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Non-NEC Console Related Discussion => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: mackdanger on January 18, 2015, 02:43:36 AM
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Let me start by saying that when it comes to computers, I am a hardware / networking guy. I am new to video capture and editing, but I am starting to put things together. Here is the deal. I capture footage from my Framemeister at 720p 60fps. I use 720p because the Meister's 1080p settings don't do the scan lines properly. 60fps may seem like overkill for old systems, but I like to get the highest quality I can manage, since I can always re-encode the source at a lower quality later if I need to.
I originally started learning how to use Lightworks, since the free version does exactly what I need. However, I noticed that when I opened my clips in Lightworks, the audio would de-sync after the first couple of minutes and get worse as the clip played. After some research, I discovered that my clips are variable frame rate and Lightworks can only handle constant frame rate clips. I think Adobe also has problems with them as well. I used recommended programs like Eye Frame and Handbrake to convert them to constant frame rate, but no matter what settings and formats I used, the resulting file would be full of skips and judders when I tried to edit them in Lightworks. They would play fine on their own though.
I then decided to download a Sony Vegas trial and give it a spin since Vegas can handle variable frame rate clips. By handle I mean when you render the video, Vegas will automatically lower the frame rate and make it constant. In my case, my source clips ended up at 29.97fps if I remember correctly.
I don't know if it is even possible, but is there software or a particular encoding format that can capture a constant not variable 60fps? If not, what formats / settings would you recommend to maintain the best quality, especially for uploading to Youtube? Lastly, does anyone have a favorite editor that they recommend? Thank you for your time and guidance.
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Since you mention HD, then this probably won't apply - but if it was for a retro console that outputs 240p, then you use the old 720x480i capture trick. It captures at 29.97fps, but then you separate the fields into frames with double the frame rate.
If you capture setup is dropping frames, then it might be a bandwidth and/or latency issue (usb). It would help if you posted your hardware specs (pc and capture device).
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I just use AmaRec and the lagarith encoder. Both are free.
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Thanks for the replies. The variable frame rate I am referring to, doesn't seem to be a result of cpu performance hits or anything like that. The raw recorded clip plays back just fine. From what I have gathered so far, VFR is a byproduct of how the software you are using records, encodes, and compresses the file. If you go to any gaming forum where they are talking about recording, you will probably see people bitching about it. They are complaining about it since most professional editors only like constant frame rate. I am going to check out the stuff SuperDeadite linked and see what's up. I am really just messing around at this point, experimenting with different recording and encoding methods, checking out various editors and whatnot. Just trying to learn more about this stuff.
***Edit***
Okay, after doing a bunch of research and checking various places, I have a better grasp of what is going on. Variable Frame Rate is a feature incorporated into a lot of capture hardware and software, that is used to help keep the file sizes down. Running Media Info on some of my clips show a max frame rate of 60 and a minimum of 40. The way VFR works, it automatically lowers the frame rate when there is little to no activity on the screen. So say, when a loading screen or something comes up, VFR lowers the frame rate to keep the file size small. Which isn't a bad feature except like I said above, they don't work with a lot of the higher end professional editors. And the ones they do work with, like Vegas, will take the clip and smash it down to 30 to make it constant frame rate. So just keep that in mind if you want to start using the likes of Adobe Premier to edit your game footage.
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I always used a Gainward Golden Sample Geforce 4 with composite and s-video in and Wincoder, and used Sony Vegas to edit the clips to upload to youtube. I tried not to over think it too much, and just stuck with 480P uploads. I still have a few left that I did on my current youtube account:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atIUk5sB5pM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhi-dRcllfY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfkmQQxLLik
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtwCH4Nh6H0
We are talking pretty old equipment here, but it got the job done and the results were fine. The key thing to keep in mind was that whatever you uploaded to youtube back then, youtube would knock down the quality some also. Not sure how it is like now since I have not captured any gameplay in a long while and uploaded it on there.
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I agree with the Professor. You're trying to mail a package to China via the moon. The problems that you are having are a direct result of diddling with the video way way too much.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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The problems that you are having are a direct result of diddling with the video way way too much.
The problem I am having is a result of how my software records footage, and the resulting file not being completely compatible with a professional video editor. At this point I don't really have any intentions of doing much with my YT channel, I am mostly just experimenting. However, one of the things I really want to mess around with and get to know better is a pro level editor, which is why I need compatible clips. Since I don't have a video camera, game clips are it.
