Quick Tip: Bandicam Releases CFR-capable Recording Update (for Importing into Vegas, Premiere, Lightworks, etc) [Notice of Update]

Just a Quick Tip for people having problems editing their recordings in Sony's Vegas, Adobe's Premiere, or Editshare's Lightworks, Canopus' Edius and other similar Non-Linear Editors:
Bandicam has released an Update to their software today, that allows the choice of either VFR (Variable Frame Rate) recording [Shadowplay's Default, for example] or CFR (Constant Frame Rate) recording - which is much more compatible for importing into these video editing applications, when recording with NVENC, AMDAPP or QuickSync codecs.


For a number of years now, people have been having issues with importing videos into Vegas or Premiere (to use these as an example, as two of the more common consumer editors) - mainly because many recording applications/settings use, by Default, VFR recording (Nvidia's Shadowplay, for example). As many people have already found, this can cause a multitude of problems, when trying to import these recordings into some of the video editing programs mentioned above. Problems such as:

• Audio and Video being Out Of Sync
• Recordings not showing up as Full-Length
• Audio not importing properly
• Video not being recognized
• Audio importing as only 'a small piece' of data

and other issues...

An example of one issue that can arise with VFR and some Video Editors is, 'trails' or corruption of some type; where the differences between the frames is displayed erroneously, as seen in the still-frame/screenshot just below:

While these issues are a combination of the strictness of the video editing applications and the settings that the codec is using in a recording application, these may now all be alleviated, with the latest update to the game recording program Bandicam, if they are occurring:

The Bandicam interface after the recent update, showing the Steps ("I. II. III.") for enabling CFR, which increases import compatibility with video editing applications such as Vegas, Premiere, Lightworks and more (MP4 container, GPU-accelerated H.264/AVC via the AMDAPP codec, 60fps format/settings shown as example). Click to see Full Size

Today, after updating to the latest version of Bandicam, there can be seen the option to choose either VFR (the Default for Shadowplay and many other recording applications, including Bandicam - which is more efficient for compression, but can result in problems when importing into Vegas/Premiere/etc) or CFR (which is less efficient for compression, but can alleviate the problems with importing into Vegas/Premiere/etc).

For those wanting to use NVENC, AMDAPP or QuickSync to record, for example (GPU-accelerated recording capabilities), this will allow increased importing into these editors, without the need to 're-compress' the videos into a more compatible video format (for example, adding the extra step of using Handbrake to convert the videos into CFR, making the videos importable into Vegas/Premiere/Lightworks/etc, as I wrote about here, when talking about Shadowplay). 

(As another example, if you used Plays.TV's client to record with (which can also use buffered and GPU-accelerated recording), you may have noticed audio/video desynchronization occurring, when attempting to import your recordings into video editing programs - as Plays.Tv's Support Area talks about here, it is due to the usage of VFR)



As a quick Test, I captured my Desktop in a short recording (using Bandicam with the new CFR setting), then tried to import that into Vegas, to see if the video and audio were indeed importable without problems, as a trial of this new compatibility setting.....

A short test of the CFR setting in Bandicam (Desktop portion, short recording, imported into Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 13, playing back within Vegas, output converted into GIF with Honeycam).
Click to see Larger Size

It worked great! The recording was not only imported into Vegas without complaint, it was faster (more responsive) in editing/shuttling/scrolling through the video, due to the CFR setting.

[This was with the AMDAPP (AMD GPU-accelerated) codec, in the MP4 container, using the CFR setting. This codec setup within Bandicam utilizes AAC audio as well and I would use it mainly when editing with Sony's Vegas line of video editing products, as it seems to import without issue. If I were to switch to other codecs or the AVI container, they may then not be as easily imported into NLEs such as Vegas, so I would then use something else, such as CyberLink's PowerDirector (for example), which is far less 'fussy' when it comes to codecs and formats, for importing]

VFR (Variable Frame Rate) helps increase possible compression by reducing the number of frames in a group ('groups of frames utilized per second' in the file) - literally reducing the number of frames used in a file - when less is changing/occurring onscreen. CFR (Constant Frame Rate) will increase file size moderately, due to the fact there is no longer the reduction of the number of frames in a group useable as a factor in compressing the video further - when 60fps is set as a FrameRate, it will literally write sixty frames every second into the video file, regardless of how much has changed onscreen. BitRate is still the major factor in how large the video will be, however. Also note, that this setting is independent of the "fps" (Frames Per Second) displayed output.

