DixX not listed for video codec

BigBadBurrow

Hello,

I'm using the current beta version (2.3b r294) of CamStudio. I would like to use the DivX codec for video encoding, but it's not in the list even though it is installed on my PC. I also downloaded v2.0 and it *is* in the list but when I select to use that codec and start recoding I get an error that says something like 'The selected codec could not be used, would you like to use the default?'

Any ideas what's going on?

Thanks,

BBB

TerryBritton

BBB,

This is a known issue that came up and is being researched for a fix for the next beta release. Meanwhile use r264 to have the DivX codec appear.

DivX needs to be in 24-bit or 32-bit color mode, so you’ll never get great speed out of that one. If possible, go for 24-bit (32-bit only includes the 8-bit transparency channel, which is not useful for most screen recordings.) Width must be a multiple of 4, height must be a multiple of 2.

For other settings considerations including the above, see http://screencasttutorial.org/02/optimizing-your-pc-for-camstudio-12
If synchronized audio is of importance to your videos, see this also: http://screencasttutorial.org/18/best-settings-for-camstudio-to-sync-audio-and-video-28
Terry

BigBadBurrow

Thanks Terry, all sorted now. I also found this website which helped with the DivX setup:

http://www.narkie.com/home/camstudio-with-divx

It appears DivX is more fussy than width being a multiple of 4, and height multiple of 2. I think it only works with a 16:9 ratio and both width and height are divisible by 16.

TerryBritton

BBB,

I had never heard of that limitation to being a 16:9 ratio. Had you used other dimensions than 1280X720? (Of course, following the narkie.com article, it is using the 720p settings, so one would figure it would want 1280X720!)

I've had it work using 856X420 before... I think! (Hmmmm... it's been so long since I'd abandoned DivX in favor of CamStudio Lossless and Lagarith Lossless.)

If you do any tests at other dimensions, please let me know of your findings on that issue!

[Edit: I also found the following post at http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?s=3ca5ef54465bc24bfbae72dd746fa6eb&showtopic=315354 down at the bottom of the posts, but I haven't tried this yet. ]

"I open up a blank Vegas file, drop in the title sequence, the Main file and the credits, and render them to a single .avi file, usually with the episode name. This gets sent to VirtualDub 1.5.4 so that I can encode the videos to DivX (a typical uncompressed final file takes about 1-3 GB of space - the DivX compression helps a bunch here).

And viola! Another episode finished. This is part of the reason why some of our episodes take SO long to put out. But it's all worth it in the end. smile.gif

Another small tip, if you want a "true-widescreen" crop that is very close to a traditional 16x9 display, set your project settings to 856x420, and your pixel aspect ratio to 1.0 (in your project files AND the individual clips) and use the 1:1.85 Academy aspect; this will give you a full widescreen without the black bars, making it easier to transcode to an mpeg for DVD's, other compression that doesn't change the aspect, etc. "

Terry

BigBadBurrow

As far as I could tell, whenever I entered any dimensions that weren't 16:9 ratio and divisible by 16 it wouldn't work - I always got the "Error recording AVI file using current compressor. Use default compressor?" error message. Which is a bit of a pain because the window I'm recoding isn't letterbox shaped. Perhaps I have something setup wrong, but I played around with it for quite a while, and that's the only way I could get it working.

The video I'm recording is over an hour long, and whenever I used any other codec the file ends up being enormous. DivX seems to generate incredibly small-sized files.