Fraps is a dedicated video capture utility. It is unique in that it gives excellent quality recording at the output. The situation becomes more complicated because such a video has a very large output volume. There is a reasonable need to reduce file sizes. Fortunately, Handbrake can fix the problem.
Preparing the program for use
Handbrake video converting software is completely free. To download it, go to handbrake.fr and click the Download Handbrake button. Next to the name of the program, its version will be signed in the form of a sequence of numbers. After downloading the file, run it and select the directory for installation, then click “Next” several times and wait for the installation to complete.
This program can be downloaded for such operating systems as Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X. To start preparing the settings, launch Handbrake by clicking on the corresponding shortcut.
Selecting the save path and source file
Find the "Source" button at the top of the program and click on it. Select "Open File" from the drop-down list. Select through the explorer the file that you want to reduce in size. Then go to the "Video" tab, find "Video Codec" and choose one of the three provided H.264, MPEG-4 or MPEG-2. If you are not particularly versed, it is better to leave this item by default.
In the main window of the program, find the item "Destination". Click the "Browse" button, then enter the desired name in the "File name" field, below select the "File type" mp4 or mkv. This file will be used for encoding by Handbrake. Click the Save button. Specify only a directory that has enough free space.
Configuring container and permissions
Now select just above the video file container in the "Cotainer" field. A container is not a file format, but merely acts as a way to organize items within it. The difference between mkv and mp4 containers is scanty, but it is there. If you choose to use the AC3 audio track, then mkv will be used automatically. For mp4, you can and should make additional settings. Web Optimized - check this box if the file is to be uploaded to the Internet. iPod 5G Support - if you intend to use video on a fifth generation iPod. Large File Size - a checkmark will remove the 4 gigabyte limit for 1 file. Please note that some devices will not display such video.
The "Picture" tab contains the Size setting - this is the resolution of the future video. Set the required parameters. The final frame size can be adjusted in two ways. The first involves disabling anamorphic encoding. Find the item Anamorphic and put there "None", and then check the box next to "Keep Aspect Ratio". Thus, the aspect ratio of the video will be preserved and will be the same as in the original file. The second way is to use anamorphic encoding. In this case, the vertical remains normal, but the horizontal of the video changes. The frame will turn out to be large, so a high bitrate will be needed for such a video. However, the image turns out to be very decent, it can be played in almost any player. If there are black bars in the video, you can trim them with the "Cropping" function. Before encoding, you can always look at the picture quality by clicking the Preview button located at the top left.
Setting filters and quality
If your video has a so-called "comb effect", then go to the "Filters" tab and select the Default item from the Decomb drop-down list. If the video has ugly looking blocks of pixels, the Deblock filter will fix it. Blocks appear in H.263, XviD, DivX, H.261 and other formats after heavy compression. The filter will not return the quality, but it will remove most of the defects. The checkbox on Grayscale should be set only if there is a need to cancel the color of the video.
The Framerate item should be configured only if you understand the frame rate. Usually 30 frames per second is enough for game video. But for more smoothness, you can set it to 60. Please note that the weight of the video will increase after this. Quality is the quality of the video, a value of 17-18 will be quite enough, since it is about 1 gigabyte of information per hour. The Avg Bitrate item, 25000 will be enough for a game video, when you set this value, you will be able to check the 2-Pass Encoding item. That is, encoding in this case will take place in two passes. The first will analyze the bitrate, and the second will carry out the encoding according to this analysis. The "Turbo first pass" checkbox will speed up the first pass many times over, while the quality will hardly change.
When all the program settings are made, find the "Start" button on top and start the video encoding process. When HandBrake finishes its work on reducing the size of the video, you can find it in the folder that you specified as the directory for the final file.
