1. Download mencoder.exe, mplayer.exe, oggenc2.exe, and all Direct264 files to the same folder.
2. MKVtoolnix: download and install. Browse to install location(default is C:\Program Files\MKVtoolnix), copy the mkvmerge.exe file to the directory where you placed MEncoder. If you are using MP4Box, place that in the same location.
3. Emulator/Movie File: extract to a directory. Note that this article will not cover where to get ROM files.
4. FFDshow: Download and install. During installation, install all components. For "select supported video codecs", make sure to select H.264. The rest of the options should be left to the default.
5. You should use a lossless codec to capture video. Historically, this has been h.264 lossless, but if you are interested in capturing screenshots (which is much easier for the encoder to do) you will want to select a codec which supports the RGB32 colourspace (which h.264 does not); with ffdshow you can use FFV1 (in the configuration options, set Encoder to FFV1 and Colorspace - under Generic - to RGB32), or you can use alternate lossless RGB codecs such as Camstudio. When in doubt, use one of those two codecs.
   

If you recorded past the ending for a while you can fix the file with one of the two following steps.

TODO: Put the MEncoder and VirtualDub into separate tabs - I've had massive issues trying to put these into their own tabbed table

Method using MEncoder

1. Find the time you wish to end the video.
2. Copy the following command line to notepad and save it as crop.bat:

mencoder.exe -oac copy -mc 0 -ovc copy -endpos x -o recorded.avi capture.avi

-endpos should be specified in hh:mm:ss. For example to end at 15:17 in the movie use -endpos 15:17

Run crop.bat to crop your file.

Method using VirtualDub

1. Open the video in VirtualDub
2. In the Video menu set the mode to Direct Stream Copy
3. Select the frame you want the AVI to end at and select Set selection start from the Edit menu
4. Select End from the Go menu then select Set selection end from the Edit menu
5. Press the Delete key on your keyboard to remove the redundant video data
6. Select Save as AVI... from the File menu and save the resulting AVI as capture.avi

Although more complicated than the MEncoder process, it allows much more precise control on the resulting cropped AVI. This is also a very good and effective way for finding out what frames you want your subtitles to appear during for the next step.

Your logo must be encoded in h.264 at 60 fps and the resolution should match the capture's resolution. The audio rate should match the audio rate of your capture as well. For the purposes of this article we will assume your logo is called logo.avi. Please read Emulator Resources/Making Avi/Logo/Windows for help with creating a logo.

First, we must create a subtitle file. Here is an example one:

   {60}{360}Super Mario Bros in 04:48.53|by klmz|Rerecord count: 4459
   {1501}{1701}This is a tool-assisted recording.|For more information, visit http://TASVideos.org/

Copy this to notepad and save it as subtitle.sub. Be sure to put in the appropriate information and double check that there are no spelling errors. The numbers before each line are the frames at which the subtitle will play.

Create a subfolder in your MEncoder folder, called 'mplayer'. Copy a .ttf into the directory as subfont.ttf; this font will end up being used as the subtitle font. (Try to use something relatively plain, such as Arial.) This command line can be saved as logocombine.bat:

start /wait mencoder.exe -aspect 4:3 -oac copy -mc 0 -font subfont.ttf -nofontconfig -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=ffv1:vstrict=-2 -sub subtitle.sub -subfont-text-scale 4 -sub-bg-alpha 15 -o mixed.avi logo.avi recorded.avi

If you are encoding a handheld run, you can remove -aspect 4:3 from this.

You can add -subpos 0 -subalign 0 to the video to move the subs to the top of the screen instead of the bottom. -subfont-outline 4 can be used in place of -sub-bg-alpha 15 to replace the black background around the text with shadowed text instead, which can look cleaner with some games.

This will reencode into another lossless format, which requires a lot of disc space. This reencode has multiple purposes, including forcing 4:3 aspect ratio (necessary for some formats, especially Final burn alpha games), resolving some known logo issues (for example NES games which run at 60.1 fps rather than 60 fps) as well as preparing our subtitles before our final encode.

Once done, test the file to make sure the subtitles are proper. Correct them if necessary and rerun logocombine.bat.

With the logo-combined video at the ready, we can now turn this into our finished video stream. This process can take a long time so we will create a bat to automate it. Save this as encode.bat.

start /wait x264 "mixed.avi" --deldup 40 --crf 20 --keyint 300 --ref 15 --no-fast-pskip --bframes 6 --b-adapt 2 --mbtree --weightb --direct auto --subme 10 --trellis 2 --partitions all --me umh --merange 64 --8x8dct --no-dct-decimate --versioninfo --output "encoded.mp4"

To encode the audio, you will first need to split the audio track off from the video.

