Celestia Forums

Hi all,

I am experiencing problems capturing video from Celestia (1.5.0pre5).

I am capturing @ 640x480, Microsoft AVI, uncompressed for up to a minute of video.
This results in a file up to 3.5 GB, but it is corrupted. It will not open in any editing SW. ("Windows Media Player encountered an unknown error.", "File reading error" in ULEAD VideoStudio )
Earlier I captured a 1.2 GB file which I think was also corrupt, but I've managed to do a 300MB one with no problems.

Now I'm not sure if this is a bug or limitation in openGL video API, or if Windows XP itself just has problems with files of this size. (Also diskspace is getting very low due to the 3.5 GB file, which probably doesn't help )

I can do smaller captures of 20-30 secs, but I'm not sure where the cutoff between success and failure lies, largely because of the following...

Due to FPS limitations of my hardware (64MB shared video, 1.2 GB RAM, 1.5Ghz processor) I find that I usually have to set timerate to -2X or -4X in order to capture relatively smooth video.
This means I may have to wait for 20 minutes to capture 1 minute of video, which turns out to be un-usable due to the problem above.

Would anyone (preferably with a similar config to me) be able to try and replicate this problem. I'd like to know if it's actually a bug, or just my config.

Cheers
CC

This is strange.
I just made a check as follows:
file avi 640x480, no compression, a bit more than 1 minute, about 1.7 GB, tested on Windows Madia Player, Media Player Classic and VLC Media Player, and this is the result:
all performed very well, without any problem.
I fear the problem is yours, not of 1.5.0pre5, sorry.
My little cent.
Bye

Andrea

1.7 GB. Man. You guys should think about getting linux. I can capture a full screen 1280x892 video for over a minute and it's about 100 mb.
cartrite

cartrite wrote:1.7 GB. Man. You guys should think about getting linux. I can capture a full screen 1280x892 video for over a minute and it's about 100 mb.
cartrite

You can do the same on Windows too--it all depends on the codec that you use.

--Chris

cartrite wrote:1.7 GB. Man. You guys should think about getting linux. I can capture a full screen 1280x892 video for over a minute and it's about 100 mb. cartrite

This makes me a bit curious.
What a kind of compression are you using?
Is it a Linux proprietary codec, or not?
I think, but may be badly wrong, that if you make the same test in the same way (640x480 NO COMPRESSION AVI output file) you'll obtain the same results, even with Linux.
Or not?
Bye

Andrea

chris wrote:

cartrite wrote:1.7 GB. Man. You guys should think about getting linux. I can capture a full screen 1280x892 video for over a minute and it's about 100 mb.
cartrite

You can do the same on Windows too--it all depends on the codec that you use.

--Chris

Is it possible for Windows Celestia to use xvid? How ? I go through a lot to convert the theora vids to avi with the xvid codec so they can be played on windows media player.
cartrite

ANDREA wrote:

cartrite wrote:1.7 GB. Man. You guys should think about getting linux. I can capture a full screen 1280x892 video for over a minute and it's about 100 mb. cartrite

This makes me a bit curious.
What a kind of compression are you using?
Is it a Linux proprietary codec, or not?
I think, but may be badly wrong, that if you make the same test in the same way (640x480 NO COMPRESSION AVI output file) you'll obtain the same results, even with Linux.
Or not?
Bye

Andrea

It is all about compression. Raw vids will be large no matter what.
cartrite

chris wrote:

cartrite wrote:1.7 GB. Man. You guys should think about getting linux. I can capture a full screen 1280x892 video for over a minute and it's about 100 mb.
cartrite

You can do the same on Windows too--it all depends on the codec that you use.

--Chris

Man do I feel dumb. I just checked out the video capture in celestia 1.5pre5 and it was so simple...........
I just did a vid 1 minute 20 seconds at 1024x768 with the xvid codec. 18.1 mb. The image quality looks great!!!!!!
Here is a screenshot of the video capture qui. Pretty impressive.




Chuft Captain, you say you are doing your vids uncompressed. Isn't there any other codecs available? Maybe you should install the xvid mpeg4 codec. http://www.xvid.org/Downloads.15.0.html
cartrite

Thanks for the feedback guys.
It's actually good to know the problem's at my end (because I can then do something about it, hopefully).

Cartrite, thanks for the link. I might give that Xvid codec a try. My choices at the moment are a little limited. The reason I was capturing uncompressed is because I want to edit and add titles, so best to start with highest quality. Adding titles to already compressed divX for example, causes considerable loss of quality. (I think because of the double compression).

My final output after titling is usually in DivX 5.0 and MPG.

Perhaps this Xvid will be high enough quality that I can start with it prior to editing, without too much loss of quality in the second generation.

Hopefully this codec will solve my issues and it's not an underlying problem with my hardware.

EDIT: What's with the really annoying "HELLLOOO!" at the linked download website? (http://www.digital-digest.com/software/ ... id=0&did=1)

Cheers
CC

Chuft-Captain wrote:EDIT: What's with the really annoying "HELLLOOO!" at the linked download website? (http://www.digital-digest.com/software/ ... id=0&did=1)

Cheers
CC

I wasn't sure what you meant until I turned the sound on. Yeah that is annoying. I never use the computer with the sound on unless there is a need. Like watching something that I want to listen to. Very rare.
cartrite