(old) ZMV to AVI video conversion [[archive me]]

General area for talk about ZSNES. The best place to ask for related questions as well as troubleshooting.

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85cocoa
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Post by 85cocoa »

Welcome to page 13.

To record a video you need one of the latest work in progress builds of ZSNES. Get them here: http://zsnes.ipherswipsite.com/

You will need a copy of mencoder. For Windows users, I recommend getting mencoder here: http://oss.netfarm.it/mplayer-win32.php
Place mencoder.exe in the same location as zsnesw.exe, you do not need any codecs or other movie programs installed.
Linux users, having mencoder in your path is fine.

If you want to compress the outputted audio, or compress it before it goes into the video as opposed to during, you will need a copy of LAME.
If you use Windows, you must get LAME from here: http://geocities.com/joecool22us/lame.zip
Any other copy of LAME for Windows will not work due to a bug in LAME.

Before you are able to dump an AVI, you must have recorded a movie first, it converts movies, it does not just dump video on the fly.

To play back movies, you'll either need the proper codecs or a video player with built in decoding of the video mode you selected.
I recommend getting mplayer which decodes anything created with mencoder. For Windows, you can get mplayer here: http://oss.netfarm.it/mplayer-win32.php You can download the GUI version.

Advanced users can edit zmovie.cfg and tweak the settings if they want, and even use something other than mencoder and LAME as long as it supports encoding via stdin and you set it up properly.

________
HERZOG wrote:Is there any difference in quality between that codec, xvid or x264? They are using lossless settings, right?
I don't know about differences in quality, but none of those codecs can be configured to be truly lossless. The settings are really "near lossless."

Nach, I hope I have redeemed myself adequately by helping with this.

Hmmm, I seem to have started a new page. Don't forget to read my previous post.
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocky]Pocky[/url] & [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky]Rocky[/url]? [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocky_%26_Rocky]Pocky & Rocky[/url]? [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_%28series%29#Animals.2FMobians]Pocky & Rocky[/url]?
sweener2001
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Post by sweener2001 »

is there any kind of push going on to make zsnes the new standard for TAS videos at bisqwit's, or are there still some issues that need to be addressed?

i'm getting tired of snes9x, with it's suck sound and movie specific settings which are not always implemented in the movie file.
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Deathlike2
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Post by Deathlike2 »

sweener2001 wrote:is there any kind of push going on to make zsnes the new standard for TAS videos at bisqwit's, or are there still some issues that need to be addressed?

i'm getting tired of snes9x, with it's suck sound and movie specific settings which are not always implemented in the movie file.
The push is only valid when we rid of the randomness.. otherwise the TA movie recordings are worthless because it won't be reproduced accurately.

Though, I think there is a fair # of games that aren't affected.. more likely the special chip games are likely to go out of whack (some of this is because certain chip data is not stored in the savestates just yet). PSR based savestates would make this so much easier (the savestate format is very alignment driven, IIRC).
Continuing [url=http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?board=13.0]FF4[/url] Research...
sweener2001
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Post by sweener2001 »

i see.

is this stuff planned for 1.43, or has some/any of it been addressed in SVN?

i don't make movies or anything, and i'm still just using ipher's latest wip, but seeing zmv's at bisqwit's would just be fabulous.
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Firebot
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Post by Firebot »

Hey, I've been using ZSNES to record my SNES videos. I've been uploading them on youtube at http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Firebot

I'm trying to lower the size of some videos since some games like Cybernator go over 100MB for an 8 min movie even though another game would be only 50MB at that point. Is there a way to change zmovie.cfg to record at 30 FPS instead of 60FPS, or to lower the quality of the video a bit? I'm using the Xvid option.
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Post by Nach »

To lower the quality of xvid in zmovie.cfg

Code: Select all

md_xvid="-ovc xvid -xvidencopts fixed_quant=10"
Feel free to play with it.
May 9 2007 - NSRT 3.4, now with lots of hashing and even more accurate information! Go download it.
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Firebot
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Post by Firebot »

Thanks, got my 150MB video down to 86MB using qty=4 with minimal loss of quality.
Nach
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Post by Nach »

Firebot:
Are all your SNES movies there made with ZSNES?
May 9 2007 - NSRT 3.4, now with lots of hashing and even more accurate information! Go download it.
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sweener2001
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Post by sweener2001 »

those are nice videos
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Firebot
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Post by Firebot »

Nach wrote:Firebot:
Are all your SNES movies there made with ZSNES?
Yes they are. All are at fixed_quant=2 except for Cybernator which I had to use fixed_quant=4, and Final Fantasy V which I had to use fixed_quant=6 since the original file was over 300MB, got it down to under 100MB.
Nach
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Post by Nach »

Firebot wrote:
Nach wrote:Firebot:
Are all your SNES movies there made with ZSNES?
Yes they are. All are at fixed_quant=2 except for Cybernator which I had to use fixed_quant=4, and Final Fantasy V which I had to use fixed_quant=6 since the original file was over 300MB, got it down to under 100MB.
Nice. I notice in your Lufia 2 video that it lacks some video issues I always had when playing in game. Like when Daos did dark fry I always got some corruption on screen. However your AVI lacks that, which means some recent WIP fixed that and I haven't seen it yet, or only the main screen output code of ZSNES has a bug which my AVI writer doesn't.
May 9 2007 - NSRT 3.4, now with lots of hashing and even more accurate information! Go download it.
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foxyshadis
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Post by foxyshadis »

There are lots of options for x264 and xvid to increase quality and reduce size, but they also increase encode time a lot, compared to just lowering the quant. (Nice archive, btw!)

