It's entirely possible I'm seeing things or expecting too much. You can't play these games without being at least
kind of a perfectionist.
I've been trying a few things for further comparison.
Video for comparison (not HD)Video from .aviVideo from .mp4Video from .mp4, with sharpness at 16 instead of 5Comparing to a not-HD video is kind of unfair, but at least I know that the videos are of higher quality than some on the open Internet. As far as the other three videos go, I think the quality improves from second to third to first, but the difference is negligible and uploading as .mp4 is faster by at least twenty times. So... I think I'm done. Thank you for your help!
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Quick version of what I did:
*Download and install the following:
MSI AfterburnerVirtualDubx264vfw codec - I don't remember there being anything particularly special about getting this working.
LAME 3.99.5 ACM codec - If you have an x64 computer like me, this download comes with a readme that's actually quite useful for getting this where it needs to go. Otherwise you may be good for following the instructions
here.
Freemake Video Converter - This isn't the download link but it'll tell you everything you need to know about it.
It may be worth the effort to check VirtualDub for whether you need either of the two codecs. I needed both; I don't know if everyone will.
*Play game. :V
*Open MSI Afterburner and go to Settings -> Video Capture. Set the video capture hotkey to something you're unlikely to press but easy to remember (I use Ctrl+F8). Set video format to "uncompressed" (this will disable your ability to manipulate the slider below; this is okay). Set Frame Size to Full Frame (I remember getting dubious quality with other settings) and framerate to 60 FPS. Set the folder the videos go to to someplace you can find it.
*Record replay at full screen while MSI Afterburner is running. MSI Afterburner will record the active window, not your desktop, but I got the best results from full-screen - though that may have been conflated with other fixes I made; I'm not sure.
*Open the .avi that you got from recording the video in VirtualDub.
**Under Video, select Full Processing Mode.
**In Video->Filters, click Add... and grab the resize filter. You'll be prompted to specify a size; get the width to 720. Everything else should be fine. If you screw up, click Configure on the Filters pane. Before you leave, grab the sharpen filter. You can adjust the sharpening to whatever you like; I did okay with 16 but you're perfectly able to play around with it. Setting it to max sharpness is hilarious but not something you'd want on a serious video.
**Under Video->Compression, choose the x264vfw. This is the H.264 video codec mentioned
here. Click Configure, and set Rate Control to "Single Pass - lossless" (note that I'm just doing this because I'm sheeping the key word "lossless" wherever I see it). Click "VirtualDub hack" in the output subpane.
**Under Audio->Compression, choose Lame MP3 and off to the side select the 256 kbps CBR option. If Audio->Compression is greyed out, click "Full Processing Mode" down the Video dropdown first.
*Watch the before-and-after videos by pressing Enter. You'd like your video to look as good as it can before it goes off to be mangled. If you like it, save the .avi off somewhere. Press Ctrl-S to save your video processing options so you don't have to repeat the VirtualDub set every time; you can just Ctrl-L the settings back.
*Open Freemake Video Converter. Click Video and grab your processed .avi. Click "To mp4" at the bottom. The output parameters should be "same as source" and you should save it someplace where you can find it, per usual. Run it.
You now have an .mp4 that's teeny (20 MB vs. 618 MB with the .avi, in the case of the videos shown in this post) and YouTube will happily accept this. Mission accomplished!
The quality of the mp4 isn't going to match the quality of the .avi. As far as I'm aware the only response available is to :dealwithit: .
If I missed something and it's not evident where, Google can be your friend as much as it was mine when going through this process. I claim ignorance about anything that's too far away from what I described here.
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Bonus tip: If you're like me and the make of your computer is an HP Envy, you may have found that your Stereo Mix sounds garbled. This actually isn't your fault and it's not the computer's fault; it's Microsoft's. Go to Control Panel -> Sound -> Recording -> Stereo Mix -> Properties -> Advanced and uncheck the "Enable Audio Enhancements" box. Insert your own joke here.