Tech Support Fort - Questions, Comments and Codecs (READ THE OP!)

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Tech Support Fort - Questions, Comments and Codecs (READ THE OP!)

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Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

While that may work, I do not recommend needless conversions to RGB and back into YV12, it'll degrade your colors. Once is probably not gonna be noticeable, but for the future, you want to either:
- Record in RGB, do all your edits in RGB, and only convert to YV12 at the end. (less chance to screw up)
- Or record in YV12, edit in YV12. (smaller raw filesize, also not ideal for pixel art stuff)

# ? Mar 16, 2014 12:28

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 14:28

Kaubocks: Apr 13, 2011

For some reason my Dxtory settings was recording with Lagarith set to YUY2 and I honestly don't know why. I went ahead and changed it to RBG, so this episode will be the last time I recorded in YUY2.

# ? Mar 16, 2014 17:15

ApplesandOranges: Jun 22, 2012; Thankee kindly.

Kind of a bit of a specific question, but while my Valkyrie Profile works fine for the most part, in battle scenes there's notable stuttering that I'm not quite sure how to fix.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kd7bon9slQ

Basically that happens.

If needed, my graphics settings are:

Edit: I've switched to P.E.Op S. 1.18, which helped, but still had the very occasional stuttering.

ApplesandOranges fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Mar 16, 2014

# ? Mar 16, 2014 17:30

dis astranagant: Dec 14, 2006

Your problem is probably something with your SPU plugin. VP's audio is notoriously hard to get right and a lot of things are timed off it.

# ? Mar 16, 2014 19:27

ApplesandOranges: Jun 22, 2012; Thankee kindly.

I think I got the fix, but that led to another dilemma.

Here's what the game looks like with P.E.Op S.:

And here it is with Pete's D3D:

The second configuration is sharper, but the first one runs smoother and has virtually no lag with the Eternal SPU plugin. If it came down to it I'd take performance over graphics, but is there some plugin or configuration or something I'm missing that solves both problems?

# ? Mar 17, 2014 01:24

dis astranagant: Dec 14, 2006

Set your stretching to "stretch to window size, keep aspect ratio"

# ? Mar 17, 2014 03:03

ApplesandOranges: Jun 22, 2012; Thankee kindly.

That would work except that for whatever reason the menus in the game aren't of the same scale, so they end up squashed.

I eventually kept the stretching, but limited the window to 320x224 (an odd resolution, but otherwise there are black bars on the top and bottom of the screen) and just resized it:

The first is a direct 200% resizing, the second is to a 640x480.

# ? Mar 17, 2014 04:09

dis astranagant: Dec 14, 2006

VP's menus are in 512x480 (a relic of the PSX's days as an SNES peripheral) while everything else is 320x240. Play windowed and it should pillarbox the menus automatically if you set the window to a multiple of 640x480.

dis astranagant fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Mar 17, 2014

# ? Mar 17, 2014 06:42

GreenBuckanneer: Sep 15, 2007

So I want to go into the streaming thing, I have some experience with uploading and streaming via OBS.

I notice some streamers have some cool overlay things like death counters or the ability to stream their face with a greenscreen behind them, what is that?

# ? Mar 18, 2014 01:59

Geemer: Nov 4, 2010

GreenBuckanneer posted:

The ability to stream their face with a greenscreen behind them, what is that?

A terrible idea! Don't do this, the whole LP subforum will poo poo on you because nobody wants to see your face.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 08:27

GreenBuckanneer: Sep 15, 2007

Geemer posted:

A terrible idea! Don't do this, the whole LP subforum will poo poo on you because nobody wants to see your face.

Well I won't be doing much LPs here, but it seems most of the more popular streamers do the whole face/greenscreen thing.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 22:48

judge reinhold: Jul 26, 2001

GreenBuckanneer posted:

Well I won't be doing much LPs here, but it seems most of the more popular streamers do the whole face/greenscreen thing.

OBS supports using chroma keys for webcam footage and the streamers have a green sheet behind them and it shows up as transparent. Plenty of unpopular streamers also have the face cam, too.

