Encoding | The Don's Craptastic World

14Dec/110

Intel Core i7-2600K and encoding with VirtualDub

A couple weeks ago I retired my old 3GHz overclocked Q6600 and upgraded to Intel's new flagship CPU i7 2600k. Now before I start writing up my very short opinion and review, those are the settings I still use in VirtualDub. Virtually nothing has changed. Even after more than 2 years, those settings are still the best in terms of "filesize:video quality"-ratio.

Encoding speed is measured in (average) frames per second. The more, the merrier. It's also important to know that there are, what I like to call, "motion-heavy" and "motion-light" scenes.

This is, like the name suggests, a scene in-game (or anywhere for that matter, but I'm talking video gameplay specifically here) in where there's either very much motion / moving happening on the screen or the opposite. Why is that important you ask?

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3Jul/115

VirtualDub: How to use mkv, mp4, flv, mov and other file formats with VirtualDub

A lot of people keep asking me how to use VirtualDub with other files formats besides .avi. Like mkv, flv, mp4 or even .mov.

VirtualDub, as stand-alone, cannot handle mkv, mp4, flv, mov or any other files besides avi. You need a plugin or plugins to load anything else besides avi. Mind you, VirtualDub still only can and will save in avi!

There are a couple plugins that can handle loading different files formats. For me personally only 2 come to mind:

There's my personal favorite: Ffmpeg Input Driver which can handle 31 different file formats according to the plugin developer. Among them are the popular mkv, mp4, flv, mov, rm, rvmb, wmv and ts. The plugin is based, as the name may suggest, of the ffmpeg libraries. And if something doesn't work, remember, this is a plugin still in early development stage as of 03.07.2011.

Then there's fccHandler, which can handle mpeg-2, flv, wmv, fli, flc, mkv. However fccHandler also offers the AC-3 ACM codec, which I use for sound in my videos.

Download whichever plugin you prefer, and unpack it into your VirtualDub plugin folder.

Remember however that those plugins only allow you to load said file formats. You cannot save those loaded files in mp4, mov, flv, only in avi.

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24Aug/100

VirtualDub: How to prevent asynchronous sound

According to some comments from here, here and in some of the Emails I get people sometime experience asynchronous sound. As I have speculated here, this is most likely due the CPU being overwhelmed with the whole encoding process. Let me try to explain, and bear in mind, this is just speculation based on nothing but my own suspicions.

When you set the threads in the x264 codec to fully utilize your CPU, meaning all cores, and then some, you make sure the CPU is working at its maximum capacity just for video processing.

If you then add audio to the pile, the CPU just hasn't got any resources to spare, and if it does, it does a miserable job, thus resulting in lag which translates in asynchronous sound.

If that is the case, lowering the numbers of threads in the x264 codec should fix it. This way you can have both audio and video encoding in one go. I haven't tried this method, because I employ a different solution.

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24Aug/102

VirtualDub: How to split and merge video files

Folks have been asking me here, here and on my YouTube channel how to split a single movie file into multiple ones, and how to merge multiple ones into a single movie.

I made 2 How-to clips way back then, but somehow forgot to include them in my previous tutorials, so here they are:

How To: Split a single video file into multiple video files with VirtualDub

How To: Add multiple video files into one single one with VirtualDub

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21Aug/100

VirtualDub: How to watermark your videos

There are many folks out there who like to watermark their videos in all possible kind of ways. Some like to use huge introductions and others, like me, are satisfied with small but noninvasive logos.

Before we start, you'll obviously need VirtualDub, and in this case for the watermark to work, the ffdshow codec. Yes, I'm afraid, yet another codec. You need this codec, because it provides filters we need, such as implanting the logo into a video. The ffdshow codec installs a plugin called "ffvdub.vdf" into your VirtualDub plugin directory. This plugin allows the access to ffdshows filters via VirtualDub.

VirtualDub has it's own internal logo filter, but the problem with this filter is it leaves a mess after encoding. The logo is barely readable, it's pixellated and all other sort of issues. Whereas the ffdshow filter leave a clear, readable logo instead.

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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!

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