to be the problem and I can find nobody that has such a bad experience as I’m having. I’m using an IOS app and maybe it’s the device I’m using to edit that is causing a fault as it is quite old.

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

I am not sure what you're seeing. Perhaps you can give a little more information about what you're seeing and under what conditions the defects appear.

[@J_HNP]

This is likely due to a mismatch in fps. Example: you shoot at 30fps and edit in a 24p timeline, or visa-versa. For drone shots, your best bet is to film at 30fps, using a 180deg shutter (or 1/60 speed), and edit in a 30fps timeline. Or, 60fps (if you want to slow it down in your editor), and edit in 30fps timeline. My recommendation is to void 24fps when possible, as this will always present judder issues. If you really want to shoot in 24fps, you’ll need to use speedwarp and optical flow effects to smooth the judder.

[@MrBillgonzo]

I was always under the impression that "judder" is an artifact of 3:2 pulldown and that "stutter" is the issue you are discussing. I can't seem to get a straight answer about this.

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

I am not aware of "stutter". My tutorial is aimed at understanding "judder". Judder is a well known phenomena.

[@arnelcomia2060]

Im so upset fir my sony x90h.but now i now🤔.but playing digital cooy in HDD with dts code bad.

[@BillAshtonNelo]

What is it when a person is walking back and forth on a static shot?

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

You need to explain your situation and result better. I do not understand "walking back and forth" vs "static shot".

[@danielduesentriebjunior]

I'm afraid but all examples stutter at 4K and 1080p. Sure it judders less when panning very slowly, but it looks still annoying. My laptop is relatively recent and has medium graphical power, so this should not be an issue. I keep searching for a solution that works. Maybe the problem is with KZbin introducing artefacts. Judder is a huge issue with clips on KZbin.

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

It is vital to understand that once judder is present it cannot be effectively edited out. One test - do you see what you call 'stutter' in scenes where there is no panning? If you do, it's not judder. It's your playback.

[@danielduesentriebjunior]

@@MarkAJaegerVideo I am referring to your video. All the pannings you show there have judder. There is not a single example without judder. I get smooth pannings myself only when recording at 60fps. 30fps is so so, 24, 25 and 50fps are awful. I am watching on a laptop with 60 Hertz refresh rate. It has an OLED screen which has a shorter reaction time than LCD screens.

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

@@danielduesentriebjunior You did not reply to my "test" above. I cannot diagnose your issue through KZbin but it is significant that, at normal frame rates (24-25-30), your video is "awful". Bottom line: If you follow the principles in my video judder should not be an issue. Problems you may be having with bandwidth, computer, et al are not going to be cured by those principles.

[@danielduesentriebjunior]

@@MarkAJaegerVideo I said above that my laptop is recent/ no prob with bandwith. I see the problem in all your pannings as said, and explicitly not in steady shots. The funny thing is that I find other pannings on KZbin which look smooth. Usually they have been shot at 60fps.

[@danielduesentriebjunior]

You may watch my only KZbin video about a walk in Assisi. The pans there should be smooth (at least when I watch it). I get the impression that there are parameters affecting the appearance of how smooth a pan looks on KZbin which are not understood properly. It may be due to KZbin compression/decompression issues.

[@carlborgen]

Wow i didn’t know stops was a unit-less measure. Always thought it was relative to light,

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

If you are a photographer or a videographer it is hard for me to appreciate your surprise that stops are unit-less. You may have missed a big one in your training. If you're new to the field then you get a pass for new understanding. Shutter speeds (1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, 4, 8), filters (1 stop, 2 stop), and ISO (100, 200, 400) are all graduated in stops. It's powers of two but it's not always obvious. For example: lens numbering (1.4 ->2 -> 2.8->, 4->, 5.6, etc) is stops but the numbers are not as easy as shutter speed or ISO. Almost everything dealing with light in the photo/video is expressed in stops.

[@carlborgen]

​@@MarkAJaegerVideo Right, quess I've mostly already set fps, shutterangle and aperture. Then the rest of the exposure is done via variable nds and iso, monitored with waveforms. So I've never really had any use for the concept of stops. But I can imagine that it is useful for photographers that need an easy way to calculate consistency between settings.

[@thatsamuellu]

My math teacher said:"Told ya!"

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

You can say to your math teacher: "the guy that made the video agrees". Judder exists or does not in the mathematical relationship between motion and capture. BTW: Your comment made my wife laugh. Thanks.

[@thatsamuellu]

@@MarkAJaegerVideo My math teacher replied: "You're welcome, the pleasure is always hers."

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

Knowledge is Power. I pursue knowledge and I am willing to share. This is not a bad thing for one's life.

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

BTW: Nihongin desuka? Doko desuka?

[@saulgoodman2018]

And KZbin compression is making this video judder.

[@MarkAJaegerVideo]

Judder and compression artifacts are not the same at all. Watch the video again.

[@saulgoodman2018]

@@MarkAJaegerVideo What ever it's called, when you move you hands, it looks weird.

[@JonPais]

The higher contrast and brightness of HDR displays increases the appearance of judder exponentially.