Tips And Tricks | The Don's Craptastic World

7Sep/0947

Fraps & VirtualDub: How to save disk space and enjoy good quality, small file size HD video clips

VirtualDub & Fraps settings

The biggest problem most of us face while recording gameplay clips with Fraps is its disk space usage. Fraps records everything uncompressed, continuously (free version is limited to 30 sec.) and sequential. Meaning from start till stop the "whole" clip is split into single 4GB files (For FAT32 filesystem user convenience).

The length of a single 4 GB clip depends on the resolution and the in-game scene you record it in. For example, for me a 4 GB clip has about 90 sec. worth of gameplay in 1920x1200 resolution.

Because of this uncompressed real-time recording your frame-rates drops significantly while playing. There is NO way to keep up 40+fps with Fraps running unless you have one hell of a monster system.

Imagine what happens when you want to capture a 30+ min gameplay clip. Either you buy yourself a Terabyte HDD or you use a very simple trick: recording in half-size, upscaling and sharpening. Read the How-To guide!

Filed under: Software, Tips and Tricks Continue reading

5Sep/0917

How to fix the video lag in Firefox!

firefox Lately my video (HD) playbacks in YouTube seemed to be lagging a LOT! I wondered why. I thought it would be me and my years old OS or perhaps even somehow my pc.

But no it wasn't. The lag was caused by Firefox's session saving feature. A simple and fast change in it and "poof" went the lag.

Open Firefox and type in "about:config" (without the ") in the Address Bar and hit Enter.
Type in "session" in the "Filter" line at the top of the list.
Find “browser.sessionstore.interval” and double click it. The 10000 milliseconds (equals 10 seconds) is the interval in which Firefox keeps saving your session in case of a crash; same amount of time between video lags.
Change it to something different. 120000 equals 2 minutes, 300000 equals 5 minutes or something else you desire. I went with 600000 (10 minutes), because I don’t particularly care about session saving.

Filed under: Software, Tips and Tricks 17 Comments

30Aug/090

Using Firefox 3.x? Speed it up by vacuuming its SQLite database!

Firefox Recently I stumbled onto some tips how to speed up ones Firefox. Firefox, since the version 3, uses a SQLite database for various tasks such as storing bookmarks, histories, site specific preferences and backups.

Over time it's get filled up with unnecessary and old info if you want, and there's a simple method to ditch those useless info and speed up your Firefox considerably, or like most of the guides say to "vacuum" it.

Use it once in a while, I've seen an improvement on my Firefox since I used it.

Go to "Tools" -> "Error Console"

Paste this in the "Code" text box:

Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL("VACUUM");

Press enter or click "evaluate"
Your Firefox will freeze for a short time, just wait
Enjoy your speed up Firefox!

Filed under: Internet, Software, Tips and Tricks No Comments

12Aug/090

Improve your search results with Google’s new Caffeine Sandbox!

A few days ago, Google released a new search engine infrastructure. Although you'll see nothing on the surface, because according to Google it operates "under the hood".

Yet deep down it DOES work differently and it most certainly delivers the promised improved search speed and better search results.

What does better mean? Well that's up to everybodys point of view, for me at least the newly structured search results are in fact way better structured than the old ones.

So without further ado, go on and test the new infrastructure: http://www2.sandbox.google.com

PS: Since it's in beta testing stage expect the new search engine to be down occasionally!

Filed under: Internet, Tips and Tricks, Web Services No Comments

1Mar/0989

VirtualDub 720p HD settings for YouTube! [Good quality, small file size]

I often record gameplay clips from video games I'm playing with FRAPS. Usually in 1920x1080 resolution depending on the game and the FPS I get with FRAPS running. For transcoding the raw footage to something bearable to upload I usually use only VirtualDub.

Lately I've experimented with settings, and I think I found some good ones. Good video and sound quality with small file size were my goals. I think roughly 100 mb for a 5 min. clip and about 300mb for the full 10 min. in full 720p HD quality is awesome.

I'm still experimenting with sound compression but I think with 192 kb/s AC-3 ACM I have a good start.

Please bear in mind that the higher your resolution is the bigger your file size will be and vice versa. Those 100 mb respectively 300 mb are based on my 1920x1080 resolution!

This guide is intended for 16:10 and 16:9 resolutions. If you're playing on a 4:3 resolution, do not resize down to 1280*720p without maintaining aspect ratio, because the end-result will otherwise look over-stretched/-squeezed.

My settings for VirtualDub are in the picture below. If you want a very detailed explanation what each option does, check this out!

By the way, you have to have the H.264 codec installed to get it working. Download and install the latest VFW-version build here. PAY attention which version you're downloading, x86 (=32bit) or x86_64 (=64bit).

A warning about the Option "Multithreading" -> "Threads" don't set it higher than [# of your CPU Cores * 1.5] because then your whole system will start chugging. For example a Core 2 Duo would be 2 Cores * 1.5 = 3, a Q9550 would be 4 Cores * 1.5 = 6 and an AMD Phenom II X3 would be 3 Cores * 1.5 = 4.5 4.

