AudioSurf Video Creation - A HowTo and Discussion.

[LagMasterSam]

It wont let me compress the audio with Mono, so I'm trying Stereo.  What Stereo setting do you recommend?  I don't have a "44100 Hz 64kbs CBR, Stereo 8Kb/s" option.

Are you using VirtualDub?

If so you must go to...

Audio --> Conversion --> Channels --> (Check Mono)

Then you should be able to compress with mono.

[Vicious33]

Nice guide, I've been wanting to make one for a while...too bad my compy sucks...in a few weeks im making  a huge upgrade so i will be able to do all this fun stuff!

[Mustard]

When I first downloaded Virtual Dub, I didn't have the "Unconstrained" option to select in the video compression.  I have no idea what I did to get it, but it suddenly appeared.  Now, it's suddenly disappeared.  Any ideas how to get it back?

[Rynex]

In Divx? The "unconstrained" thing in the certification profile is selectable from a drop down menu.

Recently i've been experimenting with the best settings for video, and have found out a few quirks.

Youtube is terrible for Audiosurf videos because there is constant detailed movement in small spaces.
30FPS > 60 FPS
If you actually wrote the FLV yourself, you could compress the video a lot better and get great quality. The problem though... youtube doesn't let you upload an FLV... for some weird reason.
H.264 codec is supposedly awesome, but for some reason I can't get it to work right for decent uploads, and the quality gets shredded because of all the movement. Even if you try and keep force the keyframes to 1 every second, you'll still have problems during the actual encoding.

[prototypedesign]

I have one problem. Flickering in full-screen record. I'm gonna try Screen VidShot with a region, but is there anything with a record a window feature that also records audio? Nevermind, Screen VidShot has a region mode.

If all goes well, the video will be up on Mediafire and YouTube by the end of the week. Yeah, I make no guarantees. Also, Screen VidShot is excruciatingly slow to save, but it's not such a big deal, if it works well, it's almost free.

[giZm]

320x280 (apparently youtube size)

It's actually 480x360

If you actually wrote the FLV yourself, you could compress the video a lot better and get great quality. The problem though... youtube doesn't let you upload an FLV... for some weird reason.

That's not true either, I upload .flvs all the time. I'll do a writeup later.

Here's what you get if you do it my way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxsyEhhxv_0 best possible result. Let it buffer for a bit, youtube has problems with a high bitrate like that
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OvNAZt8eUA Normal quality for my way

[giZm]

High-quality videos with stereo sound on Youtube
Tools used:
FRAPS 2.9.4
Windows Movie Maker (Vista/XP)
VMuTube Beta v1.0 http://gizm.brutix.com/VMuTube_BETA_v1.0.rar

How/why this works:
Youtube accepts videos with a filesize of up to 1024mb, a length of less than 11 minutes and an average bitsize of 349kbit/sec. This is what we "abuse" in this tutorial. By adding blackness to the end of the video we can have a higher bitrate in the moving parts, and even stereo sound with up to 128kbps!


My Audiosurf settings for recording. Gives me a constant 60fps and keeps the .avi filesize somewhat small.


FRAPS 2.9.4 settings

Start Windows Movie Maker (WMM), and drag the video(s) you want to upload to Youtube on the program.


Drag the clip into the timeline. Press the (-) zoom out and click "Titles and Credits" on the left side of the screen.


"Credits at the end" is what you want to click here.


Enter anything you want. Click "Change the text font and color"


Doesn't matter which font. Text color black, background black, 90% transparency. Click "Add title"


Hooray, we've added blackness! Now click the right border of the credits and drag them so that the total playtime is almost 11 minutes.


Like so. Click File, Publish Movie, then choose This Computer, and name the movie "original". You should probably save it directly in your VMuTube folder.


Select "Compress to", and make the size as big as possible. You can switch to KB to make it a bit bigger still. Click publish.

Now we wait. Takes about 10 minutes on my system. Go pet your cat. Or maybe paint your room pink.


Hooray! Close WMM, locate your video file. If necessary, copy it to your VMuTube folder.

Double-click VMuTube.bat.


These settings give you the best possible result, but only really work with shorter songs (~3 minutes). 320x240 is for longer ones. Play around with them, sometimes 20 fps is enough and you get better video quality for slower songs.

What happens now is: audio is extracted to wav, converted to mp3, video converted to h263, resized to whatever you specified, audio and video added back together.


Done! final.flv should be somewhere 22-27mb. Upload the .flv to Youtube, impress your friends, family, teachers!

Here's two examples:
Tweaker's Doom 3 theme, self-made .flv, max settings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrI3WmS_Dbk
Tweaker's Doom 3 theme, Youtube .flv, uploaded the .wmv: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjnJ9f1IlHQ

And a longer song, not quite as drastic but still noticeable (mostly sound quality and red parts):
Pendulum - Blood Sugar, self-made .flv, sound 96, video 448x336: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9StwBZsmSc
Pendulum - Blood sugar, Youtube .flv, uploaded the .wmv: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n96ukoG1-kQ

[Rynex]

I tried to upload an FLV to youtube before but it didn't work. I used Adobe Flash CS3 Video Encoder with ramped up settings, but under the 100MB reigion. Apparently there's been some really strong quality video's that have come from using an FLV encoder... but I'm still not sure as to why it didn't upload correctly.

Anyway, glad you did this giZm.

Apparently this is really helpful for compression, but i've not read through it.

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/youtube_compressor_gary.html

As for ridiculous encoding...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAFORL4qDWw

[giZm]

Apparently this is really helpful for compression, but i've not read through it.

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/youtube_compressor_gary.html

As for ridiculous encoding...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAFORL4qDWw

Those are now fixed tricks you could use to get HD videos on youtube. Some of them involved hex editing the files and whatnot. The 11 minute thing is the only working trick left, sadly.

[Feartheflames]

Apparently this is really helpful for compression, but i've not read through it.

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/youtube_compressor_gary.html

As for ridiculous encoding...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAFORL4qDWw

Those are now fixed tricks you could use to get HD videos on youtube. Some of them involved hex editing the files and whatnot. The 11 minute thing is the only working trick left, sadly.

The Link to VMuTube doesn't work btw, it's been deleted by Uploader.

[Cody900]

GiZm, VMutube crashes after getting the audio and video .flv's, right after creating final.flv.....

Can you upload your version of it please?

[LostMonk]

Here is a new version of it http://rapidshare.com/files/80962262/VMuTube_v1.0.rar
*edit* found the final version.

ICCY EDIT: I would be for this rickroll if it wasn't the disruptive one. Then again, it's not last measure so you're forgiven.

[Mustard]

In Divx? The "unconstrained" thing in the certification profile is selectable from a drop down menu.

I know.  I didn't have it as an option, then I randomly did, now I don't again.

[Cody900]

Here is a new version of it http://rapidshare.com/files/80381262/VMuTube_BETA_v1.0.rar

That's the beta, the proper 1.0 is out.

[Cody900]

Here is a new version of it http://rapidshare.com/files/80395362/VMuTube_v1.0.rar

*edit* Found the final version

It's very obvious to see that's a rickroll, or something that's at least not the actual text link.