[TLDR: CFR will create larger files than VFR because it cannot compress the video as much, but not excessively large, as BitRate is still the main factor in video compression/sizes - and both of these do not affect "frames per second" output onscreen]

Hopefully, this new capability will alleviate the problems with importing your game recording experiences into your favourite video editing application. Try it out, have fun with it - and See You In The Game!

 N.B.: 

I discovered when editing recordings with NLEs (Non-Linear Editors) such as Vegas, Lightworks, Premiere, et al. you may need to utilize a GOP (Group Of Pictures) of "1" for editing compatibility... 

Usually, with MPEG-based video data, there are set intervals of "Keyframes". 
Keyframes are 'stand-alone' images, where all the picture data is kept within one frame (it is not dependent on surrounding frames in the file). Video editing applications use these Keyframes to begin/cut edits from. If there is a large GOP (with many frames in-between these Keyframes), the video editing program must 'key off' of these frames, rebuilding the GOP within the program, causing slowdown in edit processing and possibly causing visible corruption ('trails' or 'glitchy' output). 
Setting a Keyframe Interval of "1" makes every frame in the video a Keyframe, eliminating the possibility of this issue. 

I have written a couple of articles on this, here at the blog,
http://gametipsandmore.blogspot.ca/2013/06/and-more-how-to-record-with.html
http://gametipsandmore.blogspot.ca/2013/05/game-recording-with-mpeg-4-using.html
and submitted this occurrence to Bandisoft, the development house of Bandicam. I am proud to state that this led to the inclusion of a Keyframe Interval option within Bandicam. 

This setting may still be required for full compatibility with Non-Linear Editors. 

Although a GOP of 1 takes away most of the 'headroom' to work with video compression (the video file sizes will increase as it does not have the inter-frame dependency), if you are having issues with importing your videos into these types of video editing applications, even with this new CFR setting, try configuring the Keyframe Interval to "1" [you can also use PCM ("Uncompressed") audio to increase audio compatibility] and this should assist with issues with importing your recordings into these editors. 

Good luck with it!

And More, Quick Tip: HitFilm Effects 'Stop Working' or 'Not Working When Reopening Projects' in Sony Vegas 13

Just a Quick Tip, for those using Sony's Vegas line of products for editing. I was working in a recently-upgraded-to Movie Studio 13 Platinum, enjoying the new version and trying the FXHOME HitFilm Effects plug-ins that come with it. Then, the plug-in effects seemed to stop working today - they didn't show the effects in the Preview at all when I re-opened the Project. I could open the Settings Panel for the plug-ins and change them, but could not 'see' the HitFilm effects. I made a few recent changes to my System, one of them being upgrading my NVIDIA GPU drivers. So, I rolled them back, installing an older version (going back to 332.21 - a version I chose so that I could also use CUDA for Rendering, among other things) and boom - the Hitfilm effects were back ...to the future ...with a vengeance ok I'll stop. So, if anyone else runs into this problem with these HitFilm Effects and Vegas [it may help no matter what Edition you have installed], try rolling back the GPU drivers.

[N.B.: This issue was encountered and solved on my NVIDIA GPU,
it is unknown by myself, at this time, whether this issue exists with AMD/ATi GPUs]

Have fun editing your gameplay adventures - and See You In The Games!

Bandicam - Their 2.1.0 Release and Testing Compatibility of the MP4 Container Recordings with Nine Different Video Editing Programs [Link To Forum Post]

Just letting those who use Bandicam to record their gameplay know, I tested the newest version (2.1.0.708, released two days ago) and Bandicam's new ability to record into an MP4 container [natively], an addition that would hopefully increase compatibility with video editing programs. All I did was some quick tests by importing recordings created by Bandicam into different video editing applications; but I wanted to share the results with you all. Here are the programs I tested:

- Adobe Premiere Pro 6 (Trial)
- Avid Media Composer 8.1 (Trial)
- Sony's Vegas Movie Studio 11 Platinum
- CyberLink's PowerDirector 12
- Lightworks 12
- Nero Video 11
and some free video editing applications...

For the results of my testing the new MP4 container recording option with those video editors, visit my short post at the Official Bandicam Forum here:

http://www.bandisoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2956&p=10235

I hope you find it useful and See You In The Games!

