Dxtory Recording V2 - The perfect settings thread

2014-03-24 05:39:45 pm

I second CRF 10. That's just way overkill for any encodings, so you won't see any difference between that and lossless. Well, you most likely won't anyway. It cuts down on the size by a lot.
Btw, is there a non-vfw version of x264 that works with that application?

TheVampire

Edit history:

TheVampire: 2014-03-24 05:56:09 pm

TheVampire: 2014-03-24 05:55:48 pm

2014-03-24 05:49:15 pm

First off, using CRF 10 or any other CRF for that matter, while it would decrease the bit-rate, it would just add more video processing and that's what we don't want. The reason we chose lossless isn't only for the quality, but also for the fast encoding that we need to get as much fps as possible.
Second, no. Dxtory and pretty much all of the video recorders use Video for Windows Codecs.

TheVampire

Edit history:

TheVampire: 2014-03-24 06:00:46 pm

2014-03-24 06:00:29 pm

Also, I'm going to leave you tonight with a small sample of the capabilities of recording on PC. This is the intro part from Batman: Arkham City recorded using the new codec that I've been testing in lossless RGB, 1080p@60fps, encoded with Handbrake with the SDA XQ profile.

This is what runs could be in the future, i hope :))

https://mega.co.nz/#!ssQQGbRA!hsYBU2rKcbBEjue8Vz-xsT4uPUs0ExMUYVSOL0jHILo

Mystery

Edit history:

Mystery: 2014-03-24 06:19:57 pm

2014-03-24 06:19:39 pm

Quote from TheVampire:

First off, using CRF 10 or any other CRF for that matter, while it would decrease the bit-rate, it would just add more video processing and that's what we don't want. The reason we chose lossless isn't only for the quality, but also for the fast encoding that we need to get as much fps as possible.

Well, in my tests, CRF @ 10 decreased the encoding speed by around 2 FPS on my 3.4 GHz i5. 1080p resolution. Not a whole lot, so it might be worth the tradeoff if you have a slower hard drive or just want lower filesize. CPU Utilization remained the same.

TheVampire

2014-03-24 06:24:33 pm

That also depends on the game and the particular hardware you have to work with. That why it's good to experiment with different settings to find what works best for you. That's also why we have a tech support forum. To help people get the most out of their PCs.

Mystery

2014-03-24 06:26:45 pm

True enough. It's just a shame it costs a lot of money, this software.

TheVampire

2014-03-24 06:30:47 pm

To be honest, for the amount of features and versatility this program has to offer, it doesn't seem like a huge investment. It's like 35$, less than a new AAA game. You could also use a program like OBS to record runs and i'm sure that if you're willing to search around google, there might me some freeware programs that offer basic recording functionality at around the same quality.

ballofsnow

2014-03-24 06:30:59 pm

I don't like the idea of using CRF for intermediate files. CRF will give extra bits to low motion scenes, and less bits to high motion scenes. I'd rather keep the quality the same throughout with CQP, and then CRF on the final encode. Maybe it doesn't matter at a value of 10 for either, but that's my preference.

TheVampire

Edit history:

TheVampire: 2014-03-24 06:38:03 pm

TheVampire: 2014-03-24 06:34:38 pm

2014-03-24 06:32:42 pm

My philosophy is that if you have the space and speed go lossless all the way Cheesy

. If you have a recent-ish motherboard that supports raid 0, buying 2 1TB HDDs isn't a huge investment and allows a ton of recording at the best quality possible.

I'm done for tonight, it's 2:30 AM here and i have to go to work at 8. After some more testing, i'm going to release a small update on recording 1080p60fps with amazing quality.

Mystery

Edit history:

Mystery: 2014-03-24 06:38:41 pm

2014-03-24 06:37:07 pm

Quote from TheVampire:

To be honest, for the amount of features and versatility this program has to offer, it doesn't seem like a huge investment. It's like 35$, less than a new AAA game. You could also use a program like OBS to record runs and i'm sure that if you're willing to search around google, there might me some freeware programs that offer basic recording functionality at around the same quality.

Well, I won't argue price vs functionality. It is what it is, and I have no say in it.
As for other programs, nVidia Shadowplay is all I'm going to say Wink

1080p60 - no problem!
But this thread is about Dxtory and nothing else, so I shall not derail the thread Smiley

Quote from ballofsnow:

I don't like the idea of using CRF for intermediate files. CRF will give extra bits to low motion scenes, and less bits to high motion scenes. I'd rather keep the quality the same throughout with CQP, and then CRF on the final encode. Maybe it doesn't matter at a value of 10 for either, but that's my preference.