The death counter I'm sure there's some zany program or plugin and they just tap a key and increment a counter or whatever. OBS is pretty good in what you can make it do, the only limit is your imagination and also licensing compliance.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 22:57

signalnoise: Mar 7, 2008; i was told my old av was distracting

I have a Blue Yeti and Windows8.1, what are some good settings? My friends are telling me that it picks up too much background noise and my voice sounds "hollow". How do I get a full-sounding voice and less background noise? So far the best way I've found is to turn down the mic boost in windows and turn up the gain on the mic itself. I know basically nothing about microphones.

# ? Mar 19, 2014 12:54

frozentreasure: Nov 13, 2012; ~

Start by posting a sample of how you sound with your current settings. The issue is more likely the physical space you're recording in.

# ? Mar 19, 2014 13:09

Zeratanis: Jun 16, 2009; That's kind of a weird thought isn't it?

My mic doesn't have a gain knob but in the windows settings it's set to 35-40% and I have had no complaints. Just make sure that if you're on skype you turn off the auto adjust feature or it'll bring the gain back up.

For something like a Yeti which is a pretty high powered mic, try 50-60% on the mic nob and 35% in Windows. Like frozentreaure mentioned though, it could also be the physical space.

# ? Mar 19, 2014 13:31

signalnoise: Mar 7, 2008; i was told my old av was distracting

http://signalnoise.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Mumbl.wav

That's on cardioid setting with mic gain at 100% and the level setting in windows set to 45%

Asked my buddy and he said he was talking about a very small amount of background noise but was making a big deal out of it because "it's there". Does sound a tiny bit hollow to me but upon reflection I think it's ok so possibly nevermind.

# ? Mar 19, 2014 13:37

Zeratanis: Jun 16, 2009; That's kind of a weird thought isn't it?

If that bugs him I wonder what he thinks of most headset mics. :v:

But turn the knob down 25-30% and see what that gets you. You could probably also move the mic a bit further away (1-3 inches) from you.

# ? Mar 19, 2014 13:50

Touchfuzzy: Dec 5, 2010

signalnoise posted:

http://signalnoise.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Mumbl.wav

That's on cardioid setting with mic gain at 100% and the level setting in windows set to 45%

Asked my buddy and he said he was talking about a very small amount of background noise but was making a big deal out of it because "it's there". Does sound a tiny bit hollow to me but upon reflection I think it's ok so possibly nevermind.

If you really want to experiment and spend a little cash, you could make a tiny makeshift audio booth for your mic to sit in...assuming you have a decent amount of desk space. Takes about only 3 or so sheets of foam, preferably acoustic but you can get, like, mattress foam or something. Put it one of those small fold-up laundry boxes or craft boxes by gluing/tacking the foam inside.

It's kinda stupid, but it works. If that's the case, though, I'd try finding a way to figure out that the space you're in is, indeed, a large contributor. Try putting a blanket over and around you and the mic, and see if that cancels some of the noise your buddy hears, or other such tests.

# ? Mar 19, 2014 14:10

slowbeef: Mar 15, 2005; Will Harvey hates you, and everything you stand for.; Pillbug

So I put a PS2 game in my PS3 and record off my Elgato.

Playing the original capture recording in WMP or the Elgato software itself, it looks totally fine.

I ran it through AVISynth and get this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA54ciXQQCA

Uh... what the hell did I do wrong? Script to follow:

code:

LoadPlugin("C:\Users\username\Downloads\ffms-2.17\ffms2.dll")
Import("C:\Users\username\Downloads\ffms-2.17\FFMS2.avsi")
video = FFVideoSource("E:\Capture Videos\My Great Game - My Great Capture - 2014-03-18 09-13-06.mp4",threads=1)
audio = FFAudioSource("E:\Capture Videos\My Great Game - My Great Capture - 2014-03-18 09-13-06.mp4")
#audio = audio.SSRC(48000, True)
video = video.AudioDub(audio)
video = video.Crop(320,0,-320,0)

return video.Trim(20000,21000)

edit: Thinking about it, I guess AVISynth is trying to play every frame including interlaced ones, whereas WMP is maybe applying a filter automagically? Should I run it through a deinterlacing filter in AVISynth first?

slowbeef fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Mar 19, 2014

# ? Mar 19, 2014 17:41

signalnoise: Mar 7, 2008; i was told my old av was distracting

Touchfuzzy posted:

If you really want to experiment and spend a little cash, you could make a tiny makeshift audio booth for your mic to sit in...assuming you have a decent amount of desk space. Takes about only 3 or so sheets of foam, preferably acoustic but you can get, like, mattress foam or something. Put it one of those small fold-up laundry boxes or craft boxes by gluing/tacking the foam inside.