And More: Editing NVIDIA's Shadowplay Recordings and 'The VFR/CFR Problem' (Text-Only Version)

[Updates at bottom of article]

Just a quick post on the problem many people seem to be having with editing NVIDIA's Shadowplay recordings and how to work around it, for now...

For those who don't know, Shadowplay is a free game recording capability that is included in NVIDIA's GeForce Experience utility and is accessible by anyone with an NVIDIA GPU that is a GTX 650 or higher [they state "600 Series or higher"]. Simply install the GFx utility [my abbrev.] and turn it on and Shadowplay will record a buffered period of time, overwriting that space/file again and again, until you decide to save something cool that happened in the game.

Whether FRAPS sold NVIDIA the code to do buffered/looped recording (as FRAPS has had it for many years), or NVIDIA developed it on their own, the end result is the same. The problem is, a ton of people [if technical and game forums everywhere are an indication] are unable to edit the end output correctly, when using Shadowplay.

The main reason why this seems to happen, could be due to Shadowplay utilizing VFR to record it's video data into a file. VFR stands for Variable Frame Rate, and essentially it allows the frame rate to change from slow to fast, above and below the 'set' frame rate, many times if needed, within a single video file. This helps to save space by making low-motion (or static) scenes use less frames within the video file and make complex scenes (with high-action/movements) look smoother by inserting more frames into the video file. Sounds good and test videos look fine, but the problem is when going to then edit the 'Shadowplays'.

Many video editing applications (especially NLE's [Non-Linear Editors]) may not like Shadowplay and will choke on the video, hold back sound in spurts and spit up bits of food on your screen if you try to edit the recordings. This could be due to the usage of VFR.

Note: I don't want to 'put the blame' on NVIDIA or VFR here, NVIDIA is a fantastic company with great innovations and products, and VFR is a great method for organizing frames within video data that creates a lot of 'headroom for compression' (lower file sizes by reducing the number of frames used) while trying to maintain Quality as well (by increasing the frames utilized per second within the GOP data of the file, as the codec decides it is beneficial). It merely is not as compatible, when it comes to video editing programs. As another example, Plays.Tv uses Accelerated VFR in its' Client to buffer/record with, which it notes here in their Support section, is simply less compatible and can create audio/video synchronization problems - the issue is VFR and editing compatibility -  not these companies/utilities themselves...

Fortunately, the 'fix' [which in my opinion of more of a work-around] is relatively easy, if slightly time-consuming:

Simply re-render the Shadowplay recordings into CFR (constant frame rate) video (where 60fps really is 60 frames being recorded or played back in sequence, in the video, every second, throughout the entire clip). There are many apps that can do this, but the most popular [most-popularly-used in the video-editing circles that are experiencing this problem] is probably Handbrake (it is completely free to use). Simply import your video and choose Constant Framerate in the Video Tab. That's it.

Another program you can use, is built right in (if you use Windows): Windows Movie Maker [Note: Windows Movie Maker does not seem to be bundled with Windows 10, it may however be available as a separate download]. Simply import the video and without adjusting anything, export (render) it out to MPEG-4 (MP4) format. It will produce a CFR (Constant Frame Rate) video that you can then import into programs that were having trouble with VFR - like Adobe's Premiere and other video editing applications.

[Choose a high quality setting or high bitrate, to maintain as much of your original recording detail as possible (so it won't compress it even more and lose detail). If you need to set a BitRate for the export, make sure to set it higher than the original video clip(s) BitRate ((Personal Suggestion: 2x more if you can))]

Once this is done, you'll be able to import your Shadowplay 're-renders' without problem, whether you use Premiere, Vegas, Lightworks or some other video editing application that has been having trouble importing your VFR video (for instance, some people have had problems with Shadowplay recordings using CyberLink's PowerDirector and others have not had a problem with PowerDirector at all, importing it fine - I have not used Shadowplay Recordings in PowerDirector yet [I do not have a GPU capable of using Shadowplay at this time] but I have personally imported VFR material into PowerDirector 12 without problem).

[I might come back and add screenshots to this article in the future, or create a new one talking more specifically about VFR and importing it into Premiere, but for now I wanted to bang it out and get it up here to help people who have been having this problem (many since last year, when Shadowplay first came out, with even more people having the problem earlier than that with Premiere and VFR recordings from their cameras)]

I hope that helps some people out for now, anyway. Have fun recording - and See You In The Games!