My experience with CRF is that it tends to underallocate bits to things such as fog and dark places and backgrounds. Basically what isn't in focus.
But I also think that people are too afraid of lossy compression. I don't really have any metric, but you could probably re-encode a movie at CRF 10 a couple of times with no visual loss of quality.
Lossless is nice, but takes a lot of space.

Quote from TheVampire:

My philosophy is that if you have the space and speed go lossless all the way Cheesy

. If you have a recent-ish motherboard that supports raid 0, buying 2 1TB HDDs isn't a huge investment and allows a ton of recording at the best quality possible.

Also, I'm pretty sure you don't need RAID for modern hard drives... my own hard drive came out at around 140 MB/s for read and write, which should be plenty for lossless encoding.

[quote="TheVampire"]To be honest, for the amount of features and versatility this program has to offer, it doesn't seem like a huge investment. It's like 35$, less than a new AAA game. You could also use a program like OBS to record runs and i'm sure that if you're willing to search around google, there might me some freeware programs that offer basic recording functionality at around the same quality. [/quote]
Well, I won't argue price vs functionality. It is what it is, and I have no say in it.
As for other programs, nVidia Shadowplay is all I'm going to say ;) 1080p60 - no problem!
But this thread is about Dxtory and nothing else, so I shall not derail the thread :)

[quote="ballofsnow"]I don't like the idea of using CRF for intermediate files. CRF will give extra bits to low motion scenes, and less bits to high motion scenes. I'd rather keep the quality the same throughout with CQP, and then CRF on the final encode. Maybe it doesn't matter at a value of 10 for either, but that's my preference.[/quote]
My experience with CRF is that it tends to underallocate bits to things such as fog and dark places and backgrounds. Basically what isn't in focus.
But I also think that people are too afraid of lossy compression. I don't really have any metric, but you could probably re-encode a movie at CRF 10 a couple of times with no visual loss of quality.
Lossless is nice, but takes a lot of space.

[quote="TheVampire"]My philosophy is that if you have the space and speed go lossless all the way :D . If you have a recent-ish motherboard that supports raid 0, buying 2 1TB HDDs isn't a huge investment and allows a ton of recording at the best quality possible.[/quote]
Also, I'm pretty sure you don't need RAID for modern hard drives... my own hard drive came out at around 140 MB/s for read and write, which should be plenty for lossless encoding.

DeMoNFLiP84

2014-03-24 08:51:38 pm

A Serious Noob

The prices for those screen captures I feel are steep.

Fraps cost me about $40 when I got it a 2 years ago.

Bandicam cost me about $33

I'm still debating on getting Dxtory but I am good with Bandicam for now. I hardly even record PC gameplays now anyway but it's still an option though.

TheVampire

2014-04-16 03:52:40 pm

New tutorial for streaming using Dxtory + OBS at the end of the first post!

KickingBear

2014-05-23 12:21:47 am

Thanks for the tutorial TheVampire! Great thread. I'd like to test out the ffdshow video codec your using but i cant seem to find it in the K Lite codec pack I tried. could you possibly link me where to get it and how to install it (if no bundled documents clearly instruct how)? And if you have the time, maybe update us on your experience with these different codecs within dxtory if you have any thoughts different from what you have stated on this thread

Mystery

2014-05-23 01:34:53 am

Try CCCP instead of K-Lite. K-Lite is a mess of bundled codecs that sometimes don't play well with each other. CCCP contains ffdshow.

TheVampire

2014-05-23 07:52:33 am

Quote from Mystery:

Try CCCP instead of K-Lite. K-Lite is a mess of bundled codecs that sometimes don't play well with each other. CCCP contains ffdshow.

Last i checked, CCCP didn't contain VFW codecs. This might had changed in the meantime, as for K-lite, i had no problems with the pack and I've been using it for quite some years.

To install the VFW codecs that are necessary, you need to download "K-Lite Codec Pack Mega" found here: http://www.codecguide.com/download_k-lite_codec_pack_mega.htm

Once you open the installer you have a few options, either install profile 9 (Lots of stuff) with or without the player, or select "Deselect all" and select just the VFW codecs like here:

That's it for now. I'll make a longer post this weekend with my recent experimentation and discoveries.

Cauptain

2014-05-23 09:52:17 am

Quote from Mystery:

Try CCCP instead of K-Lite. K-Lite is a mess of bundled codecs that sometimes don't play well with each other. CCCP contains ffdshow.

