Making Free decent quality/size videos

I recently found how to make decent sized videos of good quality for free so I thought I'd share. It took me quite a few failed attempts to do this but I think the results are worth it. I used some instructions from Deuces Cracked but couldn't quite get them to work for me so credit to them for the starting point. This will be quite a long post so quit now if you have no patience....

The basis of making a decent video for free is using free tools (obviously) and the best codecs you can find that are also free and common. What I have here works for me but you should be able to use other codedcs and experiment if you think they are better (let me know if they are!).

Downloads

Camstudio Development version

Download the Camstudio.2.5.b1.bin.zip and the 3 .dll files

Best bet for a good all round selection of codecs is the K-Lite codec pack:

K-Lite Codec pack

Choose the link then you MUST choose the FULL version - the others won't give you what you need.

Download Virtual Dub - Virtual Dub - click download and choose the first option.

Setup Instructions

1. Extract the zipped Camstudio.2.5.b1.bin.zip to a folder where you want the application to run (it doesn't need installing). e.g. extract to something standard like "program files camstudio" or wherever you want and create a shortcut to Recorder.exe on your desktop
2. Put the 3 DLL's in the same folder
3. Extract the Virtual Dub files to a convenient folder (as you did with Camstudio)- "program files VirtualDub" or whatever. Create a shortcut to VirtualDub.exe on your desktop.
4. Run the K-Lite codec install (as administrator in Vista). I ticked just about every box - I didn't bother with the players that come with it (media Player classic etc as I just use Windows Media player that comes with XP/Vista). The added bonus of installing all these codecs is that you will be able to play virtually any media from virtually any source once installed.

I would recommend you tick this box as Camtasia files often use this codec I think:



and you MUST tick this one:



After this first list of options just tick anything sensible on the pages that follow.

Recording Instructions

Now you are ready to go. Run Recorder.exe (from the shortcut if you made one). And set up the Options as below:



If you want to record audio then check this box:



The method I am using the compression types etc below don't matter as the "Use MCI Recording" disables all but simple compression. The reason being that I simply could not get CamStudio to compress the audio in any format that either worked and was in sync or wasn't still producing a huge file.

Obviously you need to choose the microphone you are working from.



Then choose a region or fixed size. I find it is easier to have a fixed region and the easiest way to to this is to open however many tables you want to record and set the fixed region by dragging the box over the tables. Bearing in mind 2 things - the bigger the region the bigger the final file (obvious) AND the region width and height MUST be divisible by 2 - i.e. 1132 * 438 is fine 1131 * 433 is not - this is a restriction of the video codec we are using. To give you an idea of size the 1132 * 438 setting I have for 2 tables and 1 hour, with audio is about 140 MB in the final version.



Now go ahead and make a test recording of a few tables - simply press the red button to start and place the flashing area over your tables.

When you stop the recording you need to save the file to any folder you like. This file will be pretty big relative to the length of the recording - don't worry about it.

Now open Virtual Dub open you saved video file and set the following settings:















Then just save the AVI as:



You should then have a fairly small video of good quality with good sound that's free.

When you leave Virtual Dub it doesn't save the settings for some reason so you can save the processing setting to file and just load them next time:

Thanks for the post...hopefully some LPlers will pick this up and host some videos.

Sweet post.

sticky?

Thx a lot!

I'm not absolutely sure but i think AC3 takes more space than mp3 for the same bitrate (96kbps mp3 is enough for voice recording). So mp3 might be a better choice?

You're probably right. This was the smallest I could get it but it may not be the best. I tried one MP3 version and it was bigger but LameMP3 is supposed to be the best but I just couldn't get it to work - kept having quality issues with the sound. If anyone has a go at this and finds a better setting or one that works for LameMP3 then please let me know.

good stuff

I dont know if you can configure Lame presets by using virtualdub but the best one for poker video should be -V8 (variable bitrate with a Bitrate range from 70 to 105 kbps). With this preset it should really decrease the size of the audio with a 'good/enough' quality.

this all just confused me. especially the part where you said you did NOT install camtasia, but later it looks like you used camtasia?

No - Camstudio is what I used - it's free. Camstudio is $300 or so or you can probably get dodgy copies.

I suggested you include the Techsmith codec in the codec pack install as I think Camtasia uses that by default so you will be able to view people's videos that were recorded in Camtasia too (not sure if this is accurate re. Techsmith but it will do no harm anyway).

hope some lp members make videos now!

good guide, thats the method i use. why was it necessary to use that codec? I just use Xvid and it works good

I think it just makes the vids pretty small with very little quality loss - was recommended by one of the Deuces Cracked producers.

ehh imo, dont waste ur time making videos, LPrs were asking for low stakes videos so i made one, i posted it up in the thread, got quite a few peoples responses on it, but a week later people are asking for nl50 videos, or specifically nl10 videos, like the play is so much different.. so many people here ask for videos but are to fucking lazy to just look for one themselves.. most video beggars here just dont deserve to have a good winning player waste 2 or 3 hours out of their day for that.

there is truth to what you say milkman... imo we need a stickied and well maintained video thread.
New videos can be good an educational for all concerned. and they could also be the holy grail of humor (like mez's video)

once again, good guide kingell, thanks for putting in the effort.

I don't have that audio codec you listed to use is there an alternate one?

edit: just read your advice to use Lame MP3 codec for audio in my blog. Which one do you recommend? I just chose the 96 kb/s like the AC-3 codec one, and when I use your suggested video codec I get this message

"x264vfw [warning]: width or height not divisible by 16 (1048x772), compression will suffer."

Don't worry about the warning - it doesn't seem to make too much difference. As long as the width and height are divisivble by 2 then it will still work.

On February 23 2009 18:57 Silver)Z( wrote: there is truth to what you say milkman... imo we need a stickied and well maintained video thread. New videos can be good an educational for all concerned. and they could also be the holy grail of humor (like mez's video) once again, good guide kingell, thanks for putting in the effort.

this is really a good idea. where it's all collected nicely and sorted after date and stakes and so on maintained by someone here.

someone sticky this please.