Spectrum Computing

Posted: **Sun Apr 01, 2018 9:16 pm**

is there a way to record avi in Zxspin (i run a gaming channel called Speedruns for charity) so that i can post to youtube?

thanks in advance

Posted: **Sun Apr 01, 2018 10:12 pm**

[mention]MrPixel[/mention]

I'm not sure about Spin, but you can do it in Spectaculator (It's not free but there is a 30 day trial available):

http://www.spectaculator.com/downloads/

Posted: **Sun Apr 01, 2018 10:27 pm**

MrPixel wrote: ↑Sun Apr 01, 2018 9:16 pm is there a way to record avi in Zxspin (i run a gaming channel called Speedruns for charity) so that i can post to youtube?

I've only used it for animated .gifs but in SPIN if you choose:

Recording>Video>Configure Output>

AVI is one of the options.

Posted: **Sun Apr 01, 2018 10:42 pm**

thanks

Posted: **Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:26 am**

As other say there is a recording option in Spin but I wouldn't use it. I only recorded short animated gifs with it and it still sometimes gave me weird problems.

Use Spectaculator instead.

Posted: **Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:18 pm**

Unfortunately recording AVI videos in Spectaculator doesn't work anymore under Windows 10.

Posted: **Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:37 pm**

what about fuse?

Posted: **Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:57 pm**

MrPixel wrote: ↑Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:37 pmwhat about fuse?

Yes, Fuse can record emulation at 50 fps into its own format, which you can then convert with fmfconv and an encoder of your choice (I personally use ffmpeg).

Posted: **Tue Apr 03, 2018 12:23 am**

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:57 pm
MrPixel wrote: ↑Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:37 pmwhat about fuse?
Yes, Fuse can record emulation at 50 fps into its own format, which you can then convert with fmfconv and an encoder of your choice (I personally use ffmpeg).

A nice trick you can do with fmfconv -> ffmpeg is to use the Zip Motion Blocks codec (zmbv). This gives you a lossless conversion with a very low bitrate (~300 kbps @ 1080p - very handy for reducing file size for upload to YouTube).

First you need to generate your own palette from your source material:-

Code: Select all

fmfconv speccy.fmf | ffmpeg -i - -vf palettegen palette.png

Note: if you already have a palette file with all 15 Speccy colours, you can just use that instead

Then to encode (here using FLAC for audio and the Matroska container format):-

Code: Select all

fmfconv speccy.fmf | ffmpeg -i - -i palette.png -filter_complex "null [x]; [x][1:v] paletteuse" -c:a flac -c:v zmbv -compression_level:a 12 speccy.mkv

Or to scale to 720p:-

Code: Select all

fmfconv speccy.fmf | ffmpeg -i - -i palette.png -filter_complex "scale=960:720:flags=neighbor [x]; [x][1:v] paletteuse" -c:a flac -c:v zmbv -compression_level:a 12 speccy.mkv

...or 1080p:-

Code: Select all

fmfconv speccy.fmf | ffmpeg -i - -i palette.png -filter_complex "crop=288:216,scale=1440:1080:flags=neighbor [x]; [x][1:v] paletteuse" -c:a flac -c:v zmbv -compression_level:a 12 speccy.mkv

Note: When scaling you must scale the speccy screen by an integer multiple, so cropping was necessary for the 1080p upscaling.

Example (best watched fullscreen in a 1080p screen mode):-

[media]https://youtu.be/xF0CvLo-Ddg[/media]

Of course - once uploaded to YouTube - it gets encoded and is no longer lossless, but the quality should be optimal as you are not re-encoding already lossy material, and - in my opinion - the main perk is the vastly reduced upload time (the source file for the above was less than 2 megabytes IIRC).

Posted: **Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:01 am**

A truly easier and better way to record footage from emulators of any kind (including ZXSpin) is to use OBS - Open Broadcast Studio. It's free open-source software that records the output of windows, whether for composing into a video or to stream. Astonishingly good at what it does and fairly simple to use.

As I'm starting a YouTube channel on retrogaming, I've been testing out OBS on things like Fuse, MAME, Fusion (Sega Master System/MegaDrive), VICE (Commodore 64), Caprice (Amstrad) and others.

Posted: **Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:17 am**

lister_of_smeg wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 12:23 am A nice trick you can do with fmfconv -> ffmpeg is to use the Zip Motion Blocks codec (zmbv). This gives you a lossless conversion with a very low bitrate (~300 kbps @ 1080p - very handy for reducing file size for upload to YouTube).

That’s a neat trick. Thanks! (I don’t condone the use of non-standard containers and codecs, though, so I’ll stick to h.264(5) and mp4.)

