So your problem is only the codec? Isn't the dosbox startmenu folder providing an entry to install it? You might need the 32bit version of VirtualDub.
Sorry if that is covered by the video but I really didn't have time to watch 4 minutes to find out the answer might not be covered by it 😉

Thank you for your answer.
I tried both 64bit and 32bit VirtualDub. And I get errors installing the codec at the DosBox startmenu. Both was covered in the video. Any other ideas?

Bart.

the problem is the installlation of the zmbv codec. do a search here to find whtehr that was already covered. I think it is...

I read multiple articles on Vogons, but I can't find my problem covered, maybe you could give me an URL.

Bart.

Right click on zmbv.inf and choose "install".

(Re: No DOSBox start entry, need to install zmbv codec)

And yes, I tried that.

Is your VirtualDub 64 bit? If so...there's your problem.

Use ffmpeg. Does beautiful nearest neighbor upscaling of dosbox videos without a hitch, and you can specify the target aspect ratio independently of the stream's pixel's dimensions, which really has to be done since so many youtube presenters/viewers cannot grasp the simple fact the DOS games are targeted at 4:3 displays.
ffpmeg won't *write* zmbv correctly, but youtube is incredibly lossy anyway so it's a moot point; use something like libx264 and you will be fine.

Well yeah, I tried FFMpeg a few weeks ago, and it provides an MP4 file (like requested) and that file can't be opened in Premiere or After Effects (well to be honest it can but it's all messed up). Perhaps someone can help me understand FFMpeg a bit better. I have used Avanti (which is FFMPEG with a GUI) but I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Perhaps I could make another screenrecord and place it on youtube to show you and maybe you could tell me what I'm doing wrong. Thanks for answering!

Bart.

bloodbat wrote:

Is your VirtualDub 64 bit? If so...there's your problem.

bartjaah wrote:

Thank you for your answer.
I tried both 64bit and 32bit VirtualDub. And I get errors installing the codec at the DosBox startmenu. Both was covered in the video. Any other ideas?

Bart.

I remember doing exactly what you are doing with my very first videos like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh6r4Wu3LaU

But I soon found that I'm not doing anything different than 1000 of other people, well apart from the my videos being the CORRECT ASPECT RATIO 🤣

So I quickly changed to making videos on real MS-DOS Gaming PCs 😀

I used VirtualDub to resize my video from 320x200 to 1600x1200, which is the next highest resolution that can perfectly preserve the 4:3 aspect ratio with evenly sized pixels. I used the built-in resize filter and nearest neighbor interpolation, but the file size increased from 88MB to 150GB! This was using the uncompressed RGB option. Using the Microsoft Video 1 Codec, I was able to get the file size down to just under 10GB. The ZMBV Codec did not work. There has to be a way to get the same sharp image quality without the hard drive killing file size.

Can you please explain how you did that? Because VirtualDub won't open my DosBox records.

Bart.

Bartjaah wrote:

Well yeah, I tried FFMpeg a few weeks ago, and it provides an MP4 file (like requested) and that file can't be opened in Premiere or After Effects (well to be honest it can but it's all messed up). Perhaps someone can help me understand FFMpeg a bit better. I have used Avanti (which is FFMPEG with a GUI) but I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Try other output codecs and/or container formats....

I'd forget about VirtualDub and look for something else that has integer scaling. There must be a modern alternative 😀

The issue is not Virtualdub (which is "modern" - latest release was last October), it's an issue with installing the codec - right-click on the "Install movie codec" entry on the start menu and choose "Run as administrator". Then use 32-bit (not 64-bit) virtualdub for editing.

I figured out the issue, thanks to this post last year :

zonkrified wrote:

I figured this out! Go to Video/Color Depth, and change it to "16 bit RGB (565)" Make sure to force keyframes (from dosbox, orig […]
Show full quote

any attempt to save an AVI in ZMBV format in VirtualDub produces the error message, "Unable to initialize the output video codec. Check that the video codec is compatible with the output video frame size and that the settings are correct, or try a different one."

I figured this out! Go to Video/Color Depth, and change it to "16 bit RGB (565)"
Make sure to force keyframes (from dosbox, orig was every 50 frames), so you can seek during playback.

I'm really glad I got this working, because huffy was giving me a file size of 2.7gb, and in ZMBV it's only 65mb. Excellent codec for old game captures. Might be good for cartoons, too. I think I'll even try it with other stuff.

Its the color depth that needed to be changed for the output to 16-bit RGB, then ZMBV worked like a charm. It was much faster to encode the video and the 1600x1200 video was only 170MB in size. My video was using the usual 16 color 320x200 EGA mode and ran for 7:39. Much more reasonable than the 150GB of uncompressed RGB and the 10GB Microsoft Video 1, the latter of which was still a bit lossy. Thanks zonkrified!

If you want to see the results, here is a download of the raw DOSBox video capture :
http://www.mediafire.com/download/degf7n5bb4p … SBox%20Video.7z

and here is the conversion :
http://www.mediafire.com/download/u45hqlfsmu3 … 20conversion.7z

And here is the Youtube video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiYe7CXPVlM

The files compress really well at 3MB and 40MB, respectively.

@Great Hierophant: Great video - how did you hide the FPS in the top left corner? When I use the built-in recorder the framerate ends up in the my final video. I couldn't find anything in the readme, config file or on the forum. I presume it's something simple that's escaping me.

macaronic wrote:

@Great Hierophant: Great video - how did you hide the FPS in the top left corner? When I use the built-in recorder the framerate ends up in the my final video. I couldn't find anything in the readme, config file or on the forum. I presume it's something simple that's escaping me.

Thanks.

I do not know how a frame rate counter would appear. DOSBox doesn't provide one that I know of, it does not record the one that FRAPS overlays on the video (assuming I was using FRAPS, and I wasn't) and the conversion doesn't add one.

My current view is that one should add links to loss-less versions of any purely emulator-based video, assuming you can get the file size within 2GB or so. How I wish for a site where one can post lossless, high or low resolution videos in 50-70 frames per second.

Actually, in VirtualDub's filter menu, there is a checkbox for "Show frame rates". Uncheck that perhaps?