360 Camera Software and Platforms

Magix Movie Edit Pro Plus 2018 can stitch 360 videos in realtime

Magix Movie Edit Pro Plus 2018 realtime 360 video stitching
Magix Movie Edit Pro Plus 2018 realtime 360 video stitching

Magix Movie Edit Pro Plus 2018 has realtime 360 video stitching, among other features for 360 video editing.

One of the more tedious tasks for 360 videos is stitching.  Almost all 360 cameras have videos that are unstitched, i.e., they consist of circular fisheye videos, most commonly two circular fisheyes in one file, which cannot be viewed on a 360 player.  To be viewable on Facebook, YouTube, and others, the video must first be stitched into the standard equirectangular format:

360 video stitching from double fisheye to standard equirectangular
360 video stitching from double fisheye to standard equirectangular

Depending on the 360 camera and the resolution and length of your video, stitching can usually take a few minutes to several hours.  Magix Movie Edit Pro Plus 2018, however, can stitch 360 videos in realtime.  This is a feature that was introduced in Magix Video Pro X, Magix’s video editor for professionals.  Now, the feature has also been added to Magix Movie Edit Pro Plus 2018 as well!  Interestingly enough, the Magix website doesn’t mention this feature yet.

The stitching works on any side-by-side double fisheye file, which is the most common unstitched format for consumer 360 cameras.  There are also presets for Samsung Gear 360, LG 360 Cam, and Ricoh Theta.  You can change the angle (the field of view of each lens), rotation, aspect ratio, or alignment.

The stitching is instantaneous, which is remarkable.  However, one issue is that there is a slight darkening along the stitch line, similar to vignetting.  Hopefully Magix can fix this issue.

Besides realtime 360 video stitching, Magix has other 360 video editing features such as picture-in-picture, and converting 360 video into a conventional 16:9 non-360 video.   Check out this tutorial for animating text within a 360 video (this tutorial was on 2017 but the steps are similar for 2018):

You can download a trial version of Magix here.

 

 

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Mic Ty

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  • Have you tried it with any 5.7 files from the Virb 360? Users seem to be looking for some alternative stitching and editing solutions for that camera.

    • Hi Bill. Virb 360 unstitched files are split into two separate circular fisheye files. Magix can only stitch double fisheye files, so it cannot stitch Virb files. I think Pinnacle Ultimate may be able to, but I don’t have it.

      Best regards,
      Mic

      • That’s interesting. Did not know that there were different types of “raw” 360 files. What are some of the current cameras that it should work with?

  • Interestingly enough, and although I can understand why, I was surprised to find out that the software is unable to stitch the video from the Gear 360 without the purchase of an H.265 codec add-on.

    • Oh yes I should have mentioned that. I don’t know why but they charge extra for H.265. Thanks Rich!

      Best regards,
      Mic

  • Does anyone know, if this software can output a 360VR video from a 360 stills photo?
    I want to show my 360°panoramas as “true” video, just adding a slow rotation, titles and crossfades from one to the next panorama.

    • Hi Sabin yes you can do those with Magix: import a photo into a video, use the new 360 scene rotation with keyframing to add slow rotations, add 360 titles that won’t be distorted, and add crossfades as transitions.

      Best regards,
      Mic

  • Hi Mic and All,

    I got Magix to fix crooked horizons and as an alternative stitch method for my gear 360s (got both the 16 and 17). Horizon adjustment works fine, although takes forever to render (actually longer with GPU assist than without hardware acceleration). The stitching, however, doesn’t work well. When trying to stitch either of the gear 360 produced videos, there’s a sliver of black where the seam should be. Curiously, stitching works fine for videos made with an LG 360, but that doesnt see much use anymore.
    Any ideas about where I can look to fix the seam black hole?
    Or any tips on improving performance / hardware acceleration?
    Thanks!

    Oleksandr