Posted: **Tue Apr 03, 2018 1:13 pm**

PeteProdge wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:01 am A truly easier and better way to record footage from emulators of any kind (including ZXSpin) is to use OBS

Definitely easier, but I find it hard to believe it's better than that perfectly scaled 1080p 50fps from fuse.

Posted: **Tue Apr 03, 2018 1:15 pm**

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:17 am (I don’t condone the use of non-standard containers and codecs, though, so I’ll stick to h.264(5) and mp4.)

"The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from"

Posted: **Tue Apr 03, 2018 1:52 pm**

Guesser wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 1:15 pm
Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:17 am (I don’t condone the use of non-standard containers and codecs, though, so I’ll stick to h.264(5) and mp4.)
"The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from"

True dat. ’Sept FLAC and MKV ain’t one of ’em.

Posted: **Tue Apr 03, 2018 2:32 pm**

That’s awesome [mention]Guesser[/mention], cheers. I’ve never been happy with how video recording mashes nice crisp pixels into a mush, so I usually record anigifs rather than videos, and live without the sound.

Will definitely try this. I never had any success with fmfconv before, but I was probably doing it wrong.

Posted: **Tue Apr 03, 2018 2:47 pm**

Seven.FFF wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 2:32 pm That’s awesome @Guesser, cheers. I’ve never been happy with how video recording mashes nice crisp pixels into a mush

Nothing to do with me, though I agree with you

Posted: **Tue Apr 03, 2018 2:52 pm**

Lol, oops!

Posted: **Tue Apr 03, 2018 11:17 pm**

lister_of_smeg wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 12:23 am A nice trick you can do with fmfconv -> ffmpeg is to use the Zip Motion Blocks codec (zmbv). This gives you a lossless conversion with a very low bitrate (~300 kbps @ 1080p - very handy for reducing file size for upload to YouTube).
[...]

Thank you. I'll add these examples to the fmfconv manual.

Posted: **Wed Apr 04, 2018 9:02 am**

MrPixel wrote: ↑Sun Apr 01, 2018 9:16 pm is there a way to record avi in Zxspin (i run a gaming channel called Speedruns for charity) so that i can post to youtube?

I've not tried it with ZX Spin but, if you use Windows 10, I'd imagine that operating system's built-in screen recorder will do the job. Initiate it by pressing Windows key+G and then follow the prompts...

(You can also get to it via Start > Settings cog > Gaming > Game DVR)

Posted: **Sat May 29, 2021 5:02 pm**

[mention]lister_of_smeg[/mention]

Thank you! This finally solved my fmf conversion problems, I tried about a million ffmpeg settings but everything became blurry. Thanks to you it now works!

In order to upload to YouTube I convert the resulting mkv file to mp4 using Handbrake.

Posted: **Sat May 29, 2021 9:35 pm**

pavero wrote: ↑Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:18 pm Unfortunately recording AVI videos in Spectaculator doesn't work anymore under Windows 10.

Still works to me and I use W10.

Control > Video Clip (AVI) > Record: create and put a name to your AVI file.

Next, another window appears (Video Clip options):
- Option 1: Video size - By default Medium (320x256). I always use this parameter for most of my videos.
- Option 2: Compressor - By default Spectaculator selects Microsoft RLE (unless in my case), but choosing to Codec Intel IYUV works fine and records both sound and image.
- Option 3: Frame rate - By default, 25 fps. I just don't touch this parameter.

Posted: **Sat May 29, 2021 9:38 pm**

Neil Parsons wrote: ↑Sat May 29, 2021 9:35 pm
pavero wrote: ↑Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:18 pm Unfortunately recording AVI videos in Spectaculator doesn't work anymore under Windows 10.
Still works to me and I use W10.

Interesting, what setting do you use?

Posted: **Sat May 29, 2021 9:44 pm**

pavero wrote: ↑Sat May 29, 2021 9:38 pm Interesting, what setting do you use?

I've just edited my previous comment.

Posted: **Sat May 29, 2021 9:59 pm**

For a while, when I tried to play AVI files created with Spectaculator with any of multimedia players installed in my computer, I could only listen it (no visual) with default Microsoft RLE compressor. After testing rest of options, I found that the third one from above "Intel IYUV" is the best one.

For some reason, it appears twice at the dropdown menu but enlighted one is what I select every time I want to record new videos.

Posted: **Sun May 30, 2021 8:22 pm**

Neil Parsons wrote: ↑Sat May 29, 2021 9:59 pm For a while, when I tried to play AVI files created with Spectaculator with any of multimedia players installed in my computer, I could only listen it (no visual) with default Microsoft RLE compressor.

That's the bug which i thought.

But it seems, Intel IYUV is functional. Thanks!

Spectrum Computing

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