Tech Support Fort - Questions, Comments and Codecs (READ THE OP!)

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Tech Support Fort - Questions, Comments and Codecs (READ THE OP!)

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EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

DiabloStarCraft posted:

Won't the red border show up from skype screen sharing or would a virtual webcam or something be what you suggest?

Screen sharing typically takes up too many resources, try using ManyCam or DXTory to capture as a webcam. You might need to downscale to get it to work right.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2013 14:06

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 00:06

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

Dongattack posted:

If i take the raw avi file of unedited footage and encode that to X264, and then start editing that to make the complete video, will i create problems or bad quality by re-encoding it at X264 when im done editing? Is there a better way to do that? Basically i wanna have some batches of unedited footage lying around and also save the unedited footage for possible use later, but it takes up so much space in its original form.

Ideally you want to have only 1 lossy encode, at the very end of your process. You could try and strip some duplicate frames by cross-encoding to lagarith but I don't think it will do you much good. You can also compress the AVI files you already have as AVIs, I'm not sure if that requires a new encode but it shouldn't be lossy. Your desire for file storage isn't a job for encoding necessarily, not unless you've already exhausted your possibilities with archives. You're most likely better off just grabbing a solid black box *TB external HDD by either seagate or western digital.

ADTerminal posted:

I'm in this exact same situation, and me and a friend do use Skype screen sharing to stream games to eachother.

The only problem we have is that the person watching may also want to hear audio, and the only set up in Virtual Audio Cable that I could think of requires the viewer to also hear themselves whenever they speak.

Any ideas?

You can also use window's built-in audio mapper (sometimes they crash more than VAC does but they're auto-setup upon boot, which is convenient) in my hacked together solution:

Line 1: Skype output.
Line 2: Set as Default, Game Audio plays through here.
Line 3: Your microphone mixed with Line 1.

Within windows, use "Listen to this device" on Line 2 to pipe it to your headset. My map is usually:
Line 2->Headset
Line 1->Headset
Microphone->Line 3

Since I'm already using "listen to this device", I need a repeater for the last bit of:
Line 1->Line 3

And within Skype:
Skype Out->Line 2
Line 3->Skype In

I'll edit this post if anyone thinks I'm wrong or dumb so that I'm not givin' bad advice right near the beginning of the thread.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2013 19:28

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

Flagrama posted:

How do you get more than one line device? Do you just need to have a sound card with them? If so VAC is probably still a requirement for most people.

Sometimes its not obvious, but you should not be routing/mapping audio using line cables or physical audio devices. Sometimes you have to as a last resort, but generally speaking you want everything to be done through software because the kinds of cables people have laying around are all beat up and introduce a ton of noise. When people refer to audio lines (or sinks) they usually are using shorthand for an audio resource created by Virtual Audio Cables.

EntranceJew fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Dec 4, 2013

# ¿ Dec 4, 2013 19:47

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

JerikTelorian posted:

Has anyone tried out VB-Cable?

My current audio output pushes default audio out the speakers, and VoIP through the headphone jack. I have a Turtle Beach X12 headset, so I have dual audio control on that and can adjust on the fly.

The resulting problem is that when I stream is that I can only collect output from either Mumble or the Game, but not both. Goon Kilonum suggested I take a look at Virtual Audio Cable, though it seems to be far more complex than what I will probably need (and more expensive than I'd like to pay). I just spotted VB-Cable today while at work and am wondering if anyone has had any experience with it?

I just took a look at it and it would be a viable source if you used only needed one virtual audio sink. It could probably service multiple sinks with some minor alterations. The only thing it is missing that VAC has is the alluded-to ability to have multiple sinks and the ability to duplicate the contents of one into another. If you use Windows' listen-on you can circumvent the shortcomings of this for streaming purposes.

For example, my default audio device is line 1 where the game and mumble audio goes into. With OBS, I can mux my mic in separately so I don't need a repeater. It doesn't make sense for you to have your audio coming out of your speakers and your headset. If your default device is set to line 1 and you start all applications after setting it as your default, they should all show up through there.

Flagrama posted:

So what you are saying is in your screencap those are line devices created by VAC, but the way they are passing sound to each other you configured through the Windows settings?

Correct. You can either use VAC repeaters or Windows' audio settings, but I find it easier and a tad more practical to use what's already there for repeating/mixing audio.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2013 17:47

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

Dr Pepper posted:

OK whenever I save any avi file with Virtualdub now, it comes out all garbled like this.