Update 1:

Bandicam has now implemented an option in their game recording software (as of July 2015), which allows choosing CFR recording or VFR recording. Since it also uses GPU-accelerated codecs such as AMDAPP, NVENC, QuickSync (and can be made to use CUDA, if you still have that), it seems to have become a viable alternative to this problem. As a Registered User of Bandicam, I shall test out this latest version of the software and perhaps write a post about it Soon™


Update 2:

I have done some quick testing with this new version of Bandicam (with the ability to choose CFR as well as use VFR if desired) and have written a short post about it at this blog, here.


Update 3 - 2018.06:

NVIDIA's Game Recording Utility seems to have changed names a few times, known as Shadowplay, then Share, then In-Game Overlay. Whatever it is called today, while this issue with editing VFR might remain, on some older video editing applications; it seems to be less of an issue on the most recent versions of video editing apps (as of 2018) - tested personally with a few programs, such as Sony's Vegas Pro 14 (now taken over by MAGIX), CyberLink's PowerDirector 16, and Corel's VideoStudio 2018 - all three video editors did not have an issue Importing and Editing VFR material (as of June 2018 when I did these short tests) [I do not own and did not test Adobe's Premiere/Elements, at this time, sorry]. So, if you are having an issue editing Shadowplay/NVENC recordings circa 2018 or later, try updating your video editing application(s), if you can.

And More: The EULA Keeps Popping Up When Starting Sony's Vegas Video Editing Applications (FIX)

Since the most popular answer on the ongoing poll I have running here at the blog ("what type of posts would you like to see more of in 2014" [top right, it will run until the middle of the year]) is "Tips And Tricks Of Video Capturing And Editing", I thought I would start more of these types of requested posts by sharing this fix for a problem that seems to pop up intermittently with Sony's Vegas line of products.


Whether you have just re-installed it or whether it has been on your system for a while, 'something' is causing the EULA (End User License Agreement) to pop up and require you to agree to it, even if you have already done so and/or Registered the program. This question comes up once in a while on the Sony Creative Software Official Forums and I have seen it elsewhere. I was recently reminded of it again because it is also something that just happened to me on my system! I didn't re-install Vegas or make any large changes related to Vegas, yet this little guy started popping-up every time I started up Vegas Movie Studio HD**:

The popup that comes up for some people, every time they start Vegas

The fix is a simple one, originally suggested by a Sony Forum Moderator and quoted/forwarded frequently on the official forums, to those who come and ask the question there. Although it seems more like a 'workaround' than a 'fix [in my opinion], it works just fine and since it is officially supported by Sony and I just tested it for verification myself [that it does indeed solve the problem], so now I share it here with you:

• To stop the EULA popping up every time you start Sony Vegas, simply open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder where you installed it on your system. 
• Then, find the file that is titled, simply, "eula". There will be no Extension showing, even if you have the Windows option to 'Hide Extensions For Known File Types' turned off. 
• Rename (or delete) the file. That's it! 

Now the EULA cannot pop up anymore and won't, every time you start up Vegas to edit your game captures.

**Although this example shows steps for the Movie Studio version of Sony's Vegas Video editing line, the EULA 'fix' is the same steps for Vegas Pro, Vegas Edit or other versions of Vegas

Enjoy popup-free video editing once again - and See You In The Games!

And More: How to record with H.264/AVC/x264/x264vfw (MPEG-4 Part 10) so that your video clips will open in Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere (Short Tutorial/Example Video)

Originally created to show an example of what to change so that your game recordings using the H.264/AVC/x264/x264vfw (MPEG-4 Part 10) codec will open up in Vegas, this also works for Premiere, Lightworks and other NLE's (Non-Linear Editors), for those who were having problems editing.

In this example*, I am recording with an x264vfw (Komisar's Unofficial, Black Logo) interface**, which sets up h.264/AVC encoding, used as an "External Codec" in Bandicam:

*Just a silly version of the video, sorry for taking up your time with this little joke

Summary of Video: Within the x264 Video For Windows interface, change the FourCC code that x264 is recording with [think of it as the 'UPC label' or 'QR tag' for the videos] to a code that these video editing apps can recognize natively. That's all.

Now, you should be able to import all your future game recordings into Vegas and Premiere without problem...