It's kinda stupid, but it works. If that's the case, though, I'd try finding a way to figure out that the space you're in is, indeed, a large contributor. Try putting a blanket over and around you and the mic, and see if that cancels some of the noise your buddy hears, or other such tests.

I'll give this a shot. I have some leftover upholstery foam that could use a purpose.

# ? Mar 19, 2014 17:47

gatz: Oct 19, 2012; Love 'em and leave 'em
Groom 'em and feed 'em
Cid Shinjuku

slowbeef posted:

edit: Thinking about it, I guess AVISynth is trying to play every frame including interlaced ones, whereas WMP is maybe applying a filter automagically? Should I run it through a deinterlacing filter in AVISynth first?

Do you have the box "preserve source format" checked in the elgato software's capture settings? You can just uncheck that box, set the profile to "standard", and you'll get a deinterlaced, 640x480 video.

gatz fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Mar 19, 2014

# ? Mar 19, 2014 17:51

slowbeef: Mar 15, 2005; Will Harvey hates you, and everything you stand for.; Pillbug

gatz posted:

Do you have the box "preserve source format" checked in the elgato software's capture settings? You can just uncheck that box, set the profile to "standard", and you'll get a deinterlaced, 640x480 video.

Does that mean I have to re-record the source?

Also I don't understand why it looks fine in WMP then.

# ? Mar 19, 2014 18:24

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Try applying Yadif but that does not look like normal interlacing.

I recall there being some tool in maybe Megui (?) that checked a video for possible interlacing and told you which method is the correct one to resolve it, try searching for that if Yadif doesn't help.

# ? Mar 19, 2014 18:42

gatz: Oct 19, 2012; Love 'em and leave 'em
Groom 'em and feed 'em
Cid Shinjuku

slowbeef posted:

Does that mean I have to re-record the source?

Also I don't understand why it looks fine in WMP then.

I'm not sure about WMP, but if you do what I said, you won't have to worry about de-interlacing your future footage. You could then re-record the source, or you could de-interlace it with avisynth or virtualdub or what-have-you.

I'm not well versed on the technical aspects of video footage, so if others say it's not a normal interlacing issue, do what they say to fix the footage.

# ? Mar 19, 2014 20:40

slowbeef: Mar 15, 2005; Will Harvey hates you, and everything you stand for.; Pillbug

gatz posted:

I'm not sure about WMP, but if you do what I said, you won't have to worry about de-interlacing your future footage. You could then re-record the source, or you could de-interlace it with avisynth or virtualdub or what-have-you.

I'm not well versed on the technical aspects of video footage, so if others say it's not a normal interlacing issue, do what they say to fix the footage.

Admiral H. Curtiss posted:

Try applying Yadif but that does not look like normal interlacing.

I recall there being some tool in maybe Megui (?) that checked a video for possible interlacing and told you which method is the correct one to resolve it, try searching for that if Yadif doesn't help.

I tried Yadif, but the video still looks like it does with the weird rear end "jittering" thing.

Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned de-interlacing- my video looks fine pre-AVISynth. Frankly, my original video doesn't even look interlaced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMmUAlR0Wpo

(Processing isn't done, so it's blurry as hell on YouTube.)

It just doesn't look anything like what I posted earlier until I run it through AVISynth. All I really would like to do to this video is add my commentary and do some basic editing; but I'm not at the point of giving up and using WMM. I just don't understand what AVISynth - or VirtualDub - could be doing to it. Is the PS3 doing anything to remove interlacing on a PS2 game that outputs a non-standard video? Is AVISynth assuming something about this video to cause that jitter? Can I tell it to stop?

# ? Mar 19, 2014 21:20

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Ah, seeing that source video, could you try something? Record another (short) gameplay video, but only start the recording once the game has booted and the PS3 is in "PS2 mode". It might be an issue caused by the switch in video mode when switching from the PS3 OS to the PS2 mode.