I would generally recommend against using Virtualdub now, it's kinda lost its place. Did you make sure your codecs were up to date? Can you perform a repair install of it? It might be as easy as uninstalling and reinstalling it. If it persists maybe it has to do with your graphics card, if it uses GPU processing to encode video.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2013 19:34

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

Dr Pepper posted:

I don't know how check my codecs. vv

Is there something better that I could use? Something that's fairly simple with an good GUI?

We do have an updated list of video software around here somewhere... but here's my rundown:

Reinstall Virtualdub, CCCP, and/or your graphics card drivers.
Failing any of those, try performing a clean install by uninstalling them and installing them again instead of just installing over them.
If all you use is virtualdub for basic editing, consider Avidemux .
If you do use Avisynth (hopefully with the AvsPmod editor) and all you need to do is step through the video for timestamps you can use MeGUI's AVS Cutter tool.
If you use Virtualdub for recording, you could use CamStudio if you like free, or Bandicam which has worked for me when other programs weren't doing the job / stepping into my memory too much.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2013 21:48

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

Depending on the types of cables involved, splitting an RCA signal cost $20 at most and it was well worth it for recording the more action-oriented bits of Blue Stinger. My Hauppauge device had 2 to 3 seconds of delay after a particularly long recording session and it would have been impossible without splitting the signals.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2013 15:50

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

EntranceJew's Beautiful Guide for Audaciter & Handsome People :siren:

Do you wanna do captions in audacity? Really easily? Okay! Thanks to the Audaciter we can do that!

To begin, we're going to need audacity loaded up with some audio.

Select some audio in our first track.

Now hit <Ctrl+b> to make a label that spans the duration of our selection.

We can type text here for our subtitle. The label track will appear wherever so drag it up to be in line with the appropriate audio track.

We have to do this for all of our commentary tracks.

Now that we have labeled all the audio, we can export the label tracks through File -> Export Labels

Now we can upload them and convert them to .srt files with the Audaciter!

Now we just save the output file:

Open it up:

Bam! Perfectly timed (compressed) subtitles!

EntranceJew fucked around with this message at 18:17 on Dec 9, 2013

# ¿ Dec 9, 2013 18:12

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

sharktamer posted:

Has anyone tried vaporsynth?

I was very interested in it, considering Avisynth has a weird scope -- but from my understanding the regular tools like avspmod and megui should be able to work with it? The website isn't very clear about what to do after you've gotten the script set up, aside from just dumping a file. I think it'd be very worthwhile to make it a new standard after we can push out some tutorials for it.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2013 16:32

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

I haven't seen this stated elsewhere, so:
:siren:

If you want to post a video to YouTube later from Twitch, you should make at least one highlight from the stream session. :siren:

Based on recent changes in policy, in addition to having to tick the option to keep past recordings in your settings, unless you create a highlight from a stream it will not save it. Once you create a highlight, it will signal for Twitch to keep the full stream that it originated from. This is the only way to keep a Twitch recording. Please keep in mind that Twitch cannot upload videos greater than 2 hours to YouTube so if you intend to wholesale push recordings to YouTube you should chunk it into 2 hour sections.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2013 20:13

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

TheWanderingNewbie posted:

This is for now on right? I don't have to do this with all my past broadcasts that I've done?

All of the past recordings that I had from before the option was put in the settings were wiped so I wouldn't know. If you wanted to be safe you should do it anyway. Be sure that you're not mistaking the highlights you have with the recordings, which are two separate pages.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2013 20:34

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

JamieTheD posted:

Er, that's not the only option, EntranceJew. While it makes a lot of sense to highlight vids in chunks if you're archiving for YouTube, there's also the "Save Forever" option. Which isn't perfect, but so long as you catch it within 3-6 days of broadcast (it says 4-7, but better safe than sorry, eh?), it does the job. I also don't see any loss of the "Save Forever" option in either the blog, the terms, or the support page, so where you got this info from would be most handy.

I certainly don't see it on my page, nor on the recording itself's page. This is on one that I didn't ever make a highlight of so there isn't a chance that making a highlight triggers the "Safe Forever" option. Maybe Twitch just doesn't like me anymore?

# ¿ Dec 16, 2013 21:55

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

JamieTheD posted:

Maybe, because I definitely still have it under past broadcasts...

