Hey All, I've lurked for a while as I've worked at getting my FRAPS recording up-and-running, and have run into a problem to which I've not yet found a solution. I have a FRAPS-recorded AVI (1920x1200, 60fps) that I'm using to test my encoding/conversion/whatnot. When I convert it in StaxRip, the video stutters in certain parts - it didn't do that in-game, and neither did it when I tried converting with HandBrake (not recommended) nor VirtualDub (which I had some trouble with). I've tried at various StaxRip settings (video quality, speed), and it hasn't gotten any better; indeed, when I set it at a lower quality and slower render speed, the stuttering got worse, and injected some artifacting that hadn't been there previously. Is this a common problem? Am I doing something obviously wrong? I can provide more information, but I'm unsure what would be relevant. Thanks in advance for any help; this forum has been a great resource for many problems about which I haven't needed to post
Hi, thanks for the reply, and sorry for my own delay. Yes, it is the same portion of the video. After some research on the color range, I switched the "Source" filter (which I believe is the encoding method? I understand little about the behind-the-scenes) from AVISource to FFVideoSource and now have worse problems (video halts at a certain point while the audio continues - again, at a consistent spot). I'm probably introducing more variables than are necessary; I'm looking around for a toggle to increase the AVISource color range, as I had overall better luck with that method. Again, I've successfully converted that chunk of video without issue before, so I don't think it's the source that's the problem. I'll keep looking for solutions and trying silly ideas, and I'll report back if I figure anything out. Thanks for your time, and any additional assistance you (or anyone) can offer!
VirtualDub has a "File/File Information..." menu item that gives you Keyframe count & total frame count. If there is no frame skipping during the capture process these numbers will be equal (dropping a few seems to be normal). If the numbers are far apart, that may give StaxRip some trouble, I dunno. I imagine Fraps inserts a dummy P-frame of some kind when it can't keep up with the incoming frame rate. So if your vid is 10 sec = 600 frames, and only 500 are key frames, the other 100 are basically saying "yeah what he said"... and some apps are able to decode/re-encode this unconventional stream better than others. StaxRip has tons of options - have you tried another encoding preset? Different encoders, different muxer? If you're dropping a lot of key frames, your system is maxed out; try recording at 30 fps.
It seems I may be over-reaching, as I inspected another FRAPS source file (I seem to have...misplaced the file I was using to test) and it's missing around 800 key frames over the course of 2 minutes. As I checked out the "Is my HDD fast enough" threads, I ran some tests and it looks like my hard drive is a bit below the recommended speed - it's a partition on an older WD Green drive, so that's perhaps unsurprising (I'm new to this!). This could perhaps be causing the dropped frames? I'll try messing around with some other presets to see if anything's better; I don't really understand what they all mean (I was following the tutorial), but I'll figure it out as I go along. Thanks for the tips, especially that handy File Information bit - with so many options, it's hard to know where to start. [Edit]: So while I think my original issue may have been related to performance or some settings, I think my second problem (with video stopping but audio continuing) was due to using the "Directory Batch" option. For whatever reason, it seems to only grab the video from my first file, but the audio from the others. I don't know why that is, but switching to "Single Or Merge" put it back to normal.