Avisynth can not handle multiple video streams with different resolution/framerate/etc within the same file. I believe FFMS2 does have options to override that so you can get the correct "part" of video with the correct settings, but you'd have to check the doc.

e: It might even be as simple as adding a fpsnum=60 parameter to the FFVideoSource call.

Admiral H. Curtiss fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Mar 19, 2014

# ? Mar 19, 2014 21:27

slowbeef: Mar 15, 2005; Will Harvey hates you, and everything you stand for.; Pillbug

Admiral H. Curtiss posted:

Ah, seeing that source video, could you try something? Record another (short) gameplay video, but only start the recording once the game has booted and the PS3 is in "PS2 mode". It might be an issue caused by the switch in video mode when switching from the PS3 OS to the PS2 mode.

Avisynth can not handle multiple video streams with different resolution/framerate/etc within the same file. I believe FFMS2 does have options to override that so you can get the correct "part" of video with the correct settings, but you'd have to check the doc.

I can't record since I'm at work; I can try later.

This looked interesting from FFmpegSource2's docs:

"Interlaced H.264 is decoded in an odd way; each field gets its own full-height frame and the fieldrate is reported as the framerate, and furthermore one of the fields (odd or even) may "jump around". To get the correct behavior, you can try setting fpsnum and fpsden so that the framerate is halved (may or may not work). This issue is caused by libavcodec."

Halving the framerate didn't seem to work for me, though.

# ? Mar 19, 2014 21:36

gatz: Oct 19, 2012; Love 'em and leave 'em
Groom 'em and feed 'em
Cid Shinjuku

slowbeef posted:

I can't record since I'm at work; I can try later.

This looked interesting from FFmpegSource2's docs:

"Interlaced H.264 is decoded in an odd way; each field gets its own full-height frame and the fieldrate is reported as the framerate, and furthermore one of the fields (odd or even) may "jump around". To get the correct behavior, you can try setting fpsnum and fpsden so that the framerate is halved (may or may not work). This issue is caused by libavcodec."

Halving the framerate didn't seem to work for me, though.

Do you have virtualdub? Try loading the source mp4 into it (using the FFinputdriver plugin), then save it as an avi, encoding it with lagarith (keep the source audio untouched), then use that avi with avisynth. If you need to, use a frameserver or whatever to save space on your harddrive and load the .avi right into avisynth w/o taking up space on your computer.

This is a suggestion just based on my own experience that avisynth doesn't handle .mp4 files very well. I had audio desync issues with avisynth and mp4 files that were solved with the method I wrote above.

gatz fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Mar 19, 2014

# ? Mar 19, 2014 21:41

Xenoveritas: May 9, 2010; Dinosaur Gum

I'm wondering if it has the fields backwards. I'd have to stop and look at the original source to get an idea of exactly what's coming out of FFVideoSource to provide a meaningful answer.

Assuming it's coming out marked as "field based", see if ComplementParity fixes it.

If that does nothing, it might be worth throwing a SelectOdd at the end to see what that does.

# ? Mar 19, 2014 21:42

slowbeef: Mar 15, 2005; Will Harvey hates you, and everything you stand for.; Pillbug

Admiral H. Curtiss posted:

e: It might even be as simple as adding a fpsnum=60 parameter to the FFVideoSource call.

Xenoveritas posted:

Assuming it's coming out marked as "field based", see if ComplementParity fixes it.

If that does nothing, it might be worth throwing a SelectOdd at the end to see what that does.

Didn't work, though Yadiv(Mode=3) + SelectOdd() made it look the closest to normal (but still really weird).

gatz posted:

Do you have virtualdub? Try loading the source mp4 into it (using the FFinputdriver plugin), then save it as an avi

Projected filesize 666 GB? Yikes. Uh, I guess I have to look into this frameserver business!

# ? Mar 19, 2014 21:54

ChaosArgate: Oct 10, 2012; Why does everyone think I'm going to get in trouble?

slowbeef posted:

Didn't work, though Yadiv(Mode=3) + SelectOdd() made it look the closest to normal (but still really weird).

Projected filesize 666 GB? Yikes. Uh, I guess I have to look into this frameserver business!

http://salp.wikia.com/wiki/Basics_on_editing_in_Adobe_Premiere_Pro

Check out section 3.

