Post subject: Recording woes, please help!
Joined: 8/15/2020
Posts: 10
Hi again folks.. really struggling to get a few things sorted out. I'm needing to record using FFmpeg as the AVI writer splits every 2gb which isn't ideal for what I'm doing. However when I use the FFmpeg writer, the video quality is absolutely horrible. To fix it, I can resize x4 when selecting the FFmpeg writer, which produces a better video. However doing so makes the video dump go really slow, 400% speed is now more like 100%. Is there any way to just get a good quality video in one file, without having to rewatch every second of what I've already done? arghhh
Joined: 8/15/2020
Posts: 10
Alternatively, the reason I'm not using AVI writer is that at each split I'm losing audio at the very end of each split. If there's a way around this, that would be an adequate fix too. Thank you so much for anyone who can assist, I'm going crazy over here! :p
Editor, Player (69)
Joined: 6/22/2005
Posts: 1050
Which system are you trying to dump (NES, Genesis, etc.)?
Current Projects: TAS: Wizards & Warriors III.
Joined: 8/15/2020
Posts: 10
Thanks for the reply, dumping SNES
Editor, Player (69)
Joined: 6/22/2005
Posts: 1050
Some more questions
  • Which game is it?
  • Which codec are you using for AVI dumps?
  • Are you using the BizHawk settings from the encoding guide?
Current Projects: TAS: Wizards & Warriors III.
Joined: 8/15/2020
Posts: 10
The game is Gradius III Codec is AVI Lossless FFV1 And yes I've been using the Encoding Guide
Editor, Player (69)
Joined: 6/22/2005
Posts: 1050
What settings are you using with that codec? Have you tried the CamStudio or Lagarith codecs linked here?
Current Projects: TAS: Wizards & Warriors III.
Joined: 8/15/2020
Posts: 10
I may be in over my head here sorry - is Codec the video format? I haven't tried Lagarith or CamStudio. I just downloaded Lagarith and can't work out where it's installed to. Sorry I'm a bit slow on this front
Editor, Player (69)
Joined: 6/22/2005
Posts: 1050
If you go to File > AVI/WAV > Config and Record AVI/WAV, then select AVI writer and click OK, the next dialog should let you choose the codec from the Compressor list. Do you see Lagarith there? If not, what options do you have? Some of the codecs also let you change settings via the Configure button. If you're using the FFmpeg writer, what does the Command box say for the format that you chose (I assume this is AVI Lossless FFV1)?
Current Projects: TAS: Wizards & Warriors III.
Joined: 8/15/2020
Posts: 10
I see; I was looking for Lagarith in FFmpeg writer only. I've found it in AVI writer and selected it, changing the configurations as recommended in the FAQs. This still gives me the error of losing my last second or so of each clip, with a new addition of buggy video skipping throughout. However I still can't find CamStudio in the same area as Lagarith? For the FFmpeg writer, the Command box for AVI Lossless FFV1 is this: -c:a pcm_s16le -c:v ffv1 -pix_fmt bgr0 -level 1 -g 1 -coder 1 -context 1 -f avi
MarbleousDave
He/Him
Player (13)
Joined: 9/12/2009
Posts: 1559
I usually use MP4 output for encodes.
Zinfidel
He/Him
Player (205)
Joined: 11/21/2019
Posts: 247
Location: Washington
A fast and dirty custom ffmpeg command you could use:
-c:v libx264 -preset fast -crf 20 -coder 1 -movflags +faststart -g 30 -bf 2 -c:a aac -b:a 384k -profile:a aac_low -pix_fmt yuv420p -f mp4
This is based on YouTube's recommended settings for uploads. The parts you want to mess with are the preset and most importantly the crf arguments. crf will affect the quality of the output video. 20 is pretty good and is what is used by the TASVideos official encoding package for SD encodes. A value of 17 is visually "lossless", though a lower value can be valid to ensure a YouTube re-encode doesn't lose too much info. Adjust the preset argument to something that gives you an acceptable encoding time. Check out this document for more info on valid options here. If you need actually lossless output, you could use this:
-c:v libx264 -preset fast -crf 0 -coder 1 -movflags +faststart -g 30 -bf 2 -c:a copy -pix_fmt + -f mp4
edit: These settings are really only if you just need to dump video to watch later and need to avoid the 2gb split problem. Using lossless x264 video as input for later video processing is a bad idea and will be very slow and troublesome.
RGL
Joined: 7/13/2017
Posts: 57
I just use Open Broadcast Software (OBS) and record the bizhawk window.