Professor, thanks for your input. Since I am capturing from my XRGB-mini, my options are limited, but I think I found a solution last night.
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The problems that you are having are a direct result of diddling with the video way way too much.
The problem I am having is a result of how my software records footage, and the resulting file not being completely compatible with a professional video editor. At this point I don't really have any intentions of doing much with my YT channel, I am mostly just experimenting. However, one of the things I really want to mess around with and get to know better is a pro level editor, which is why I need compatible clips. Since I don't have a video camera, game clips are it.
Professor, thanks for your input. Since I am capturing from my XRGB-mini, my options are limited, but I think I found a solution last night.
What game systems are you trying to record, or are you trying to record Jamma boards? And what signals are you running from them to the XRGB, svideo, composite, or normal RGB, and what capture card are you using?
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I am recording PC Engine, Neo Geo MVS (consolized), and Mega Drive mostly, all in RGB. The capture card I am using is the Live Gamer HD, which only does variable frame rate. The software is also kind of crappy, so don't get it. What I am going to do for now is re-encode the 60fps variable frame rate clips as 30fps constant frame rate clips in Vegas. That will allow me to continue my learning and comparison experiments without any audio troubles. Later, when I want to start doing 60fps comparisons, I will have to use something that outputs constant frame rate, which I think I have found.
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I am recording PC Engine, Neo Geo MVS (consolized), and Mega Drive mostly, all in RGB. The capture card I am using is the Live Gamer HD, which only does variable frame rate. The software is also kind of crappy, so don't get it. What I am going to do for now is re-encode the 60fps variable frame rate clips as 30fps constant frame rate clips in Vegas. That will allow me to continue my learning and comparison experiments without any audio troubles. Later, when I want to start doing 60fps comparisons, I will have to use something that outputs constant frame rate, which I think I have found.
Ahh ok. Yeah that right there would probably not be for me anyway. Your normal 240P signal is basically being processed twice, once by the XRGB, then again by the Live Gamer HD. I guess you do what you got to do and all, but if it was me I would just invest in something to convert RGB to Component without all the complicated upscaling, then get a normal high quality capture card that is fine with that Component signal. I do have to mention though, seems like my friend Eric had issues capping some Jamma stuff off the Jrok component encoder. I'd have to ask him specifically what it was though.
Is the goal personal use, work related, or youtube related? Honestly if its mainly youtube related, the picture quality you are trying to achieve is not going to resemble the original hardware as much after all the upscaling and video processing, plus you are going to be exposed to more lag while you try to capture your gameplay. At that rate you'd probably be just as well off recording directly off game emulators.
If you want the image to resemble more of how it would have appeared originally, then you are going to need to keep it a bit more basic then what you are doing now, which tends to be preferred by classic gamers who watch gameplay on youtube.
This evening I went ahead and did a basic 1 hr build for capping and did a small sample clip, just for this thread. Pentium 4 3ghz HT system with AGP Gainward Golden Sample Geforce FX 5900 with VIVO and a Soundblaster Live for recording the audio. Software used for capping was a version of Wincoder from 2002, set to the "DVD quality" setting, at 720x480, with brightness knocked up a tad and color knocked down some to get it to where it should about be (I probably need to adjust this a tad more, but I am feeling lazy at the moment). Game system used was a Snes Mini via s-video.
The recorded gameplay clips were then copied over to a USB stick and transferred to my main PC for Sony Vegas 10 so they could be combined into one large clip. Render setting used was Windows Media Video V11 @ 6 Mbps HD 720-30p Video. The only major draw back to this is that the output videos the Gainward will make with Wincoder will have some pixelation depending on what is being displayed and how fast it is moving, and also sometimes some image blur.
Basically it is perfectly fine for general consumption on Youtube. If I started doing videos again I can guarantee you no one would be complaining about the quality for general gameplay videos. If I was going to sit there and try to do a video like GameSack, with me babbling, mumbling to myself, and drooling off and on in the video, then I would probably just swap over to recording emulation so that the image quality would better match what ever retarded 720P recording of myself I had made to attach to the gameplay.
Outside of the above mentioned issues, my only real concern is Youtube knocking down the quality of the video I have uploaded, which they seem to still do. It may be related to the file format used possibly. Viewing over what I uploaded tonight, I see they still do this during their video processing. But I cant really complain, its their bandwidth, not mine.
