transcoding « The Don's Craptastic WorldThe Don's Craptastic World

14Dec/112

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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24Aug/101

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/104

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/0949

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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1Mar/0997

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.

Edit 30.05.2012 - FFDSHOW Resize Filter:
There's an external filter, a better one in my opinion, available to use with VirtualDub. It's calle ffdshow and it provides amongst other things resize, watermark and sharpen functions. Here's the guide.

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 30.05.2012:
Added link to ffdshow filter guide.

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