Widescreen Gaming Forum

So I read the news about youtube going widescreen & HD and had to give it a shot.

I just got off work and made a super fast video of fallout 3 to see if it works.

The Verdict?

It does! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTXkHq8AYQ4&fmt=22

Edit: a few more shot clips I made
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYYxSsKnuZ0&fmt=22
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbv109HCIK4&fmt=22

Ultra short clip just for testing, bad angle but its a guy getting his head blow off with a dinner plate :P

So how to do this?

First recording was done with FRAPS. (http://www.fraps.com/)

I just did the full resolution in my case 1920x1080 and set it for 30fps since I know YouTube scales down to 30fps and also because the files from FRAPS at this size are HUGE.

For Fallout 3 I found F4 works great as the video start/stop key.

Get your videos together via FRAPS or if you already have stuff you want to use.

Next. I had to recode the video from the massive file size that FRAPS gives you to something more normal. Also the resolution needs to be changed (YouTube probably will do this on its own but I bet the quality will be worse and take longer)

I use Avidemux to do all my encoding and use the x264 codec its by far the best, however I just found the hard way that FRAPS uses its own special codec that is not compatible with Avidemux. So I will have a separate guide on Avidemux at a later time incase you have other video sources you want to use that do work (or if other capture programs work with it, I need to try Xfire's capture)

For now download & use AutoGK (http://www.autogk.me.uk/)

Its free and works so great for about everything.

The program is super easy to use.

1.) Click on the input file selection tab and navigate to your movie file

2.) You can change the output file now if you like, it will default to the same location with AGK as the end part of the file name.

3.) Select output size - Use Custom Size and put ether your target size there or just a large number. If the target size is larger than the codec needs for max quality then it will just end up being a smaller size file so you cant go wrong here with a larger size target for max quality purposes.

I left mine at 700mb the default for this 10 second long clip

4.) Go to advanced settings and select Fixed Width because we want to make this 720p my original file was 1080p. I know 1920x1080 scales down to 1280x720 so for the width I put 1280.

For the Codec use Xvid

For Audio Auto is ok.

5.) Select Add Job

6.) Select Start

7.) Wait! depending on how large your file is and your computer speed it could take awhile.

My original clip from FRAPS was 196MB and the file I got out of AutoGK was 6.37MB so its a very big difference.

I then uploaded this video like normal to YouTube.

You will notice with the default link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTXkHq8AYQ4

Even if you click the "watch high quality" it does not look that great. The main secret to sharing your great 720P videos is adding the &fmt=22 tag to the end of the URL

So the new link would be the one I posted at the top. Now it looks very nice and you can actually read the text and see small details witch was previously impossible in youtube videos.

Now that I have the process laid out feel free to share your videos. I am about to dive back into Fallout 3 as we speak and pay put together a nice collage of clips for your enjoyment later.

_________________
ViciousXUSMC on the Web - YouTube :: FaceBook :: Website

Update: Looks like the &fmt=22 is no longer needed. I just noticed tonight that the "watch in high quality" link has been replaced with "watch in HD" for my videos.

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ViciousXUSMC on the Web - YouTube :: FaceBook :: Website

Update: Looks like the &fmt=22 is no longer needed. I just noticed tonight that the "watch in high quality" link has been replaced with "watch in HD" for my videos.

For me it has not been, Huge difference

HD: http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/9351/12042008014949yr2.png
non: http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/2290/12042008015015bc3.png

did you click the "watch in HD" link? it seems the same to me or atleast very close. I can tell its not the same as the old "watch in high quality" link thats for sure.

Im about to re roll a unarmed combat guy instead of finishing the game i think. Should make for some great videos.

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ViciousXUSMC on the Web - YouTube :: FaceBook :: Website

thanks ViciousXUSMC, great tutorial...
using it now...
well done oldboy... well done.

can i please get you or somebody that knows to list (or link to) what the conversion to some other native resolutions are. what i mean is this:

if i want to upload a hd clip to youtube, who at the moment use 1280x720 and my source is 1600x1200 what should i use in the settings of auto gordian knot ? i know i can put whatever i want but it may not look the best. i'm sure that if i used 1600x1200 as original source then what the best number to keep the ration for youtube would be something like 1174x720 (this is a guess). do you know what i mean ? ...or does it really not matter ?

thanks,

ps: also is there a way to force youtube to ONLY use the hd clips ? or is youtube set up in such a way that no matter what, they always have 2 versions for people - a crappy one and a hd one (assuming you have a hd one) ? i'd like to only ever let people see my hd ones.

Youtube always defaults to the "crappy" version depending on its size and bitrate it will have a 2nd version for "Watch in high quality" or "Watch in HD" I am not sure what the exact specifications are to make it considered HD, but just upload the highest quality you can and it should work.

The longer your clip the harder it is to get "HD" because it takes the file length and gets the average bit rate or something like that.

I just did like a 9 min Dead Space vid and even though my original was perfect quality the YouTube HD version is pretty cut down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V3GeDfd-dc

As for your resolution converter, I do not know off the top of my head. Id find something that has a fixed aspect ratio change like even photoshop could do it. Create an image 1600x1200 and go to resize image and change it to 720 and it will tell you the vert horizontal pixel count for you.

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ViciousXUSMC on the Web - YouTube :: FaceBook :: Website

ok thanks,
i've uploaded some hd ones and they work just fine. i wish that it wouldn't 1st load the crappy one and THEN people have to click watch in HD, because most people are noobs and never do that.


also do you have a good program that can convert the avi's created with auto gordian knot to flv ??? a nice small and freeware one ?

thanks,

ps: your dead space hd vid looks hd, how much better is the source ? there's nothing wrong with it. youtube only supports 720 atm....

"]ok thanks,
i've uploaded some hd ones and they work just fine. i wish that it wouldn't 1st load the crappy one and THEN people have to click watch in HD, because most people are noobs and never do that.


also do you have a good program that can convert the avi's created with auto gordian knot to flv ??? a nice small and freeware one ?

thanks,

ps: your dead space hd vid looks hd, how much better is the source ? there's nothing wrong with it. youtube only supports 720 atm....

The source is much better even the 720 video after I convert it. Its sharper and more detailed.

_________________
ViciousXUSMC on the Web - YouTube :: FaceBook :: Website

The source is much better even the 720 video after I convert it. Its sharper and more detailed.

so then youtube still downgrades 720 source ?? but you *think* it's due to the length of the clip??
what you should to to test this theory is only upload like 2 minutes of the SAME source and check the results. then you'll know for sure....

"][quote]
The source is much better even the 720 video after I convert it. Its sharper and more detailed.

so then youtube still downgrades 720 source ?? but you *think* it's due to the length of the clip??
what you should to to test this theory is only upload like 2 minutes of the SAME source and check the results. then you'll know for sure....

Youtube converts it to their own FLV's and probably downgrades the bitrate too.