Here's a link to the frameserver Cknoor mentioned in that guide.

http://www.debugmode.com/frameserver/

# ? Mar 19, 2014 21:58

gatz: Oct 19, 2012; Love 'em and leave 'em
Groom 'em and feed 'em
Cid Shinjuku

slowbeef posted:

Projected filesize 666 GB? Yikes. Uh, I guess I have to look into this frameserver business!

Typically that goes down as virtualdub encodes the file (I know, it's dumb that it starts out so high). Same thing with the projected processing time. Maybe try it with a small portion of video first - trim it in the elgato software.

E: or it increases and I'm not remembering right. It's been a while

gatz fucked around with this message at 02:11 on Mar 20, 2014

# ? Mar 19, 2014 21:59

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

ChaosArgate posted:

http://salp.wikia.com/wiki/Basics_on_editing_in_Adobe_Premiere_Pro

Check out section 3.

Here's a link to the frameserver Cknoor mentioned in that guide.

http://www.debugmode.com/frameserver/

As far as I can tell that frameserver does not support VDub. VDub itself does apparently have one, though: http://www.virtualdub.org/docs_frameserver.html

# ? Mar 19, 2014 22:12

gatz: Oct 19, 2012; Love 'em and leave 'em
Groom 'em and feed 'em
Cid Shinjuku

The unusually high video size (if it persists as virtualdub chugs along) might be caused because you preserved the source format instead of using the standard profile (640x480, 29.970 fps, progressive). The framerate is usually what bumps up the size so much, I'm guessing your source video is 720x480, 60 fps, interlaced.

# ? Mar 19, 2014 22:15

Xenoveritas: May 9, 2010; Dinosaur Gum

I think your frame order is getting screwed up somehow, but it looks to me like AviSynth is getting the frames something like 0, 2, 1, 3, 4, 6, 5, 7, � So it's not the fields being in the wrong order, the frames are being jumbled around in a larger group.

If that's the case, the good news is that it's fixable in AviSynth. But without looking closer at what AviSynth is producing, I really can't help. Plus I'm not sure what would cause that in the first place.

# ? Mar 19, 2014 22:33

Nidoking: Jan 27, 2009; I fought the lava, and the lava won.

slowbeef posted:

Projected filesize 666 GB? Yikes. Uh, I guess I have to look into this frameserver business!

Did you choose a lossless codec or just leave the video uncompressed? I've made that mistake a few times.

# ? Mar 19, 2014 22:34

BMS: Mar 11, 2009; by FactsAreUseless

gatz posted:

The unusually high video size (if it persists as virtualdub chugs along) might be caused because you preserved the source format instead of using the standard profile (640x480, 29.970 fps, progressive). The framerate is usually what bumps up the size so much, I'm guessing your source video is 720x480, 60 fps, interlaced.

Speaking of filesize and what not. Just what IS the typical file size one should expect from an approx. 20 minute long video, 720P, at 60FPS, if everything is encoded properly/nothing bugs out on you.

For reference, I've recorded a Lords of Shadow video that was 720P, 60FPS, 8000kbps 1.2 GB raw file size. After going through the usual process of editing, encoding, adding commentary etc. etc., I've wound up with a 720P, 30FPS, approx. 650MB file size, with 3,900kbps.

Is this about right, or is it too small/large of a file size for what I'm getting? The quality of the video is great, but if I've got a file size that's far too huge, it'd be nice to know so I can tinker with my encoding settings some more.

# ? Mar 20, 2014 01:34

dis astranagant: Dec 14, 2006

Youtube will cut your bitrate to around 2500kbps for 720p video. If you're using some other hosting you'll have to look up what they do.

# ? Mar 20, 2014 01:42

Mico: Jan 29, 2011; A billion dollars.

My 720p videos come out to between 2000 and 2500 kbps usually.

# ? Mar 20, 2014 01:52

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 14:28

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Really, though, it all depends on your footage. The only way to really find out is to encode several different quality versions of the same video and find the spot where it gets too artifacted.

# ? Mar 20, 2014 02:11

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Tech Support Fort - Questions, Comments and Codecs (READ THE OP!)

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