Here is the final video file after going through Vegas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sVZdFm4MU4
And here is two of the clips before they were ran through Vegas:
Jikkyo Oshaberi Parodius
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDq-x70Bm3w&feature=youtu.be
Super Metroid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-egFkCBlhek&feature=youtu.be
EDIT: Asked Eric what cap card he uses. Its the ImpactVCB. This one does not give him issues like the prior one did with Jamma related games.
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_impactvcb.html
Keep in mind it is s-video and composite only though.
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I just use a DVD recorder to record my gameplay, and then rip the DVD on my computer. It would be nice to be able to capture video directly on my computer, but I have a laptop so a capture card is not an option, and I have yet to find a USB capture device that I think does a good job with some of the whackadoo video signals that I need to record. I have one of those shitty Hauppauge HD-PVR units and it absolutely refuses to play nice with my NES. The DVD recording has never given me any trouble whatsoever, looks decent, and gives me a physical copy of the footage so that I am not stockpiling shit on my hard drive.
Edit: I have a Micomsoft XAV-2s which converts RGB to s-video, which is what goes in to the DVD recorder. This is useful for systems of mine which do not have s-video as an option, like my CMVS, supergun, and Duo.
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Thank you for all of the information and examples. There is something I feel I may need to clarify though. Most of the popular game capture hardware and software out there, produce clips with variable frame rate. That doesn't mean they are producing low or bad quality clips. The clips actually look pretty good from what my untrained eyes can tell. The chief problem with VFR clips is that when used with high end video editors, they have a bunch of audio-desync problems. Vegas is the exception. Vegas will handle VFR clips with no problems, but upon export, will lower the fps until it can be made constant. My VFR clips fluctuate between 40fps and 59.97fps, so Vegas lowers them to 29.97fps and makes them constant.
One thing I have noticed with the test clips I uploaded to YouTube, is that the brightness always seems to increase. A black title screen will look gray and sometimes noisy. I will upload some test clips later and report back.
Again, at this point I am just learning and experimenting. I want to see what different codecs, resolutions, bitrates, and methods will produce. If anyone wants a handy program that can tell you a lot of useful info about your clips, check out Media Info: https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo
The default basic view doesn't show much. So go up to "View" and click "Text." That will give you the good stuff.
***Edit***
Here are a couple of test clips to take a look at. Be sure to watch them in HD. This one was converted from variable frame rate 60fps to constant frame rate 30fps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elSibN6w9jY
The second one is completely raw, uploaded straight to YT without any editing or processing. This one is MP4/AAC 720p, but this time I left it at variable frame rate 60fps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXQUL6BDxGw
Do you notice how in both cases, it looks kind of washed out, and the black title screen looks gray? Since the source clips don't look that way, am I correct in assuming that is a byproduct of YT processing?
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Honestly both clips you posted look good to me. I have seen worse end results. By chance have you tried Virtual Dub? If not you could try it with the Lagarith codec. My friend Eric talked me into trying it tonight and it worked pretty good for me. Way better then Wincoder does, though the file size for the clips was huge due to the raw data, so it was a bit of a pain for me to transfer them over to my main pc.
Keep in mind, this was capped off S-video, not RGB:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm15yzAw4gA&feature=youtu.be
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That was a good clip. I will check out Virtual Dub and see what is what. Thanks for the advice. One thing I forgot to mention, is that I only really started paying attention to You Tube last year. As a result, I think I am just not used to the way You Tube processing makes videos look. I see a minor deviation from the source and it practically jumps out of the screen.
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Yeah. I need to screw around with the deinterlacing options in VDub and see if I can find a solid setting. As is I just let Vegas do that task to the video files instead on the clip I posted above. The files VDub made are a tad sharper prior to being handled by Vegas though. I suspect it is due to Vegas deinterlacing it, so maybe that issue can be eliminated via VDub settings.
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I simply feed the RGB directly into my SC-512N1-L/DVI and record as I previously stated. If you already have an XRGB you can use that for an even better HD result. The SC-512N1-L/DVI is NOT cheap, but the results are quite satisfying. This was my first attempt, and I'm quite pleased with the results. The original raw 60fps capture is astounding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRocFYcpHrM
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I simply feed the RGB directly into my SC-512N1-L/DVI and record as I previously stated. If you already have an XRGB you can use that for an even better HD result. The SC-512N1-L/DVI is NOT cheap, but the results are quite satisfying. This was my first attempt, and I'm quite pleased with the results. The original raw 60fps capture is astounding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRocFYcpHrM
Micomsoft really likes the 40k yen price point don't they? Just curious, where did you buy your card at? I actually managed to pick my XRGB-Mini up at Yodobashi. I thought I would have to order it. I am going to check Micomsoft's site and read up on it. I may ask you some more questions about it.