Ok, for a truly easy-to-follow video, that shows examples of how to set the code for Bandicam, Dxtory and Afterburner, look no further than here:

The true version of the video, showing how to adjust the setting required

As you can see, because the main setting to change occurs within the x264vfw interface itself, this change can be utilized no matter what game recording program you prefer to record with (Bandicam, Dxtory, MSI Afterburner, etc.)


**If you are using the 'Official' version of the x264vfw codec interface (Red Logo), the setting to change is indicated in this screenshot below:

»» Note: 
When editing the x264vfw codec with NLEs (Non-Linear Editors) such as Sony's Vegas line of products and Adobe's Premiere applications, you may experience artifacts such as 'trails' or 'corruption' unless you set the GOP setting to "1", which will make "Intra-frame only" encodes. This will encode frames that do not depend on surrounding frames, containing all necessary data within each frame itself (similar to how the MJPEG codec operates, requiring more bitrate/filesize, but MPEG-4 still uses less bitrate overall), which alleviates this problem.

This seems to only occur with Vegas, Premiere, Lightworks and similar products when using MPEG4, but does not occur with most other video editing applications (tested with Windows Movie Maker, CyberLink's PowerDirector, Nero Video, Avidemux, VirtualDub, etc), so you could always extract the portions of the video you want from your recordings with those, then import your portions into Vegas/Premiere/etc and finalize your video projects that way. However, to omit having to do that extra step, you can have your H.264/AVC (x264) recordings editable in Vegas/Premiere/etc by doing the following:

For the Official (Red Logo) x264vfw interface, add "--keyint 1" (without quotations) into the Extra Command area at the bottom
For The Unofficial (Black Logo) x264vfw interface, set the Maximum GO Size to "1"


***
A lengthy article, talking about recording with x264/H.264/AVC in detail (testing settings, recommendations for speed, etc.) can be found at the blog here:
http://gametipsandmore.blogspot.ca/2013/05/game-recording-with-mpeg-4-using.html

***

Have fun editing and See You In The Games!

And More: How To Stop the "Trails" and "Corruption" in Sony Vegas When Importing an Xvid Codec Recorded File (Tutorial with Example Video)

[The title sounds like a spell of some sort.. BEWARE THE TRAILS OF CORRUPTION]

As part of the 'And More' of this blog, I would like to present a Tip that will help anyone that may be experiencing the 'trails' or 'corruption' effect that appears when importing an Xvid-recorded video into the Sony Vegas line of products.

This effect can occur no matter what game recording software you are using (Dxtory, Bandicam [as an External Codec], MSI Afterburner, etc.**), if it is configured to record with the Xvid codec downloaded from the Xvid.org website. An example of the corruption (and the associated setting that can fix it) can be seen in this short video:

The first portion is an Xvid Codec recording with the Motion Search Precision setting ON (which is the default setting if you are using the "Real-time" Quality Preset to record with, for instance).
The second portion is the same Xvid Codec recording, but with the Motion Search Precision setting OFF (Set to "None" (0)).

That is all that need be changed to fix this problem with importing Xvid recordings into Vegas, all other settings can remain how you prefer. One more example of what can be fixed/corrected (a still frame from a 'corrupted' video) is shown here:

To change the required setting in the Xvid Codec interface:

• After selecting Xvid MPEG-4 Codec as your recording codec [in whatever game recording software you prefer], click on the Configure button to open the Xvid Configuration window. Then, under the More section, Quality Preset, click the "more..." button past the pull-down menubar and it will Question you with the choice to Copy the values that cannot be changed to a "User Defined" setting. Clicking "Yes" will copy the Real-time Preset settings to the pull-down selection called "User Defined" and then you can change the preset settings within.

Click to see Full Size

• In the Motion Precision category on the first tab (Motion), next to Motion Search Precision, click on the pull-down menubar and click on "0 - None", to turn off Motion Searching when recording using the Xvid Codec.

Click to see Full Size

That's it. Sony Vegas Movie Studio and Sony Vegas Pro should both now be able to import your Xvid format recordings, no matter what game recording program you are using (Dxtory, Bandicam [as an External Codec], MSI Afterburner, etc**).