Using MEncoder To use mplayer to do this, issue the following command.

start /wait mplayer mixed.avi -ao pcm:file=encoded.wav \ -vc dummy -aid 1 -vo null

Once this is done, you will need to encode the audio track in either OGG Vorbis or AAC format.

Using VirtualDub

Open the mixed AVI, go to the File menu, go to Save WAV and save the WAV as encoded.wav into the same folder.

TODO: Make the VirtualDub guide more professional sounding... and yes, it really is faster and more efficient, if it wasn't I wouldn't bother adding it into this guide. -Flygon

AAC

AAC is preferred where the resulting file should be streamable. The Nero AAC encoder can be used as follows:

start /wait neroAacEnc -q 0.25 -if encoded.wav -of encoded.aac

-q is a quality factor, determining the bitrate of the final product relative to the complexity of the audio file. This may need to be adjusted for the best results.

Use of AAC will introduce a small audio delay into the final stream of around 100ms; if you are concerned with precise synchronisation with the video track, you should truncate the appropriate length of audio from the silence during your logo.

You can use MP4Box to check what the audio delay is:

MP4Box -info encoded.aac

Once this is done, you can either use your favourite audio editing software to trim the silence from encoded.wav, or you can simply redump it while passing mplayer the -ss argument with the length you found above:

start /wait mplayer mixed.avi -ss <length> -ao pcm:file=encoded.wav \ -vc dummy -aid 1 -vo null

OGG Vorbis

Use of Vorbis will mean that the resulting audio file will not be streamable.

This command line can be used to encode the audio to an ogg file (save as audioogg.bat).

start /wait oggenc2 -q1 encoded.wav

-q is the rate quantifier, which may need to be raised on games with especially detailed sound.

There are two container formats in current use by the site: MKV and MP4. MP4 is used where the final result is intended to be streamable (this must use AAC audio as opposed to Vorbis).

MP4

mp4box -add encoded.mp4 -add encoded.aac final.mp4 -par 1=<par>

<par> above is resolution-dependent; omit -par for handheld platforms.

• 256x224 (NES/SNES): 7:6 (1.167)
• 320x224 (Genesis): 14:15 (0.933)

(To compute this for an x by y resolution, use the formula y/x/3*4 and find the corresponding fraction.)

MKV

This command line will join your video and audio streams into 1 MKV. The main advantage of the MKV container is smaller filesize, though it also handles h.264 better than AVI does in general.

For Console games use aspect ratio correction:

mkvmerge --engage no_simpleblocks --aspect-ratio 1:4/3 -o final.mkv encoded.mp4 encoded.ogg

For handheld games:

mkvmerge --engage no_simpleblocks -o final.mkv encoded.mp4 encoded.ogg

The no_simpleblocks switch is IMPORTANT, as it resolves seeking issues with media players with outdated MKV support (VLC media player)

Test the file. If the quality is poorer than expected you may want to go back and reencode the video stream with a higher bitrate. If the audio is poor you should reencode the ogg with a higher q setting.

---

The Direct264 CLI used in this article for the final encode has many advanced options. This page covers the basic x264 options in depth. This post by the author covers the additional functions he has added. Here is a breakdown of the options used in the encoding command line in this article:

x264 "mixed.avi" --deldup 40 --crf 20 --keyint 300 --ref 15 --no-fast-pskip --bframes 6 --b-adapt 2 --mbtree --weightb --direct auto --subme 9 --trellis 2 --partitions all --me umh --merange 64 --threads 1 --8x8dct --no-dct-decimate --output "encoded.mp4"

• deldup 40: Major space saver. This is similar to -vf decimate in mencoder but works well with b frames and produces much better encodes. 40 specifies that the minimum fps will be 40 (prevents stuttering from decimating too many frames).
  • deldup 0.1:0.1:100:1:0.1 actually seems to get the minimum frame rate possible without actually dropping any non-duplicate frames, it does mess with the video players playback bar but it does actually play back perfectly, a few encodes have already been published with absurdly low deldup settings as it is anyway. You can thank Aktan and sgrunt for this revelation.