Its a bigger lie. Always used K-lite for various years and NEVER get any problem.

The problem is people dont know are doing and always blame something. Typical of human nature.

Claudio

TheVampire

Edit history:

TheVampire: 2014-05-23 09:57:17 am

TheVampire: 2014-05-23 09:56:54 am

TheVampire: 2014-05-23 09:56:40 am

TheVampire: 2014-05-23 09:56:24 am

2014-05-23 09:56:13 am

Quote from Cauptain:

Its a bigger lie. Always used K-lite for various years and NEVER get any problem.

The problem is people dont know are doing and always blame something. Typical of human nature.

Claudio

It depends on the personal experience of every person with the different codec packs. It's not necessarily a lie, it just depends on the needs of the individual user.

Mystery

2014-05-23 11:16:19 am

Quote from Cauptain:

Quote from Mystery:

Try CCCP instead of K-Lite. K-Lite is a mess of bundled codecs that sometimes don't play well with each other. CCCP contains ffdshow.

Its a bigger lie. Always used K-lite for various years and NEVER get any problem.

The problem is people dont know are doing and always blame something. Typical of human nature.

Claudio

It is typical of human nature to get overconfident because something simply works for them.

Cauptain

2014-05-23 11:48:52 am

Quote from Mystery:

It is typical of human nature to get overconfident because something simply works for them.

Wrong. If you dont know what you're doing, just dont blame something for their error.

For 10 plps work great for another 10 dont work. Where is the problem?

Easier to blame something than to admit that you're the problem. Its a typical human nature.

I read on the net for years

Quote:

My favorite player no longer works. I installed K-lite and stopped.

I think: It was working before, why you installed the K-lite? Nonsense.

No excuse. The error is yours and not the software.

If you do not know, dont tell other do too. shut up. Is more correct.

Claudio

TheVampire

2014-05-23 11:50:36 am

Don't turn this this thread into a flame war ffs, come on guys!

Mystery

Edit history:

Mystery: 2014-05-23 11:56:19 am

2014-05-23 11:55:52 am

I have no intention of continuing this charade. It won't go anywhere, plus it's off-topic.
So I'll leave it at that.

KickingBear

2014-05-23 10:34:26 pm

Okay, so I gave ffdshow a try tonight and i used the recommended settings by TheVampire in his OBS Dxtory video. Here are my completely unscientific first impressions. For a 21 minute recording of Saints Row IV 1080p@30fps was a 110gb file. That's fucking massive. In my test, im just uncomfortable with that kind of compression ratio. Also I felt no perceivable improvement in FPS. Secondly, I was unable to import it into Powerdirector 12 for some reason. Perhaps it's possible to tweak it more to my liking with some time, but honestly at this time, Im probably going to just stick with Lagarith mostly, and sometimes x264vfw when im feeling file size conscious for particular games. Maybe TheVampire can chime in with his latest findings. Every codec is going to operate differently for different configs. So far ffdshow isnt my cup of tea.

Cauptain

2014-05-24 07:37:36 am

Actualy better codec for Dxtory is UT VIDEO RGB. Its a full compatible with all linear editors like Vegas, Power Director, Edius, Avid, Premiere...

Its a huge files too but perfect compatibility.

Theres a no improvement if record at 30fps.

For test try Mirillis Action!. The quality is close lossless but size files closest X264 in HQ.

Claudio

KickingBear

2014-05-24 11:20:36 pm

Quote from Cauptain:

Actualy better codec for Dxtory is UT VIDEO RGB. Its a full compatible with all linear editors like Vegas, Power Director, Edius, Avid, Premiere...

Its a huge files too but perfect compatibility.

Theres a no improvement if record at 30fps.

For test try Mirillis Action!. The quality is close lossless but size files closest X264 in HQ.

Claudio

Yea, i've used UT Video. and yea files sizes are a bit too big in comparison to lagarith. Actually I had used Action! before I started using Dxtory. Action has a problem with audio and video going out of sync when recording longer sessions. I was so pissed. about 1 hour of recording was wasted and it wasn't even able to be restored in video editing bc the sync issues were non-linear. additionally it doesnt allow to record your microphone in mono.

penta

2014-12-26 04:42:08 pm

Hello, so I'm reviving the thread guys

I recently started looking for setups on Dxtory to locally record to SDA standards.

When I tried the x264vfw codec with rate control set to lossless I got this bad result with weird image. On CRF set to 10 I could get the video to work. I have no idea of what is causing this.

Attachments:

x264CRF10sample.avi

x264lossless sample.avi