As you are probably already aware, you can record video with Snes9x. However, if you have tried this, you probably know that the video that is recorded is very small. When you upload this to YouTube, it looks very bad.
In this tutorial, I will show you how to up the quality of Snes9x's recording so that it will look great on YouTube.
Requirements:
Lots of hard disk space (at least 50+ GB is reccomended, unless you're fine with compressing AVI. Assuming you scale an uncompressed Snes9x recording by 4x, then an 11-second video will be 2 GB.)
E: Let me get something straight here. The 50+ GB is only is for a scaled, uncompressed video; not the 256x224 video recorded by Snes9x. If you specify compression in VirtualDub, the file size will rarely be over 500 MB, assuming you use a good compression codec. If you aren't going to be saving an uncompressed HD video, then I would say you need 5+ GB (5 GB will store ~7-8 minutes of uncompressed 256x224 video, if my calculations are correct. You'll also need ~500 megabytes, give or take, to store an HD, compressed, video.)
Lots of patience - filters can take quite a while to run.
A powerful CPU will make filters run faster; its only a reccomendation.
Know how to export a video from Snes9x.
The following software:
Snes9x and a ROM. As for the ROM, Google is your friend.
VirtualDub
hqx Plugin for VirtualDub (Place this in VirtualDub\plugins)
Freemake Vidoe Converter (Optional, but you can convert to formats other than AVI; also has a YouTube uploader)
e: The Lagarith codec is lossless. If you want to convert to a format other than AVI, save the AVI with Lagarith compression.
You may also want to check out MSU and FFV1 (I believe it comes with ffdshow), which are also lossless compression formats.
Step 1:
Record the video. This is quite simple; in Snes9x, click File > Start AVI Recording... to start recording, and File > Stop AVI Recording to finish.
EDIT: Some screenshots
Protip: Don't use lossy video compression; the frames need to be high quality for the hqx filter to work right.
Step 2:
Open up VirtualDub. Open the first AVI file; if it was broken into segments (e.g. filename_part2, filename_part3), then click File > Append Segment, and open the next part. Do this for each segment; make sure you append the segments in order.
Once you have all the segments in order, click Video > Filters...
A filter dialog will open. Click Add Filter.
EDIT 2: More screenies
In the list (you need to have placed the hqx plugin in the Plugins directory), select either hq2x, hq3x, or hq4x and click OK.
If you want compression enabled, click Video > Compression... and select the compression of your choice.
Note that re-compression will cause video quality loss, so if you want to use a format other than AVI, then do not use compression here (unless hard disk space is a concern).
In most cases, using a compressed AVI file is fine, since video hosting sites like YouTube usually accept AVI files.
The blue frame represents the codecs, and the red frame is where the restrictions on the codec will appear. It is important that you make sure your video is compatible with the codec.
Click File > Save AVI... or File > Save Segmented AVI...
Note that saving as AVI uses AVI 2.0, and may not work in some programs, as file sizes may be larger than 2GB.
This is where you'll need large amounts of hard disk space.
Use Save Old Format AVI if you use compression, since the file size should be under 4 GB.
The saving will take some time; it will take even longer if you use compression. However, if the file is compressed, you don't need a secondary program to encode the video in a different format.
Step 3:
You can ignore this step if you don't want to convert the AVI to a different container format. However, it is mandatory if your AVI is uncompressed, since the file size will be insanely huge.
Open up Freemake Video converter.
Click +Video and select the AVI you exported.
EDIT 3: Final screenies
If you used segmented video, select the last segment, and Shift+Click the first segment, and click OK; then turn on Join Files, make sure there is no transitions, and that the segments are in the correct order.
Select one of the formats on the bottom.
When the dialog with output parameters appears, click Edit Preset, make sure the video size is Original, and the framerate is 60 fps for best quality. I would suggest leaving the other settings alone unless you know what you're doing. Click OK.
There is one-pass encoding and two-pass encoding, although I'm not sure what the differences are, except two-pass encoding takes longer.
You can also increase/decrease the maximum file size to control the quality of the video.
Then click Convert, and then all you need to do is to wait for the video to convert, which will take some time.
After it's done, you can watch the video, or upload it to a video hosting site. You should also delete the large, uncompressed video, as it cannot be played in real-time anyway due to the insanely high bitrate.