I don't have the option on videos that I've made highlights of, but I do have that option for the one in the example picture. Twitch is weird. Ideally we shouldn't be trusting it for storing recordings considering how far it's going out of its way to relieve itself of the burden of storing videos.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2013 22:20

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

The guy that runs the obscurevideogames tumblr has posted some decent tutorials for making gifs:

# ¿ Dec 17, 2013 18:49

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

Eonwe posted:

So I'm considering picking up a capture card to stream/do LPs on my Wii U, and I'm wondering if the capture card will help with my PC as well. I'd kind of like to stream Battlefield 4, and I play at 1080p. However, when I start streaming I definitely take a huge performance hit. Is it feasible to even use a capture card to stream from a PC, and if so, would that free up system resources? I did read the OP, didn't notice anything addressing this so I apologize if this is a common question.

The resources you'd save by splitting your video and routing it back in through a capture card to circumvent screen capture for your streaming program are negligible. A capture card doesn't innately help streaming. Depending on what you get it's most likely only able to encode video. You'd see better results by just playing at a smaller resolution, getting a better CPU/GPU, or upgrading your internet plan before using a capture card would help you.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2013 22:57

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

Mico posted:

Sadly, I am probably the only other person in LP that's owned this headset and I haven't encountered this problem. (Mostly due to owning a desktop)

I really like the YB100A too it's comfortable and it has a full motion microphone. I just wish it was USB instead of 3.5mm

If I had to guess I'd say it's a grounding issue but I'm in no way sure how to fix that.

I owned it on your suggestion, the only reason I got rid of it was that using it on my phone had hosed up the jack severely. Grounding errors with line cables are frequent, my phone gets them when running line-to-line in my car with my car charger connected. I haven't found a good solution other than spinning and jostling it.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2013 02:16

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

If you use a program like AvsPmod or MeGUI to step through your video it'll probably load faster since they're optimized for unencoded files.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2014 19:04

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

Cheez posted:

When it stops deciding all my game capture windows should be widescreen, regardless of what's actually inside the box, then I'll think about it. Also Livestream support.

Being incredibly smug and wrong at the same time make you difficult to help. Sounds to me like you don't know how to resize sources relative to the stage. Also livestream is available if you use "Custom" and appropriate RTMP data / FMLE configs, but isn't included to discourage use of it because use of livestream is punishable by public stoning.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2014 16:52

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

Invisible Ted posted:

So I'm trying to crop the same area in 28 images using Irfanviw's batch functions. However, following the guide in the OP, it is simply not working. There's no change between the source image and the result, regardless of what coordinates I input for the crop function. Is there either a more updated/in depth guide to batch cropping in Irfanview or another, more basic tool I can use?

If you import each image as a layer in GIMP which can be done through Import As Layers or dragging and dropping images into the layers area, you can do a crop on the canvas and it'll impact all layers. You can then use this tutorial to easily export each layer as an image again.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2014 19:14

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

Nidoking posted:

If you do multiple edits, the effects of each edit apply to the input to the next edit. So if you did something like:

trim (100, 0)

trim (500, 14395)

then by the time it does the second trim, it's already chopped 100 frames off the front. If you're doing this, then you'll need to recalculate the correct frames by exporting after each step. This is why I never do an edit from an edited video and never do an edit without assigning it to a variable, unless I've specifically exported my video to recalculate frame numbers. And even then, it limits what I can do afterward because any change I make to an upstream video will affect the later videos in the sequence. Just don't do this. Ever.

What I usually roll with is:

code:

video = ffmpegsource("hotdog.avi");
v1 = video.trim(100, 0);
v2 = video.trim(500, 14395);
v1 ++ v2;

Which is the same as:

code:

video = ffmpegsource("hotdog.avi");
video.trim(100, 0) ++ video.trim(500, 14395);

# ¿ Jan 27, 2014 03:14

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

I recently cashed in and bought myself a HD PVR GE Plus after driver issues on Windows 7 made installing my older HVR 1950 basically impossible. Its passthrough works well enough that I was able to play New Super Luigi U without any delay that impacted the time/reflex critical operations of the cooperative play. I haven't tried a lot of high energy games so I can't speak much to the quality during high-motion scenes, but Asura's Wrath was recorded with a lesser version of the hardware with very few issues. The capture device isn't immediately compatible with OBS but it's definitely one of their targets for their code rewrite. Fortunately the Hauppauge Capture software with the "StreamEez" functionality is Good Enough for the time being.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2014 19:37

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

The easiest way to work with audio is to mix and merge tracks in Audacity. VirtualDub has the ability to export a wav from the current video and you can use MeGUI to export just the audio of the original video as any format you prefer. (I prefer flac.) You can import that into Audacity, import the commentary, do any ducking you may need, then export it as whatever format you want. (Again, I prefer flac.) You can then use Niggurath's steps to combine them.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2014 05:46

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

chocolatekake posted:

I thought I should be able to open a .avs just like it was a .avi? Because I think I got an error related to why Camtasia only recognized the source .mp4 as audio. It says there's a pin failing to find a connectable filter.

