Lets racing time

Okay, I've got narcodis's video! Good news and bad news!

The good news is, it doesn't seem like any of his audio is desynced. So it can serve as the sole audio track for the run and nobody will be able to tell. Also he didn't get the game audio, so it doesn't ruin my plan to replace it with music.

The bad news is, narcodis is a little quiet on his own track, and you can sometimes hear some echo on Nodal and myself. A better man than I could probably go through all two hours of this and fix everything, but we're just gonna have to live with it.

I think we'll have something watchable! Weird!

While I'm doing this, does someone want to go and set up a LETS RACING TIME YouTube channel? I'd do it myself but I don't feel like it.

Once it's set up, anyone with the password could upload, right?

If so, I'll do it.

A gentleman and a scholar, that's what you are. Thanks!

Hey, I just thought of a possible problem though.

Do new accounts have time limits for uploads?

If so I'll chop it into 15 minute chunks. Ain't no thang.

LET'S RACING TIME

Even better: "Congratulations! Your account is now enabled for uploads longer than 15 minutes."

I'll PM Brickroad the login info.

Yeah, I think "longer than 15 minutes" is the default now, unless there's a content match or a copyright claim.

It's not the default, but it's really easy to enable. You go to the upload page, click a link, and get a code sent to your phone.

Subscribed, getting ready to post obnoxious "UPDATEZ PLEEZ" comments.

I need to get some stuff so I can join in if we ever do a SMB3 one.

EDIT: Good to see I play Mario 3 like a drunken monkey on a keyboard.

Well I'm just about done uploading my edited videos. Should I wait for the proper run to be uploaded before setting them Public, or just do it whenever?

Go ahead and upload whatever you like.

I really hope there is a better process to putting these together. Using Camtasia's PIP track is excruciating. I've had to do one pass on each video to crop/resize, plus one pass for each video to add it to the master file, and then it'll take another pass to add the overlay, timer and music. At 2-3 hours per pass that's... a lot of time.

I don't know another way to do it with the software I have, though.

Alright, well, here they are.

I added random STTB2 stage themes as background music so there wouldn't be so much dead air.

(and I can totally play Mario 1 better than this you guys)

As for editing the collaboration, I don't know of any free video editors that can do that sort of thing. I sure hope there's an easier way, I'd like to keep seeing these.

Perhaps you should reach out the to guys who did the ones that gave you the idea to do this in the first place and ask them?

Based on the thread in SA, which is where the videos originated, it looks like they suggest using VirtualDubMod for the video editing. Here's the rest of the links that they offer in the Software section:

Audacity - Free audio editor/recorder with lots of features.
MeGUI - Graphical interface for running avisynth scripts.
Call Graph - Back-up skype call recorder
Camtasia | Hypercam 2 - Screencap software (hypercam 2 is free now, but read carefully on install)
Lagarith Codec - A nice lossless codec
SCFH DSF - Good screencap, works with virtualdub's capture mode.
Avisynth Wiki - Detailed wiki for the functions in Avisynth, usually with examples

They've also got a script for the Timer and Grid layout for the layout, and a couple more specialized scripts (Isaac, Mega Man X and X2, Zelda, which I can link if we ever get around to doing those here).

Also, I'm totally up for being that one guy in the race who's in last place and probably never finishes. In fact, I'll race anyone to the bottom in that category.

I used to use Avidemux, but it sometimes has trouble importing certain files. If you don't mind trying to figure out settings for a while, it might be a solution.

Rai, thanks. I'm sure those links will prove invaluable!

Although I guess the moral of the story here is that I just need to learn to use VirtualDub for more stuff. I default to Camtasia for everything because I am a stupid moron.

Testing my recording setup.

Looks fine to me. For races, though, make sure you know how to record just your mic, and not the game audio.

Yeah, I recorded it separately in Audacity. I also know how to mute the game footage if needed.

I wish I could figure out how to record both. I use Hypercam and I've only ever been able to get it to record either my stereo mix, or my mic input, never both. (I've also tried Camstudio and have had the same problem there)

Not sure if this has to do with using a USB headset or not...

Depending on your sound card, you can set it up so your mic outputs to your speakers. Then stereo mix will catch everything. Might not be able to do it with a USB headset though.

I'm having a little trouble with ffdshow. Either it crashes when I try to record, or a I get a black screen. If I tweak the settings the wrong way, it disappears from Camtasia's available codec list entirely.

I'm right there with you. I was testing settings out yesterday and it was terrible trying to muddle with a keyboard. I know at one point I had a dongle to hook Dual Shock 2's up, but I guess I got rid of it after I sold my PS2 and accessories. (I have one again. Go figure.)

Do you by chance have a PSP? Poking around pointed me to a little bit of homebrew that turns the PSP into a usb gamepad. It works better then it sounds like it might! Not optimal certainly, but very useable and recommendable to anyone in lieu of having to spend the money for an adapter. You know, assuming you have a PSP laying around. The screen shuts off when it's plugged in even, so the battery drain is minimal.

Gotta have custom firmware to run it though. I use 6.60LME-1.3, which is innocuous and absurdly easy to install. and the software I use is FuSa GamePad 0.3.

Grab the Lagarith lossless codec Rai linked above, and record using that. Then you can encode later using ffdshow or whatever else.

Keep in mind that using a lossless codec will result in an ENORMOUS camrec file. A two-hour video will be like 25GB.

Is me using Microsoft Video 1 to output going to be an issue? I don't exactly have tons of GB of free space.

Sure is. I use Fraps for my PC stuff, and it's super massive. Finished recording for STO last night and it was 25 gigs for ~67 minutes. After I reencode into MP4 for Premiere to handle it, it is reduced to 1.5 gigs.

Hooray, I've managed to find a combination that allows me to record with a good framerate! That lossless codec that Rai linked does a very nice job. The file sizes start out at roughly 1 meg per second, which is like 4 GB for an hour of video, but I should be able to compress that down afterwards to something reasonable. Anyone have any suggestions for reencoding the video at a lower bitrate? I could always use that copy of Premiere that Adobe, uh, gave me a while back, but I'd be happy with something smaller.

Depending on what Brick needs as input, you can use VirtualDubMod as linked above and use XviD as the compression. Even with basic settings you'll probably cut that hour of video down to under 500 megs, without even needing to resize or what have you.

I primarily use Premiere for it's ease of putting everything together, coupled with it outputting in FLV which is used by web players like Youtube, Viddler, and JW Player.

This is doing the trick. It's outputting at a much nicer framerate, and actual gameplay while recording is a lot smoother. Thanks! And thanks for the link, Rai!

I should also point out I typoed: I'm using CamStudio, not Camtasia. What a difference a few keystrokes can make.

Anyway, how do you guys record your stuff as far as resolution goes? Windowed or full screen? When I record a window in CamStudio, it manages to always capture stuff like the menu bar on top or the window border on one side. Worse still, CamStudio has these intense (and intensely annoying and system bogging) flashing brackets around the window while recording. It's the worst.

Yeah, that's a downside to Camstudio.