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I agree with the Professor. You're trying to mail a package to China via the moon. The problems that you are having are a direct result of diddling with the video way way too much.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Dude! Where have you been? :)
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I simply feed the RGB directly into my SC-512N1-L/DVI and record as I previously stated. If you already have an XRGB you can use that for an even better HD result. The SC-512N1-L/DVI is NOT cheap, but the results are quite satisfying. This was my first attempt, and I'm quite pleased with the results. The original raw 60fps capture is astounding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRocFYcpHrM
Micomsoft really likes the 40k yen price point don't they? Just curious, where did you buy your card at? I actually managed to pick my XRGB-Mini up at Yodobashi. I thought I would have to order it. I am going to check Micomsoft's site and read up on it. I may ask you some more questions about it.
I bought mine from Micomsoft direct. As I wanted the XSync-1 as well, and they were having a special holiday sale on the bundle set at the time. I live in Japan, so no proxies for me. If you plan to use the XRGB, you really don't need the XSync though.
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Just some tidbits I am adding concerning Vegas and VirtualDub, and some things I had to set to get rid of the smoothing blurred crap Vegas was doing on my videos during its deinterlacing process.
Results before adjustments:
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/wmv720_zpsc2a63153.png) (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/Amakusa666/media/wmv720_zpsc2a63153.png.html)
Results after adjustments:
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/wmv720vegasdeinterlaceoptionsoff_zpsca37e125.png) (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/Amakusa666/media/wmv720vegasdeinterlaceoptionsoff_zpsca37e125.png.html)
VirtualDub:
1. Make sure to install the Lagarith codec prior to running.
2. Set compression to Lagarith, with multithreading enabled in configure on Lagarith.
3. On "capture pin" set output size to 640x480 and color space to UYVY.
4. On audio don't check "Enable Audio Playback", because it eats up more cpu resources during capping, but do enable "Audio Capture" and "Volume Meter". Volume meter will confirm you have audio fed in correctly.
5. On "Video", go to "Filter Chain" and "Filter List", then add "Deinterlace". Once added klik on it and set to "Blend fields" and on the field order set "Keep Top Field" After that go back to "Filter Chain and check "Enable".
6. Then go to file and choose "set capture file". This is where you will name your video clip you will be capping. After that you can go to "Capture" and klik "Capture Video" when you are ready to start, and when you are done klik "Stop Capture".
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Sony Vegas:
To help prevent the interpolation blur mess from happening in your gameplay video you can go to "File", select "Properties", set "Full-resolution rendering quality" to best, then set "Deinterlace method" to none (make sure you had something else do the deinterlacing to the video clips prior at capping). Choose what ever you want to render as, but what I choose is Windows Media Video V11 @ 6Mbps HD 720-30p.
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Last video I am submitting. I could probably tinker around with some better deinterlacing methods a tad more but not worth the time given what I got is already perfectly fine for general viewing (and that some methods can add extremely long times to the rendering process, not worth it for gameplay videos). This is the end result of the above settings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvh3G8BA19g&feature=youtu.be
preview pics from the video:
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/vlcsnap-2015-01-20-17h41m10s149_zpsa9f171ab.png) (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/Amakusa666/media/vlcsnap-2015-01-20-17h41m10s149_zpsa9f171ab.png.html)
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/vlcsnap-2015-01-20-17h41m43s7_zps643219ac.png) (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/Amakusa666/media/vlcsnap-2015-01-20-17h41m43s7_zps643219ac.png.html)
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/vlcsnap-2015-01-20-17h40m14s67_zpsf410617e.png) (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/Amakusa666/media/vlcsnap-2015-01-20-17h40m14s67_zpsf410617e.png.html)
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/vlcsnap-2015-01-20-17h42m02s227_zps223dd223.png) (http://s9.photobucket.com/user/Amakusa666/media/vlcsnap-2015-01-20-17h42m02s227_zps223dd223.png.html)
Extra thanks to Eric/Quoth09, who suggested VirtualDub, etc, and for being an all-round knowledge pool concerning this stuff. :P
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I simply feed the RGB directly into my SC-512N1-L/DVI and record as I previously stated. If you already have an XRGB you can use that for an even better HD result. The SC-512N1-L/DVI is NOT cheap, but the results are quite satisfying. This was my first attempt, and I'm quite pleased with the results. The original raw 60fps capture is astounding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRocFYcpHrM
Micomsoft really likes the 40k yen price point don't they? Just curious, where did you buy your card at? I actually managed to pick my XRGB-Mini up at Yodobashi. I thought I would have to order it. I am going to check Micomsoft's site and read up on it. I may ask you some more questions about it.