AVI Decompressor::XForm Out

After closing the error message it plays the audio just fine but not video, again. I thought it might have been an out of date CCCP, but I just reinstalled it. And MPC, even though that shouldn't really affect it, as far as I know. I couldn't really find anything on the pin/filter issue.

MPC-HC should be able to open a .avs file just like a video file. However, most editing software will not recognize it because .avs is a format used for editing, for the most part. There's a small bug with videos of irregular dimensions in the version of MPC that comes with CCCP, but I already filed that with them.

Contrary to the name, Avisynth works with files that are not .avi, you just need to know the correct plugins for it. If you are ever confused, just ask and it'll get added to the OP.

Additionally, there's definitely not a function that loads video with audio provided by ffms2. If there were, you definitely wouldn't use it as follows:

code:

LoadPlugin("ffms2.avsi")
FFCopyrightInfringement("sourcevideo.mp4")

# ¿ Feb 6, 2014 00:08

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

Lunethex posted:

I also love when my friend tells me he's browsing on his mobile, on Youtube, he lives in America, and he constantly gets messages of how this or that video is blocked in his country.

Usually that means "advertisers aren't sure whether they want to pay for views on the mobile app/site" so they cut it off.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2014 02:40

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

TeamViewer on the phone doesn't work to connect from computer to phone, only phone to computer.

Source: I'm too lazy to get off the couch sometimes.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2014 04:36

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

BoastfulVirus posted:

Okay thanks for your help. Might have to get a new mic then.

Usually, careful audio sampling (see the OP for noise removal guides) will help you get noise removed on your current mic.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2014 10:29

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

Genocyber posted:

Does anyone have experience with using ezcap.tv capture device? I'm looking into that since I want to stream ps3 but can't really afford an hd capture device (and I don't have an hd TV so it'd be useless anyway).

The quality of your TV does not influence the quality of the stream or recording for others.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2014 00:13

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

hubris.height posted:

Has anyone converted the Bash script in the text extraction tutorial to work with windows yet? is there a tool that will automatically run a set sequence of commands on a batch, or am I SOL unless I have Cygwin? In the end it'd probably be easier to learn all the things needed to do it in Python than to type out every text box, but jeez... that's still an undertaking.

edit: Found a transcript of the game, but now I'm just curious -- did someone ever update that process?

ImageMagick works multiplatform. You need to run the commands in a regular command prompt.
You may need to add the ImageMagick directory to your PATH variable.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2014 22:35

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

K-Flow posted:

I've looked through the OP and googled this to no end but for some reason can't find a solution so I figured this would be the best place to ask. I want to stream my Dreamcast on twitch and wasn't sure what I needed to do it with. I want my Dreamcast to go into my SDTV (via composite cable) so I can play it on that while it streams from my tv to my laptop. What hardware would I need to accomplish this?

Assuming you have two spare male-to-male cables, you'd use 3 female-to-female splitters and route one to your capture device and one to your TV.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2014 00:17

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

hubris.height posted:

This isn't my question. At the bottom of the Wiki article linked, they created a handy, automated bash script that would go through a list of Screenshots, and crop the text boxes (based on the location that they appear on the screen, so it has to be a game that has constant positioning), negate the image, darken the text (all in imagemagick), and then run the OCR software and seek through the file for any recognized terms to auto replace with faces.

I was wondering if anyone had ported over a windows version (be it batch file, c++ program, or something). I'm sorry if I wasn't clear.

Oh! I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, to make up for it I added (a form of) newline substitution to Lufia's original port:

code:

@echo off
setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion EnableExtensions

cd /D Q:\Program Files\drivers\imagemagick
set _path=Q:\Users\admin\Desktop
set imagepath=%_path%\raw

