Hello.
I would like to know more about encoding and how it SHOULD be done (I allready know somewhat but it aint sufficent).
I tried to make an unofficial encode through a submission (since a lot of people want to watch a video rather than a watching a submission playback) and since I have 100/100 Mbit I will gladly provide and host unofficial encodes if this is appreciated.
Here is basically the steps I have tried (Snes9x 1.43) using ffdshow.
* Load the ROM into the emulator.
* Pause the ROM.
* Play movie from submission file.
* Select Record AVI from the menu.
* Change from Full Frames (Uncompressed) to ffdshow Video Codec.
* Configure -> Here I've selected H.268 codec (I think it was default).
* Unpause and wait for submission to finish.
The video encoding seems to work perfectly and this gets a ~20 minute submission down to ~700 MB rather than 10 GB uncompressed.
But then there is the Audio which I havn't tried yet but I don't think this can be done at the same time the submission is playing back (The avi is being recorded) but afterwards.
Anyhow, what I'm trying to get at is that I'd like a more complete guide with guidelines to settings / encoding type and if you feel like it please explain the approach to encode(?) Audio with ffdshow too.
I'm using Windows which I intend to use for video encoding but I have a Debian GNU/Linux with ffdshow installed as well. I want to use the Windows box for video encoding since the cpu is a lot faster than on my *nix box. Then the Audio I havn't decided wether to encode this on the win box or *nix box yet, not sure how long this process takes.
But in the end the *nix box will host the movie(s) nonetheless since that's where my http daemon is installed.
So, to summarize this thread up:
I would appreciate a guide, preferably for both win and *nix, that explains encoding video and audio using ffdshow along with encoding guidelines for settings and what codec to use for video and audio.
I've searched the forum but can't find any thread that explains this, nor did I find anything under Articles.
Cheers
Undie
Hi Undie,
Here are just some general tips.
- Get Avisynth (http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page). This is needed for the next tool
- Get MeGUI (http://sourceforge.net/projects/megui). This will allow you to encode to h.264 easier with x264 and also comes with all the audio encoding tools you need.
- When you capture from Snes9x, capture lossless. H.268 (I think you mean h.263) is not lossless in ffdshow and the quality will suffer when you convert to h.264 with x264 in MeGUI.
If you need help with creating the basic script in Avisynth, let me know.
But then there is the Audio which I havn't tried yet but I don't think this can be done at the same time the submission is playing back (The avi is being recorded) but afterwards.
Sound will always be captured lossless, I wouldn't know a way to get around that.
Undie wrote:
encode(?) Audio with ffdshow
Huh?
Undie wrote:
Debian GNU/Linux with ffdshow installed
Again: huh?!
Undie wrote:
Then the Audio I havn't decided wether to encode this on the win box or *nix box yet, not sure how long this process takes.
"oggenc -b bitrate input.wav" and you're done for. Should be available for Windows as well.
Undie wrote:
So, to summarize this thread up:
I would appreciate a guide, preferably for both win and *nix, that explains encoding video and audio using ffdshow along with encoding guidelines for settings and what codec to use for video and audio.
Video codec: x264, always
Audio codec: MP3 if you're going with avis, Vorbis for mkv files
For some x264 settings, you might consider going through each individual article for the emulators on Making avis on Windows and look up the settings here.
http://tasvideos.org/EncoderGuidelines.html should give you some general guidelines.
As for MeGUI: if you're going for temporary encodes, whatever. But if you want to help out by providing quality encodes for publication, just don't and do it with mencoder or the official x264 encoder.
Don't ever use H.264 in AVI. And don't ever use -vf decimate. If you really need to decimate dupes to shave off every last byte possible of the file size, use proper VFR decimation, with this, --deldup 1 and MKV output.
As for MeGUI: if you're going for temporary encodes, whatever. But if you want to help out by providing quality encodes for publication, just don't and do it with mencoder or the official x264 encoder.
What's wrong with MeGUI? It's just a frontend for CLI x264....
Avisynth doesn't have configurations. It just a text based script. First you create a new text file with the extension .avs. For example "example.avs." Then you modify this file with a text editor like notepad. Since Snes9x outputs to AVIs, you type into the text editor something similar to this:
AviSource("C:\rockman.avi")
ConvertToYV12()
The first line points to the AVI file Snes9x created and use it as a source. The second line converts the color from RGB that Snes9x outputs to something x264 understands, which is YV12.
After you save the avs file, you can load it up in MeGUI and it should show you a preview.
I'm not sure how well I explained this, but here is some links with more help:
http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/First_scripthttp://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Getting_started
