When asking to reencode videos for osu!, a lot of users recommend using VirtualDub, but if you have no experience using a video encoder, this program could quite possibly be the most confusing program you have ever seen. To solve this issue, here is a simple guide explaining the main features you need for osu! (if you need other features, I advise you try to find another guide to help you do that)
Required: ffdshow (you just need to have this installed with the virtualdub plug-in)
VirtualDub (I am using 1.9.5, but I am fairly sure any of the 1.9 series will do)
When you first open VirtualDub, it should look something like this:
1. First bring your video in. You can drag and drop it in or use the traditional file->open (Make sure the video is in .avi format. If you have a different format you can either get a plug-in for your format (not all formats have plug-ins) or use a converter like SUPER to make your video into a .avi)
Clipping:
2. If you only want a certain part of the video, first find where you want your clipped video to start (you can use the arrow keys to fine-tune the frame you want to start on)
3. Once you found the frame you want, press this button to set the beginning boundary for your video:
4. Find where you want to end the video.
5. Press the button directly to the right of the previous button to set the ending boundary for your video.
Resizing:
To make sure the video is not too large for osu! or lag any low-end computers, you need to make sure the resolution of the video is not too high. (Remember, resolution ≠ quality of the video)
6. Go press Video -> Filters... and this window should open:
7. Now, on this new window, press Add..., and once the next window opens up, scroll down and press resize
8. Now a window like this should pop up:
From here, you should change the resolution so that the smaller of the 2 numbers dimensions is under 500 pixels across. the easiest way to do this is change the relative percentage. (To make sure your video can be encoded correctly make sure your resulting resolution is an even number)
9. Press okay, and then press okay on the previous window
Compressing:
To make sure the video is of decent quality and not too large, you need to make sure to use the right settings when encoding your video
10. Press Video -> Compression... to open up this window:
11. Click ffdshow Video Codec and then press Configure as shown in the previous picture
12. From here you need to make a decision, you need to decide on a codec. For osu!, people usually use H.264 or XviD (a larger filesize, slightly lower quality easy to decode format), so if you want your video to be more accessible to users, use XviD. If you want a slight more quality for the filesize, use H.264
Since I like high quality videos, I use H.264.
13. Once you choose your codec, change the settings to fit your need.
If you choose XviD, I tend to only change the bitrate when using XviD. 300-500 kbps for a small vid and 501-1000 kbps for a higher quality vid.
If you chose H.264, here is what I use for settings. I cannot guarantee that these settings are optimal, but they will turn out a decent quality video. (If anyone wants to suggest better settings go ahead)
FOURCC: X264
Bitrate: same deal as the XviD format
Generic section:
b frames: put a check here and change it to 2 b frames
Motion estimation:
I sometimes check all of the inter and intra analyzer flags since they seem to increase the quality a bit, but I don't know enough about them to actually know which ones are actually useful for my video.
Here is a how my settings would look like:
13. Once you are done changing the settings, press OK twice
Disabling Audio:
14. For ranking purposes and to shrink the filesize, go to filesize and press No Audio. If you did this right, you should see a circle appear next to No Audio like so:
Exporting the video:
Now that you went through all this work, you want to get your video out and saved.
15. Go to File -> save segmented .avi... and save your file to the destination of your choice
16. Now watch as your video gets encoded. If the filesize is too big, feel free to abort the encoding and lower the bitrate and/or lower the resolution.
With this, your video is finally encoded and good for osu!
============
Notes: The output video can only be as good as the input video, so the higher quality the input is, the better the output video will be (There are a few exceptions to this, but they won't apply to most scenarios. As a result, please start with a high quality vid)
============
I hoped you found this guide useful. If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns, feel free to ask below. Otherwise, I hope you have a good time reencoding videos.
Required: ffdshow (you just need to have this installed with the virtualdub plug-in)
VirtualDub (I am using 1.9.5, but I am fairly sure any of the 1.9 series will do)
When you first open VirtualDub, it should look something like this:
1. First bring your video in. You can drag and drop it in or use the traditional file->open (Make sure the video is in .avi format. If you have a different format you can either get a plug-in for your format (not all formats have plug-ins) or use a converter like SUPER to make your video into a .avi)
Clipping:
2. If you only want a certain part of the video, first find where you want your clipped video to start (you can use the arrow keys to fine-tune the frame you want to start on)
3. Once you found the frame you want, press this button to set the beginning boundary for your video:
4. Find where you want to end the video.
5. Press the button directly to the right of the previous button to set the ending boundary for your video.
Resizing:
To make sure the video is not too large for osu! or lag any low-end computers, you need to make sure the resolution of the video is not too high. (Remember, resolution ≠ quality of the video)
6. Go press Video -> Filters... and this window should open:
7. Now, on this new window, press Add..., and once the next window opens up, scroll down and press resize
8. Now a window like this should pop up:
From here, you should change the resolution so that the smaller of the 2 numbers dimensions is under 500 pixels across. the easiest way to do this is change the relative percentage. (To make sure your video can be encoded correctly make sure your resulting resolution is an even number)
9. Press okay, and then press okay on the previous window
Compressing:
To make sure the video is of decent quality and not too large, you need to make sure to use the right settings when encoding your video
10. Press Video -> Compression... to open up this window:
11. Click ffdshow Video Codec and then press Configure as shown in the previous picture
12. From here you need to make a decision, you need to decide on a codec. For osu!, people usually use H.264 or XviD (a larger filesize, slightly lower quality easy to decode format), so if you want your video to be more accessible to users, use XviD. If you want a slight more quality for the filesize, use H.264
Since I like high quality videos, I use H.264.
13. Once you choose your codec, change the settings to fit your need.
If you choose XviD, I tend to only change the bitrate when using XviD. 300-500 kbps for a small vid and 501-1000 kbps for a higher quality vid.
If you chose H.264, here is what I use for settings. I cannot guarantee that these settings are optimal, but they will turn out a decent quality video. (If anyone wants to suggest better settings go ahead)
FOURCC: X264
Bitrate: same deal as the XviD format
Generic section:
b frames: put a check here and change it to 2 b frames
Motion estimation:
I sometimes check all of the inter and intra analyzer flags since they seem to increase the quality a bit, but I don't know enough about them to actually know which ones are actually useful for my video.
Here is a how my settings would look like:
13. Once you are done changing the settings, press OK twice
Disabling Audio:
14. For ranking purposes and to shrink the filesize, go to filesize and press No Audio. If you did this right, you should see a circle appear next to No Audio like so:
Exporting the video:
Now that you went through all this work, you want to get your video out and saved.
15. Go to File -> save segmented .avi... and save your file to the destination of your choice
16. Now watch as your video gets encoded. If the filesize is too big, feel free to abort the encoding and lower the bitrate and/or lower the resolution.
With this, your video is finally encoded and good for osu!
============
Notes: The output video can only be as good as the input video, so the higher quality the input is, the better the output video will be (There are a few exceptions to this, but they won't apply to most scenarios. As a result, please start with a high quality vid)
============
I hoped you found this guide useful. If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns, feel free to ask below. Otherwise, I hope you have a good time reencoding videos.