<nul (set/p z=) > %_path%\text.txt
IF NOT EXIST %imagepath%\ocr mkdir %imagepath%\ocr

set builtlines=
FOR %%f IN (%_path%\raw\*.png) DO (
    convert -crop 640x96+0+384 -negate -threshold 50%% %%f %imagepath%\ocr\%%~nf.pnm
	gocr049 -d 0 -a 99 -f UTF8 -m 386 -p %imagepath%\ocr\ -i %imagepath%\ocr\%%~nf.pnm > %_path%\text.temp
	set builtlines=
	for /f "tokens=* delims=" %%x in (%_path%\text.temp) do (
		setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion
		set "line=%%x"
		setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
		set "builtlines=!builtlines! !line!"
	)
	setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
	set builtlines=!builtlines! 
	echo !builtlines:~1,-1!>>%_path%\text.txt
    del %imagepath%\ocr\%%~nf.pnm
)
del %_path%\text.temp

It should work without a hitch, I couldn't get the version prior to work with the guide so I had to change some stuff here and there to better match it. If you need to tune the convert and gOCR commands you shouldn't have a problem using the guide's stuff with the given paths. If you plan on modifying anything else, be aware that my version makes use of trailing whitespace due to batch oddities.

If it has any issues, feel free to post about it and I'll update it as necessary.

EntranceJew fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Feb 20, 2014

# ¿ Feb 20, 2014 06:21

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

MegaZeroX posted:

I have a con you could add to Minus. You need to have either IOS or Android in order to create an account, or let the site be able to make posts on your Twitter/Facebook.

Minus seems to have its routing pages hosed in favor of promoting something else entirely. This is supposedly the join page but it seems to be politely taking your data and throwing it on the floor.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2014 23:19

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

MEAT! posted:

Wow that's a pretty bad workflow. Why don't you just make your subs with Aegisub and hardsub them in at the end when you're encoding with MeGUI? As for the font, Arial Black.

Since most people are using youtube these days, they may as well just work with youtube's built in subtitle support by uploading .srt files.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2014 02:16

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

Agent355 posted:

I finally am ready to start doing my next LP after a long hiatus and wanted to pick up some real video editing software and stop using avisynth in notepad. Any recommendations?

If you absolutely need to use a video editing software then Avidemux is usually what I reach for, although most of what it can do is easily achievable in avisynth.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2014 19:35

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

signalnoise posted:

Read the OP, still have this question

I want to listen to game audio and voice chat simultaneously through my headphones, but record the audio streams separately. I want to do this without lag. What do I do? I'm willing to spend money. I've already tried Virtual Audio Cable but that poo poo lags.

Current hardware available-

Logitech G930 headset
Hauppauge HD PVR2 Gamer whatever
Avermedia Live Gamer HD internal
Motherboard has Realtek audio

Are you sure VAC is the one lagging? If you're using Hauppauge like I do, you've got it going passthrough to your TV. The audio from the game is going to naturally be at a delay because of the PVR and not the game. If this turns out to be your problem, you can potentially use a male-to-male line from your TV back to your computer to get the audio from the passthrough at less of a delay.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2014 14:15

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

slowbeef posted:

Can anyone point me to software for pulling in multiple streams? Something like TotalBiscuit uses on the Co-Optional Podcast so you can replicate 3 (or more/less) other streams on yours and relay it out to viewers?

OBS mac support is still on its way, but if you are using OBS there's a chance that the video source plugin would work if you got the correct RTMP urls. There's also the browser source plugin that you could use to build a one-off page that embeds the streams you desired.

Side note: OBS v0.613b causes really weird slowdown for some people, if it is giving you this sort of trouble please visit the releases page and try the second most recent version to see if it still gives you trouble. You can install two versions of OBS along-side each-other, so don't install over your existing copy.

EntranceJew fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Mar 14, 2014

# ¿ Mar 14, 2014 19:18

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

You need to duck the game against everybody's audio individually, as ducking only works against two tracks at a time. I think the guide may have mentioned that.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2014 03:36

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

My first thought is to export it as flac instead, or update audacity.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2014 04:18

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

skoolmunkee posted:

What I did was mute the game audio and export the commentary tracks as an mp3, then re-import that and autoduck against it. Then you can export the final audio track with the individual commentaries and the autoducked game.

You can just re-arrange the commentary tracks in-place by dragging them above or over another. I mentioned before that they only effect two active tracks. Additional exporting and importing in non-lossless forms is not suggested. Even if you keep this workflow consider using flac for all the steps before the render.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2014 01:30

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

I would recommend getting a set of splitter wires vs a specialized capture device if you need composite input / output.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2014 05:15

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 00:06

EntranceJew: Nov 5, 2009

As long as you have an instance of audacity for each headset and each headset is its own audio device. Then I just recommend using VAC to repeat into each headset.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2014 03:02

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Tech Support Fort - Questions, Comments and Codecs (READ THE OP!)

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