** Users of Bandicam will find that a built-in/optimized version of Xvid is already included within the program codec menu and provides good capture ability/quality, it just does not have the codec-native configuration interface (to change settings) and this version will not natively import into Vegas, as of this version.
If you are using Bandicam as your game recording application and you wish to record with the built-in/optimized version of Xvid and import your recordings into Vegas, simply download the Xvid codec from the Xvid.org website. Then, Bandicam's version of the codec can be opened within the Sony Vegas line of products. The problem presented above in the article does not occur when using Bandicam's built-in/optimized version of Xvid††

†† It should be noted, that this issue of "corruption" or "trails" or "glitchy-ness" does not occur in all Video Editing Applications. While most NLE editors (Vegas, Premiere, Lightworks, etc) will experience this, many 'Pro-sumer' grade video editing programs, do not. I have personally tested editors such as Corel's VideoStudio Pro, CyberLink's PowerDirector and even Microsoft's Movie Maker - and none of these editors display the issue mentioned herein.
If a user desires to stick with Xvid as their recording codec (indeed a speedy and potentially semi-high quality codec), then perhaps utilizing one of these other editors, should be considered.



Have fun recording and See You In The Games!

And More: How To Stop Ghosting or Blurring in Sony Vegas Video Rendering (Tutorial with Example Video and Screenshots)

 [Update 1: Added still frame examples of the difference, to help those who perhaps could not easily see the difference in the video or in their own renders, from the recorded video/output, found at **]
[Update 2 (2016-12): Updated some Screenshots and added additional example Screenshots of what the various Menus and Properties windows look like (to Vegas Movie Studio 13, the version I currently own at the time of this Update)]

As part of the 'And More' of this blog, I would like to present a Tip that will help everyone asking about and experiencing the 'blurry/ghost-y' effect that appears when rendering a video that they have created in the Sony Vegas line of products. An example of this blurring or ghosting is shown in this short video:

Recorded with:  Bandicam @ 1080p, Quality 70%  
Recorded Game: Left 4 Dead 2 @ 1080p, Dark Carnival Level
Recording Output: Rendered with Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum Edition, Sony AVC codec @ 1080p, 15Mbps data rate for smaller upload size


The first 10 seconds is the 'Smart Resample' setting that is on By Default in Sony's Vegas product line (Movie Studio, Movie Studio Platinum, Vegas Pro). The second portion is the same recording but with the 'Disable Resample' setting. Even with some quality loss from YouTube, the difference between the first "blurry" output that many have experienced - and the second crisper, clearer version without it can hopefully be seen... So then, how to fix it?


The simplest way is to right click on the video event (video clip) and open the Properties of the event/video. The pop-up menu that should show up when right-clicking on an event/video is seen here (shown from Vegas Movie Studio 13):

Then in the 'Properties' window, simply click on the radio button choice that indicates "Disable resample", as seen here (example Event Properties window shown from Vegas Movie Studio 13):

That's it!

Now, with any further work you do with the video, you won't have to worry about the 'ghosting' effect happening to you in the end render output. I suggest doing this at the beginning of your project and as you add new video clips, that way it is done for the entire clip, even if you split it up into parts.





**Below are two examples, one showing the "ghosting" or "blurring" effect in more detail (for those that could not quite tell the difference in the video example), shown as frames extracted from the video itself:

Example frame from video showing the "ghosty" or "blurry" effect that can occur with Resampling Enabled in the Sony Vegas Video Rendering Options (Smart Resample ENABLED).

Example frame from video showing the absence of the effect/problem that can occur with Resampling here being Disabled in the Sony Vegas Video Rendering Options (Smart Resample DISABLED).

Behind-The-Scenes: Additional Info About The Above Thingamajig And Related Doohickeys

While the above steps solve the problem, I would like to go into more detail as to why this is occurring. I see this question a lot in forums, particularly ones about gaming and video editing, and would like to clear up more of what is going on.

Many people blame Vegas and say that the resampling (which is essentially a re-structuring/blending device to correct for framerate, interlacing, etc.) is not working properly. Although Sony's method could use a little work, the program portion of it 'detecting' and 'kicking in' is actually working as intended...

One of the reasons why this ghosting or blurring occurs, is that the project framerate (what Vegas 'assumes' you are going to be rendering to) differs from the recorded source (that source being your gaming video, recorded with Fraps, Dxtory, Bandicam, etc - whatever you prefer to record with).

One way to check what the output goal that Vegas has set in mind is: open up the Project Properties by going to the Project pull-down menu and select Properties. That pull-down menu looks like this (shown in Vegas Movie Studio 13):

You can also open up the Project Properties by clicking on the button/icon that looks like 'a grey box with an arrow in it', found in the top toolbar and also is found just above the main video preview window area. The button to click on looks like this (shown in Vegas Movie Studio 13):

In the Pro versions of Vegas, the pull-down menu will not be called PROJECT, it will be called FILE (but it will still be the first menu in the Toolbar). The small button that can also be clicked on, will still be located in the same place, just above the Preview Window area, as shown above.