• crf 20: One of the most important settings; this indirectly determines the final bitrate (and therefore filesize) of the file. Lower numbers here will increase quality and file size; the lowest is 0, which yields lossless video (may not be compatible with YouTube and the like). 20 is what our encoders normally use; you may need to adjust this for desirable results, numbers between 18 and 23 are recommended.
• keyint=300: Maximum frames between keyframes, which take up more space. Setting this too high can interfere with seeking and possibly interfere with encoding/decoding quality. This setting saves a tiny amount of space over the default, which is 250. A value higher than 300 is not recommended.
  • I've used values as high as 600 and haven't had any complaints from other people, it's a safe bet to say that this is as high as you'd want to go. Flygon
• Frameref: This sets the number of frames the encoding process can reference for internal predictors. High values are best for fast moving content such as games. The maximum value is 16, however this setting can be incompatible with some decoders, so 15 is a safe bet.
  • I've encoded several movies with 16 and haven't seen anyone complain, so it's safe to say it isn't a large issue. Flygon
• no-fast-pskip: Fast pskip (which is on by default) speeds up the encode at the cost of possibly losing some quality in quiet areas like sky or backgrounds. For our purposes it should be disabled, but you may want to leave it enabled for test encodes.
• bframes 6/b-adapt 2/mbtree/weightb/direct auto: B frames are smaller reference frames that can help make areas without any/much movement look better and save filesize. the maximum value is 16, however high values can cause seek issues in some media players, and it is rare that more than 5 are used. 6 is an excellent medium. The other settings just ensure b frames are used optimally.
  • 16 is the number I've used for all of my recent encodes and haven't seen anyone complain so far, it's a fair bet to say that it's a safe number. Flygon
• Partitions all/8x8dct: These settings affect macroblock partitions, reducing the amount of blocking done by the encoder. These are the best settings and should not be changed.
• me umh/subme 9/merange=64: Motion estimation routines. There is a higher setting of me=esa which performs an exhaustive search, but this brings the encode to a crawl for no perceptible quality gain even in our fast moving content. subme 9 is the equivalent of the old subme=7 from older articles. Newer implementations use subme 9 to also enable other optimizations. merange is the search range used by motion estimation. 64 is the maximum recommended value, however it is much slower, and you can get away with a much smaller value on older games or ones without much movement. The default is 16.
  • The above information for the merange cap is mostly incorrect, there is several published encodes with a merange as high as the games resolution, essentially, if it was a NES game, the merange would be 256, or a Mega Drive game would be 320. There have been no complaints from other viewers. I've also encoded a Nintendo DS game with a merange of 384 and had zero issues with it. Flygon
• trellis 2: Helps optimize motion estimation. This setting is the slowest but has the best performance. In some extreme cases trellis 1 makes a huge difference in encoding speed. This setting can sometimes interfere with dct-decimate (on by default) causing artifacts due to the 2 prediction routines interfering with one another.
• threads 1: This sets the encoder to only use 1 cpu. Although multi core encoding is faster, it has a (fairly minor, and personally, impossible to see Flygon) quality penalty. No quality penalty occurs when using a crf value of 0.
• no-dct-decimate/no-pnsr: dct decimate optimizes p-frames by attempting to remove some details it deems unnecessary. However this can interfere with the trellis setting which is why I disable it by default. Psnr prints the signal to noise ratio statistics log after the encode is complete. Disabling it is a tiny bit faster but perhaps imperceptible considering how long our encodes are.

TODO: Condense the scrutinization properly into the descriptions, and properly correct some technically incorrect facts, though, the merange thing is actually a bit of a heated argument Flygon

Settings not used but of interest

• zones: For extremely advanced encoders. Zones allow you to set sections of the video to get more or less quality. For example you can reduce the quality of the opening and credits, and add quality to an especially fast moving section or boss fight. Read the MPlayer documentation to familiarize yourself with this command.

an example command line is

--zones 0,300,b=0.80/1200,1350,b=1.05/1500,1600,b=0.80

This will specify that frames 0-300 (an opening of a test video) and 1500-1600 (the text only end credits of the video) only use 80% bitrate, allocating the rest of the resources to the rest of the video. Frames 1200-1350 (a fast moving boss fight) are set to use 105% bitrate.

• rc-lookahead: For some reason this isn't maxed out at 250, it doesn't seem to reduce the encoding speed by much and it does seem to improve the filesize by a bit, basically, chuck the below command somewhere inside your script and forget about it. The default is 40 by the way.

-rc-lookahead 250