I bought mine from Micomsoft direct. As I wanted the XSync-1 as well, and they were having a special holiday sale on the bundle set at the time. I live in Japan, so no proxies for me. If you plan to use the XRGB, you really don't need the XSync though.
Yeah, when I said I got mine from Yodobashi, I mean I got on the train and went to Yodobashi. O:) I am in south Tokyo. Where you at?
Also, Do you have a raw, unedited file you recorded with that card
handy? If you do, and you aren't too busy, I was wondering if you would check something. On the other page I linked a program called Media Info. If you have some spare time, would you mind running a media info scan on a raw clip you recorded with that card and paste the results here? That would tell me a lot of useful info about the kind of clips that card spits out.It's not urgent or anything. I'm just curious about the output. You can get the Media Info program here: https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo
The default basic view doesn't show very much info. So after you run it on a clip, select "view" and then "text" mode to get all the info. If you could paste that text info in a post that would be cool. Again, if you don't have time, don't sweat it.
Professor, thank you for all of the helpful detailed info about VirtualDub. I am going to archive all of that for use in my testing.
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Extra thanks to Eric/Quoth09, who suggested VirtualDub, etc, and for being an all-round knowledge pool concerning this stuff. :P
Say "Hi!" To Quoth09 for me—he was very generous helping me with CD+G stuff many years ago. :)
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I live in Shiga myself. And done. If you are wondering, the 720x240 is how the card captures raw 240p RGB. You then have to run it through virtual dub to upscale and correct the aspect. Though if you plan run the video through the Mini first, you dont have to do that.
General
Complete name : D:\Youtube\Captures\amarec(20140516-2337).avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 11.9 GiB
Duration : 21mn 40s
Overall bit rate : 78.6 Mbps
Video
ID : 0
Format : Lagarith
Codec ID : LAGS
Duration : 21mn 40s
Bit rate : 74.0 Mbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 240 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 3.000
Frame rate : 59.940 fps
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 7.144
Stream size : 11.2 GiB (94%)
Audio
ID : 1
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : 1
Duration : 21mn 40s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 238 MiB (2%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
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Oh wow, you are way down there by Kyoto huh. Thanks for running Media Info and pasting that info. For some reason your info dump didn't display all the frame rate data. I was mostly looking to see if it was constant or variable. It could be that different file types display different data. Here is a portion of the data from one of my MP4 clips:
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 59.940 fps
Original frame rate : 60.000 fps
Minimum frame rate : 40.000 fps
Maximum frame rate : 60.000 fps
Anyway, that info helped a lot so thanks for posting it.
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I did some more messing around with Media Info and found something interesting. I uploaded a test clip yesterday of Crossed Swords for the MVS. I then went and downloaded that same clip from YT using the download MP4 link from inside my YT account. I didn't use any external website or downloader. I then ran Media Info on the source clip, the clip I downloaded from YT, and then compared them. Now, I knew I would see some differences. For one thing, the source is about 2GB whereas the clip I downloaded from YT is only 128MB. But here is the interesting part. This is a readout of the frame rate data from the source clip:
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 59.725 fps
Original frame rate : 60.000 fps
Minimum frame rate : 40.000 fps
Maximum frame rate : 60.000 fps
So the uploaded clip is a variable frame rate 60fps video. Here is the readout from the clip I downloaded from YouTube:
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 30.000 fps
It appears that YT took my variable frame rate 60fps clip, and smashed it down into a constant rate 30fps clip. However, if you watch the clip on YT and check the resolution it says 720p/60. If you will recall from one of my earlier posts, a lot of the most popular capture software from AverMedia, X-Split, Shadow Play, and even the older ElGato stuff spits out variable frame rate clips. So unless there is something I am missing I am thinking that there are a lot of people out there uploading variable frame rate 60fps clips, YT is making them constant frame rate 30fps, but is still saying that they are 60fps. Am I off here? Is this something well known?
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As far as I know, youtube only does 30fps....
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This is a very educational thread!
Thank you to all that have submitted ideas/advice. :)
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As far as I know, youtube only does 30fps....
60fps is now an option, but only on Chrome so far.
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As far as I know, youtube only does 30fps....