Here is an example of what the Project Properties window will look like (shown from Vegas Movie Studio 13):

The main thing to check in the Project Properties, is the Frame rate (shown pulled-down and highlighted in the screenshot above).

Vegas' resampling capability will kick-in even if the frame rate is off by a small amount, such as if you are using a recording that is 30 frames-per-second, but being edited with a Vegas project setting/output format that is 29.97 fps (which is most standard DVD/BluRay/Render Presets that Vegas may pre-load).

Whatever frame rate you are recording at (30fps, 60fps, etc.), double-check the Project settings to see if it is the same as your recording. If it isn't, Vegas will try to restructure the video and blend the differences, resulting in that 'blurry', 'ghosty' output that many are familiar with.

[To be fair, Vegas is attempting to help/compensate for the framerate differences of possible recording devices (cameras,etc), and in live-action[real-life] recordings, it does help in a way; but in videogame recordings that are already crisp and clear, this process is not needed and results in this ghosty/blurry 'problem' for gameplay recorders/editors]

There are actually three places in Sony Vegas that keep track of the frame rate:

1) In the Project Properties (eg. pulldown the PROJECT menu in the toolbar and choose PROPERTIES (FILE menu in Pro versions of Vegas))

2) Shown In Each Event/VideoClip (eg. Right-Click each of your clips on the Timeline and click PROPERTIES)

3) In The Render Options (eg. RenderAs and see it in the CUSTOMIZE TEMPLATE settings (CUSTOM button in Pro versions of Vegas))

If just Disabling Resampling [via the event on the timeline] is not working, try to see if all of these three locations match the framerate of your recorded video clips.



Alternatively, you could try to change only the framerate in the final Output Format rendering settings to match your source recording(s) framerate (location is shown highlighted below in an example Settings window from Vegas Movie Studio 13):

Looking at the Frame Rate (shown highlighted, near center of window) in a Template of High Quality Render Settings (shown from Vegas Movie Studio 13). Feel free to use these Settings in your Projects!

By doing this one adjustment at the very end of your editing process (just as you finish up and start the Render) - as long as you are sure that all of your source clips involved have the same framerate and you are going to do your final render out to that very same framerate - then you can try to change this one setting at the end and see if it works as well (you may still have go back and change all three locations if it does not).

Note that although the Setting for "Frame Rate" may only allow you to go up to "59.94fps" (even if you type it in); don't worry, that framerate is still seen by YouTube [if you are using YouTube to share your videos] as "60fps". I did a short Vegas render and Upload to YouTube to test it out [kept Private, done just for this test] and below is what it looks like at YouTube after Uploading:

As you can see, even though Vegas had "59.94 fps" in the Frame Rate box/area, it is a Standard Framerate and accepted as "1080p60HD" at YouTube.

Whichever way you go about it, hopefully checking these few things will help you create clearer, crisper game recording videos.

Have fun with it and See You In The Game!

Quality Test - Diablo III and Bandicam's "For Edit" Preset / YouTube Upload Test

With the Bandicam "For Edit" Preset, every frame is an independent Keyframe or I-Frame (Information Frame), which is a type of frame that can be 'cut' or started from in video editing programs (technically, every frame is a JPG picture). Also, the audio is Uncompressed, which means that any video editor should be able to recognize the sound data. Errors in programs like Virtualdub saying "Error initializing audio stream decompression" or Sony's Vegas showing "Stream attributes could not be determined" will not occur and these will open the audio just fine with this setting.