In this tutorial, I will show you how to up the quality of Snes9x's recording so that it will look great on YouTube.
Requirements:
Lots of hard disk space (at least 50+ GB is reccomended, unless you're fine with compressing AVI. Assuming you scale an uncompressed Snes9x recording by 4x, then an 11-second video will be 2 GB.)
E: Let me get something straight here. The 50+ GB is only is for a scaled, uncompressed video; not the 256x224 video recorded by Snes9x. If you specify compression in VirtualDub, the file size will rarely be over 500 MB, assuming you use a good compression codec. If you aren't going to be saving an uncompressed HD video, then I would say you need 5+ GB (5 GB will store ~7-8 minutes of uncompressed 256x224 video, if my calculations are correct. You'll also need ~500 megabytes, give or take, to store an HD, compressed, video.)
Lots of patience - filters can take quite a while to run.
A powerful CPU will make filters run faster; its only a reccomendation.
Know how to export a video from Snes9x.
The following software:
Snes9x and a ROM. As for the ROM, Google is your friend.
VirtualDub
hqx Plugin for VirtualDub (Place this in VirtualDub\plugins)
Freemake Vidoe Converter (Optional, but you can convert to formats other than AVI; also has a YouTube uploader)
e: The Lagarith codec is lossless. If you want to convert to a format other than AVI, save the AVI with Lagarith compression.
You may also want to check out MSU and FFV1 (I believe it comes with ffdshow), which are also lossless compression formats.
Step 1:
Record the video. This is quite simple; in Snes9x, click File > Start AVI Recording... to start recording, and File > Stop AVI Recording to finish.
EDIT: Some screenshots
Protip: Don't use lossy video compression; the frames need to be high quality for the hqx filter to work right.
Step 2:
Open up VirtualDub. Open the first AVI file; if it was broken into segments (e.g. filename_part2, filename_part3), then click File > Append Segment, and open the next part. Do this for each segment; make sure you append the segments in order.
Once you have all the segments in order, click Video > Filters...
A filter dialog will open. Click Add Filter.
EDIT 2: More screenies
In the list (you need to have placed the hqx plugin in the Plugins directory), select either hq2x, hq3x, or hq4x and click OK.
If you want compression enabled, click Video > Compression... and select the compression of your choice.
Note that re-compression will cause video quality loss, so if you want to use a format other than AVI, then do not use compression here (unless hard disk space is a concern).
In most cases, using a compressed AVI file is fine, since video hosting sites like YouTube usually accept AVI files.
The blue frame represents the codecs, and the red frame is where the restrictions on the codec will appear. It is important that you make sure your video is compatible with the codec.
Click File > Save AVI... or File > Save Segmented AVI...
Note that saving as AVI uses AVI 2.0, and may not work in some programs, as file sizes may be larger than 2GB.
This is where you'll need large amounts of hard disk space.
Use Save Old Format AVI if you use compression, since the file size should be under 4 GB.
The saving will take some time; it will take even longer if you use compression. However, if the file is compressed, you don't need a secondary program to encode the video in a different format.
Step 3:
You can ignore this step if you don't want to convert the AVI to a different container format. However, it is mandatory if your AVI is uncompressed, since the file size will be insanely huge.
Open up Freemake Video converter.
Click +Video and select the AVI you exported.
EDIT 3: Final screenies
If you used segmented video, select the last segment, and Shift+Click the first segment, and click OK; then turn on Join Files, make sure there is no transitions, and that the segments are in the correct order.
Select one of the formats on the bottom.
When the dialog with output parameters appears, click Edit Preset, make sure the video size is Original, and the framerate is 60 fps for best quality. I would suggest leaving the other settings alone unless you know what you're doing. Click OK.
There is one-pass encoding and two-pass encoding, although I'm not sure what the differences are, except two-pass encoding takes longer.
You can also increase/decrease the maximum file size to control the quality of the video.
Then click Convert, and then all you need to do is to wait for the video to convert, which will take some time.
After it's done, you can watch the video, or upload it to a video hosting site. You should also delete the large, uncompressed video, as it cannot be played in real-time anyway due to the insanely high bitrate.