Anyway, I just wanted to mention, that if someone wants to keep lossless video, there's an even better way than ffv1 (the default lavc option, which is still very good): MSU Screen Lossless. It's much faster than ffv1 as well, even faster than xvid, and smaller. But only if it's from a lossless video game or screen capture type source. (Optimized for 8-bit games, but works fine with 16-bit graphics like snes.) You first have to encode into lavc ffv1, then open it in virtualdub afterward to re-encode it into screen lossless.

Unfortunately it's windows only at this point, and not commonly installed, so it'd be more for personal archival. (Especially if the end result is crappy youtube format.)

Hope that helps someone!
kevman
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Post by kevman »

You'd have to dump to raw and encode it with their software. Of course, this software could never be included with Zsnes, as its completely non opensource.
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Post by Jipcy »

Nach, does the new 3.97 version of Lame still have the Windows bug?
[url=http://zsnes-docs.sf.net]Official ZSNES Docs[/url] | [url=http://zsnes-docs.sf.net/nsrt]NSRT Guide[/url] | [url=http://endoftransmission.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=394]Using a Wiimote w/ emulators[/url]
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Post by Nach »

Jipcy wrote:Nach, does the new 3.97 version of Lame still have the Windows bug?
AFAIK, yes, I'll check later. If it's not fixed, I'll also post a new version with the patch applied against it.
May 9 2007 - NSRT 3.4, now with lots of hashing and even more accurate information! Go download it.
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Nach
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Post by Nach »

LAME team has ignored my patch. I cleaned up my patch and resubmitted it again: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.ph ... tid=300290

Here's a windows binary of 3.97 with my patch applied:
http://nsrt.edgeemu.com/lame.zip
May 9 2007 - NSRT 3.4, now with lots of hashing and even more accurate information! Go download it.
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Jipcy
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Post by Jipcy »

I just read your submission. Was it purposely anonymous? Thanks for updating to 3.97, too.
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Post by Nach »

Jipcy wrote:I just read your submission. Was it purposely anonymous?
Nah, I was just on my other PC which wasn't logged into SF when I posted that patch. You'll notice my previous patch that I submitted to LAME I was logged in.
Jipcy wrote:Thanks for updating to 3.97, too.
No problem.
May 9 2007 - NSRT 3.4, now with lots of hashing and even more accurate information! Go download it.
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franpa
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Post by franpa »

thanks for the updated version Nach.
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coruscadragon
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help with capturing frames for use in GIFs

Post by coruscadragon »

ok, i'll probably draw a lot of flack for this, but i've been using snes9x for a while now because it's just easier to figure out... thus i am not too familiar with the ins and outs of zsnes, and may have missed something...

I'm trying to make some animated GIFs, and i remembered that zsnes used to have this function where you could pause the game and then advance it frame by frame. Saving a series of screenshots, converting them to gif and making an animated gif was fairly easy.

so i recently downloaded zsnes1.42, and the feature appears to be gone... (removing features? what's up with that??)
Converting to avi is a little more than I need, but i could at least capture frames from my avi to make the gifs from... :idea:

Only problem is, i have no idea how this is supposed to work...
the instructions aren't very clear, at least to me... i've downloaded the mencoder and put it in the same folder, i've made a znv video... now what?

any help would be more than welcome~[/b]
Last edited by coruscadragon on Mon Oct 23, 2006 2:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
Firon
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Post by Firon »

3 times in a single post. Nicely done.
coruscadragon
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Post by coruscadragon »

Firon wrote:3 times in a single post. Nicely done.
ok, you fixed my spelling problems :P , any help with the rest?
Deathlike2
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Re: help with capturing frames for use in GIFs

Post by Deathlike2 »

coruscadragon wrote:ok, i'll probably draw a lot of flack for this, but i've been using snes9x for a while now because it's just easier to figure out... thus i am not too familiar with the ins and outs of zsnes, and may have missed something...

I'm trying to make some animated GIFs, and i remembered that zsnes used to have this function where you could pause the game and then advance it frame by frame. Saving a series of screenshots, converting them to gif and making an animated gif was fairly easy.

so i recently downloaded zsnes1.42, and the feature appears to be gone... (removing features? what's up with that??)
Converting to avi is a little more than I need, but i could at least capture frames from my avi to make the gifs from... :idea:

Only problem is, i have no idea how this is supposed to work...
the instructions aren't very clear, at least to me... i've downloaded the mencoder and put it in the same folder, i've made a znv video... now what?

any help would be more than welcome~[/b]
This certainly not the thread for it. However, have you looked at the F1 menu? It's all there (the frame by frame screenshot option is in this menu).
Continuing [url=http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?board=13.0]FF4[/url] Research...
coruscadragon
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Post by coruscadragon »

well, figuring out how to do the AVI thing would have solved my problem also, so i don't see how it's the wrong thread... any way i didn't even know there was an F1 menu... :roll:

thanks for the answer :!:
Deathlike2
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Post by Deathlike2 »

LAME is required if you want to compress the audio I think.. but mencoder needed for sure. Make sure you have one of the more recent WIPs (there is better movie support). You have to make sure the mencoder and/or lame executable is in the ZSNES folder (or set up a path if you know how to do that).

Get a WIP here: http://zsnes.ipherswipsite.com

Once there, you need to record a movie first. Hit the record button in the movie menu when you want to start said movie.. and then hit the stop button when done recording. Afterwards, click on dump movie and ZSNES will interface with mencoder to do the rest.

It's just that simple.
Continuing [url=http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?board=13.0]FF4[/url] Research...
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