60fps is now an option, but only on Chrome so far.
I forgot to mention I am also using Chrome. I wouldn't think anything of this were it not for the fact that if I watch the video on YT it says 720p60, but it appears to be playing a 30fps clip. This could be for a number of reasons. I have another little something I want to try and I will report the results later.
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Okay. I know that my (and a lot of other companies') software spits out VFR 60fps clips. So I decided to set my capture software to 30fps and see what kind of clips that would make. Here is the result:
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Original frame rate : 30.000 fps
Minimum frame rate : 20.000 fps
Maximum frame rate : 30.000 fps
At this point, I was very curious to see what YT would do with it. How much would it lower the overall frame rate to make it constant. I uploaded the clip to YT and downloaded it from the video manager and:
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 30.000 fps
I am going to be honest. This is not what I expected to see. With the variable frame rate 60fps clips, the frame rate fluctuated between 59.94 and 40.00. So YT needed to squash it down to 30fps to make it constant. I get that. So for the VFR 30fps clip that fluctuated between 20 and 30 fps, I expected YT to squash it down even further to be able to make it constant. Instead, it appears to have added frames to bring the lower fps parts up to 30. Is that even possible? I mean, what would you add in the place of missing frames? Anybody got any ideas?
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I imagine that anywhere it is supposedly doing it, it is going to be where there is minimal movement in the scene taking place on the video, like basically almost still shots, or in the case of gameplay footage, where your character and the scenery is not moving or very minimal animation is taking place. I mean, that would be the ideal spot to drop "un-needed" frames to save bandwidth and storage space, and I could see situations like that where duplicate frames could be added back and be unnoticed to the human eye. I'm just speculating mind you, so your guess would be as good as mine.
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Yeah, that makes sense. If the variable frame rate mode is dropping the frame rate during times of little to no movement, I guess duplicate frames could be added at those same times in order to bump the frame rate up. I think next I am going to mess with a 60fps VFR clip and try to make it 60fps constant and see what happens.
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Late back to the thread. Ahh I see, so it's just the frame rate being variable in the format itself. I run a PC, and have a huge range of tools. But I tend to use avisynth, virtualdub, and After FX. Avisynth would probably handle everything you need, but it's not intuitive or gui friendly (though there use to exist GUI apps that would build out the scripts for you); avisynth is a script based language to used plugins to alter video in different ways. It's a frame server, which is realtime. I usually open the script files (frame serve files), in virtualdub and either re-encode or just do what I need there.
Not that you probably need it, but I was able to make a 30fps video with an oscillating 'blend' mode, instead of the constant 50% frame or field blend mode. It would allow you to see the other frame, but wasn't as 'blurry' in motion. This is critical for stuffs like shmups IMO. Check out my Sapphire videos to see the result.
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That was a very interesting clip. I noticed the transparency effects seemed to be preserved very well. So far my test clips have yielded mixed results with that. I am going to check out Avisynth later, thank you for the recommendation.
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So here's a little update. I spent a number of hours messing around with various codecs and programs. I managed to get some fairly decent results. I still kept having various hangups with the conversion of a file from variable frame rate to constant frame rate. Mostly, I had trouble finding settings that would preserve transparency effects. I kept getting results where the flickering sprite would be solid for a little bit, then turn completely solid, then disappear altogether. Since I am still in the "just messing around" stage, a high powered capture card like the SC-512-N1 isn't on the menu yet. A card like that would necessitate a raft of upgrades that I don't want to deal with right now either.
I noticed that the new ElGato HD60 records in constant frame rate. I have one of the old Live Gamer Portables from Avermedia that I used to mess around with, which is okay. The PC free recording mode was kind of cool. The software is kind of crappy though. I had an Amazon gift card laying around so I went ahead and grabbed the HD60.
First, it does indeed record constant frame rate, which meant I no longer have any audio de-sync issues with Light Works. At first I was surprised that the files didn't seem to be too much larger, but the way the ElGato software handles the bitrate is different than the other software I was using.
So I wanted to make a test clip to see how well the transparencies are preserved. In the source clip, there is only one instance where the sprite of the old man flashes a little brightly, but other than that, the effect is preserved perfectly. After being rendered in Light Works and uploaded to YouTube however, things got a little messy. You can see what I am talking about during the cut scene. Be sure to watch in 60fps if you are on Chrome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0NKvTxY9KQ
As you can see, there is quite a bit of flashing and drop out going on there. I haven't really done any tweaking of Light Works settings, so I am going to look at that next.