This is by no means a guarantee that it will or will not work on your system. Each system, its components and its software are unique. You'll probably have to experiment a bit on your own. But those mentioned numbers are a good start.

It also might be necessary for you to adjust the audio volume to your liking. I have -10 dB, because the sound I record is terribad. My onboard sound sucks, period. Some people also experience asynchronous sound, here's how you can fix it.

On a side note: When you have uploaded your clip on YouTube and YouTube processed it the quality then will be lowered again. There's nothing you or I can do about that, it's up to YouTube.

The whole tutorial is also available on YouTube as a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9XOgnaJ_Hs

A few links to my own HD clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxijbXfIs4A&hd=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yt35f2WFFY&hd=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe4jCQ8zzz0&hd=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNLlobJbrm8&hd=1

Addendum 16.September 2009: Enabling GPU acceleration
Since version 1.9.4 it is possible to use the GPUs processing power (if your GPU supports it, which most modern GPUs do) as part of whole the transcoding process. This way you can speed up the transcoding process significantly (depending on your compression settings!).

On my computer this cut my transcoding time from an average 1h for a 10 min. clip down to some 40-ish minutes. Under "Options" -> "Preferences" enable "3D accel".

Addendum 23.10.2009: Crashes during encoding
There's currently a problem causing VirtualDub 1.9.4/5/6/7/8/9 to crash under Windows 7 while encoding sometimes. The culprit is 3D accel! Turn it off under "Preferences" -> "3D accel" and enjoy VirtualDub once again!

Addendum 16.05.2010: Option "3d accel" slowing down encoding
I've been getting mixed messages. Apparently using "3d accel" causes it to render slower than usual on some systems. I can confirm that. With 3d accel turned on, a 10min video takes about 1 hour 10-20 minutes, while turned off it takes about 1 hour max. You'll have to experiment on your system!

And if you are running on a multicore cpu, don't forget to enable threading via "Option" -> "Preferences" -> set "Threading" to 1!

Update 27.01.2011:
Updated Setting Screenshot

Filed under: Software, Tips and Tricks 89 Comments

20Feb/090

Say NAY to Key loggers, Trojans, Viruses, Worms 'n more!

red-cross

It never cases to amaze me how revealing and careless people are going on about on the internet. I mean nowadays where Key loggers, Worms, Virus and whatnot are as standard as your daily breakfast.

My dad, again for the umpteenth time, got infected with yet another Worm, this time it was, how could it be different, the Conficker. Of course he keeps his computer up-to-date, his Anti-Virus not so much. And on top of that he uses Internet Explorer.

Don't get me wrong, I did like the Internet Explorer once upon a time when I was just another kid starting out on the internet. Since then I went from Internet Explorer to Netscape, did a migration to Opera and finally found my home in Mozilla, later Firefox.

USE FIREFOX! Even though you have to get used to a totally different UI if you are switching from IE or Opera, it's well worth it in the long run. And here are 2 reasons why:

1. NoScript
2. AdBlock

These 2 addons coupled with Avira-Antivir , and if you really are paranoid, you can trow in Sandboxie, and trust me you are 98% on the safe side.

Of course there always IS and always WILL be a risk of catching a Virus, Key logger, Trojan. There's no 100% guarantee!

So folks, remember, use Firefox, use NoScript, AdBlock, Avira-Antivir and Sandboxie, and you really never have to worry again.

When I play WoW, I often surf the official boards. Occasionally there's some idiot posting Key logger links. By now the fear and paranoia on these boards have risen to such levels where people simply refuse to check out any links they don't know. A good idea indeed, but flawed nevertheless. Almost every link posted there contains useful information. Very, very rarely is it a key logger. Yet the damage of a few have jump started the fears of thousands.

I for one don't have to worry. I click any link I want and never catch anything. My NoScript blocks any script, by standard, unless I specifically allow them to run. Sure I have to spend a little extra time figuring out what this script is and what it does, but it's well worth the trade-off I get in security.

My AdBlock blocks ads, period. No Ads, I don't see any Ads, EVER. Not so long ago, there was a Key logger being distributed simply by an Ad-banner. I don't have to worry about it. Of course it must be said that some awesome and useful sites are financed purely through advertisement. It hurts them if you block all their ads!

I really do believe with the 5 tools mentioned above you are on the safest side possible without compromising too much.

So long, Don Salva

Addendum:
I've been getting e-mails with folks saying a firewall software is missing. I apologize. Let me clarify: If you have a modern hardware router there's no need for a software firewall as there already is one integrated in good, modern routers (I'm not talking about ancient ones, like from 1980 or so).

A firewall software is only necessary if you are paranoid and have the need of a illusory "double security" or if you have no router and are connecting direct to the internet via your personal computer with nothing in between your pc and the internet.

Filed under: Security, Software, Tips and Tricks No Comments