Nico Nico Douga (also known as Nicovideo or Niconico) is a very popular Japanese video-sharing site. One of its most notable features is a scrolling comment system.

How to register for Nicovideo

You can register for Nicovideo through its English interface.
If the site is currently showing some language other than English, you can change the language option at the bottom of the page. Click on the option beside "言語" (Language) at the bottom of the page and select "English (US)". It is recommended to set "Region" to "Japan".

How to log in to the main site

At http://www.nicovideo.jp, click Login along the top. Then log in with your e-mail address and password. You know you are logged in if you see your username along the top.

Important note about user account levels

There are two user account levels. The one that is used with no charge is "ordinary account"; the other one, "premium account", must be paid (~5$/month or something).
This article is written assuming that you have an ordinary account.

Important note about language mode

Nicovideo uses a form of language segregation for parts of its interface. Details below:
Thus, if you are using Japanese mode, you will get all comments and tags made on the Japanese side. If you use English mode, you will get comments and tags made on the English side, of which there are (of the time of writing) next to none.
You must use Japanese mode if you wish to interact with and see comments from the Japanese Nicovideo community.
The following is written with the assumption that all videos have been uploaded in a Japanese-oriented manner.

How to play a video

You must be logged in to play videos directly from nicovideo.jp. However, there are offsite viewing sites such as nicozon.net.
To play a video, click the link to a video page. Wait for it to load, then click the play button.
Occasionally, playback will fail, and the video will be black. This happens occasionally and at random. If playback fails on nicovideo.jp, then a white pop-up will appear as well.
If this happens, just wait for a while, and hopefully it will work later.
Nicovideo also has a low-quality mode during busy times. The interface will inform you when this occurs.

How to turn off scrolling comments

If the scrolling comments bother you, as it might when you first watch Nicovideo videos, you can turn them off by clicking the icon with the "..." in the bottom right corner of the video.
Note: If you are on the main site in English mode, there is probably no problem.

How to search for video game TASes

Video game TASes show up very often on Nicovideo. In fact there is even a video series dedicated to tracking Nicovideo ranking of TAS videos for each month.

List of recently uploaded TASes

If you just want to see a list of recent TASes uploaded there, just enter "TAS" in the search bar and click "Search". Change the search sort (option menu below the search bar and to the left) to "Newest Uploaded".

Finding a TAS for a particular game

If you want to find an upload for a TAS of a particular game then do the following:
For example, let's say I want to search for a TAS of "E.V.O. Search for Eden".
It is not guaranteed that the search will return any TASes. If the game is obscure, it probably doesn't have a TAS uploaded there. If the game does not have a Japanese version and it does not have a cult following in the Japanese video game community, then almost certainly it will not have a TAS there.

Interest in unknown or obscure game covered by video

If you come across a TAS for some game that you don't know, you can try to find the English or romanized name.
The game name is most likely the blurb of text at the beginning of the title, after "【TAS】" if that is at the beginning.
Copy the game title, paste it into a search engine's search bar, and search for it. Locate any link with a Wikipedia page. If it is a ja.wikipedia page, check the left margin for language links and look for "English". If you are lucky, you will get the English name.
If the above doesn't work, try the same thing on the first tag that isn't "TAS" or "ゲーム" (Game). You must be in Japanese mode to see the tags.
If the above still doesn't work, you can ask someone who is familiar with Japanese, even remotely. Some games are obscure to Western audiences and have no easily accessible English name.

Uploading to Nicovideo

Before going on, note the following restrictions on upload:
If uploading an MP4 file:
For ordinary accounts:
(Premium accounts get Unlimited amount of videos to upload, 8GB per account and the MP4 restrictions do not apply. Global 100MiB restriction still applies in all cases.)
Since MP4, MKV and AVI are containers with hardly any difference in resulting filesize, you should upload as MKV or AVI.

How to upload

Click "Upload" along the top bar.
In the browse bar, browse the movie file. Then click the black "Upload Video" button below. It will ask you if you are sure; click OK. Then wait.
If the upload succeeds, the first thing you should see is three screenshots. This is what you do:

TAS upload conventions

Title:
【TAS】ロックマンX5 "X, 100%" in 59:10.1 (1/2)
Description:
合計プレイタイムでsm15472807から1分25秒ほど更新されています。
ZERO(100%)→sm15336314

part2 sm16962743

制作: Bernka氏 
追記: 43590回 
!#3454: Bernka's PSX Mega Man X5 "X, 100%" in 59:10.10
Tags:
ゲーム TAS ロックマン ロックマンTASリンク ...

How to edit movie and check stats

Go to http://www.nicovideo.jp/my/video to see your videos. Alternatively, go to "Menu -> My Uploads"
You can edit things related to the movie by clicking "Edit" beside the movie you want to edit after mousing over it.

Nicovideo last edited by adelikat on 8/31/2023 2:09 AM
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