Testing out Bandicam as a game recorder and playing during the launch of Diablo 3 (woot!), I've put together some settings/specifications, uploaded it to YouTube, and collected some results for you all:

The video is short, but I was mainly testing a few things:
1) D3's performance, with all options maxed out
2) Capture quality of Bandicam's 'For Edit Premiere/Sony Vegas' Preset and performance/lag of using it
3) The Logo/Watermark capability of Bandicam
4) YouTube's quality maintainability


Recorded with: Bandicam
- v.179204 (Latest at time of this post)
- 'For Edit (Premiere, Sony Vegas)' Preset
- MJPEG, "Full Size", 80%quality (Preset), 30fps, Uncompressed PCM Audio at 48kHz
- Logo option (our GTAM watermark), lower right, 10% opacity


Game: Diablo III (Retail Release) Launch Day
- Witch Doctor, Cathedral Level 3
- Texture Quality: High
- Shadow Quality: High
- Physics: High

- Clutter Density: High

- "Anti-Aliasing" checkbox ticked ON


Resolution: 1680x1050 (1.6AR) recorded at 1680x1050 ("Full Size")**
Filtering: 4xMSAA, 4xAF, set in Control Panel of Videocard
Framerate while not recording: 80-100fps
Framerate while recording: 80-100fps

For people trying out Bandicam and finding your recordings are choppy/laggy on playback (when looking at the original generated/recorded file), you should find that compressing it to a file with a smaller bitrate/size in a format you will keep it permanently in, it will play back that file just fine.

I chose this D3 clip for a Quality Test because it was a good example of both fast movements/action on the screen, as well as slow/non-moving parts, including text. It has dark and light areas, high contrast edges, and tests wide area panning as well.

Bandicam's "For Edit" Preset worked great, with clear text and action in the original recording, while flatter, darker parts were not overly compressed which would create excessive macroblocks or be too smoothed out. There were some Gibbs Effects/Mosquito Noise around text and on some of the button logos in the original recording, but you had to look closely to see it, which is pretty good for not being a 100% Quality setting.

The very small amount of color banding present in the original recording was somewhat generated by the Game Engine (seen in the lower-right quadrant of this video, and in the Diablo3 login screen around the moon, etc.), and there shouldn't be much, due to using MJPEG as a recording codec.

If you are having problems with Color Banding that is not in the game itself, try MJPEG as your recording codec




Average bitrate of the original was about 40Mbps, which meant a writing stream to the disk of about 5MB/s, which any hard drive can handle (recorded onto a drive capable of 150MB/s).
Framerate during recording was maintained at 80-100fps (same framerate as not recording).
The original 1 minute generated file is about 300MB in size with these settings. The recompressed MPEG-4, resized to 1080p file, has an average bitrate of 20Mbps and is about 140MB in size.

While this Preset in Bandicam is designed for compatibility with editing programs, the original recording was uploaded directly from the Bandicam-generated file anyway, to test the effects of uploading to YouTube from an original recording.

** The video at the top was Lanzcos3 resized from the original 1680x1050 capture to a 1728x1080 (1.6 AR) [MPEG-4 H.264 AVC/AAC file with a bitrate of 20000kbps (audio at 384kbps) using a Deblocking Filter setting of +0+0] because the original upload was down-sized to 1280x720 by YouTube and looked much worse, see here below:

The Result:
Recorded at 1680x1050, YouTube had downsized that one to 720 vertical lines. The Gibbs Effects were no longer present because of this, but excessive smoothing and other compression artifacts were introduced. Text was far less readable and nothing on the screen was as crisp as the original 1050p recording. Aliasing was also introduced. This was unfortunate but understandable however, as YouTube can no doubt not keep 'everything' at 'very high bitrates' on their servers, and since it was not 1080p, it simply scaled it down.

A single frame taken from each video for comparison (Frame 813, zoomed section) from the original Bandicam recording, YouTube's version of the 1080p upload and YouTube's 720p version of the 1680x1050 upload. Click to see Full Size.

The resized-from-1050p-to-1080p version maintained much of its detail after uploading to YouTube. The text is closer to the crispness of the original recording, and there is only some smoothing and deblocking being done. There are some macroblock artifacts and color banding accentuation in the darker areas however (for instance, the lower-right quadrant much of the time) but other than that, it is a decent quality version of the 1080p upload.


For those recording at 1680x1050, I recommend upsizing it to 1728x1080 so that YouTube keeps most of the detail of your recordings

  Well done, Bandicam (and YouTube).

Hopefully this information will help out any gamers that are looking to start recording their experiences, or even the already numerous people who are recording and sharing their great videos. Thank you all for sharing and your efforts.



Please note dear reader, that I am not saying "This codec is the best one to record with" or "use this one only". I am merely showing that it is possible or how to tweak it for quality or file size, as to your own personal tastes. There are many codecs out there to choose from when game recording and although some are more apt for certain types of games than others, overall it is your own choice to do with as you will.


See you in the games!