Best Video Codec To Use?

[Wags]

Hello, I have been using the Lagarith Lossless video codec ever since I purchased DXtory and was wondering if there is another out there that might be "better"? I record in 1080P 30fps sometimes 60fps now that YouTube accepts that format. In my Lagarith settings I have "Use Multithreading" and "YV12" marked. I have built a beast of a gaming machine, so I can run what I need to settings wise. Whatever you guys use and your settings for the best possible looking video would be helpful!

Also, is there a way to have Dxtory save in the .mp4 file format? I don't have any fancy video editing software, and all I get is one audio track from the avi files. I have to extract the audio and send my video and audio to my friend who adds the second track, etc.

[RobiePAX]

Codec - Lagarith in YV12 mode with Multi-Threading on is considered the best "Lossless" video codec since it offers the best performance for quality value. People who are willing to sacrifice a bit of quality but prefer much lower file size use x264 Video Codec. I did not personally test the actual performance of x264 myself.

I don't think there's a way to record Dxtory in .mp4 , though you can use a free transcoder called Handbrake to convert and compress the video to .mp4 as much as possible with losing quality. But for best experience you should consider investing into getting either Adobe Premiere Elements or Sony Vegas Movie Studio.

[Malix]

depends on game, sometimes.

For me, in most games UtVideo Codec results higher framerates, way above 60fps game and recording fps, whereas Lagarith game fps seems to occasionally dip down to below 40 fps. I usually record 30fps.

But in some instances, like Minecraft and some emulators, Lagarith YV12 outperforms UtVideo by a ridiculous margin. Without recording, minecraft can hold 200-300fps* on my system, but while recording with UtVideo it tanks to below 40. With Lagarith it's always over 60. Weird.

So I usually go with the rule of thumb: if the game is "pixely" -> use Lagarith. Otherwise -> use UtVideo Codec.

I edit my video with sony movie studio and it seems that preview playback is solid 30 (or 60fps) when handling UtVideo footage, but Lagarith footage seems to slow down preview to ~20fps. Probably due to Lagarith's higher compression.
This also shows as longer render times for Lagarith recordings. Kind of weird that my system can encode Lagarith 60fps @ 1080p easily, but decoding seems to be a problem.

*I don't normally keep my fps unlocked, it's waste of resources.

edit: way too many edits, I can't seem to put down a coherrent sentence to save my life.

[Wasabi Wei]

Thanks for the thread. As a new user I found it quite helpful. I tried both Lagarith and UTVideo so far - working on H264. Lagarith works with Handbrake using the RGB default, so that is my go-to since I have not found a free way to convert UTVideo although I suspect using the UL2..Y-based codecs (?) instead of the RGB option might be the issue. I did like the look and smooth recording of the UTVideo codecs better however, so I might play with it some more.

Mainly I wanted to add that for new users Lagarith with the default RGB option seems like a solid starting point if they use Handbrake. Searching 'supported codecs' for each piece of software one is using throughout the process helps a lot - wish I had thought of that right away. Yeah seems obvious in retrospect, but in the middle of all this new stuff I had to take a step back to return to basic search terminology after trying a bunch of combinations. Living and learning.

[zerowalker]

Interesting that Minecraft works better with Lagarith. As it's not something it should be better at.
Even though it's pixelated, it's still 3d, making colors move around A Lot, compared to 2D where everything except some pixels will move around at frame changes.

[Colt3n]

depends on game, sometimes.

For me, in most games UtVideo Codec results higher framerates, way above 60fps game and recording fps, whereas Lagarith game fps seems to occasionally dip down to below 40 fps. I usually record 30fps.

But in some instances, like Minecraft and some emulators, Lagarith YV12 outperforms UtVideo by a ridiculous margin. Without recording, minecraft can hold 200-300fps* on my system, but while recording with UtVideo it tanks to below 40. With Lagarith it's always over 60. Weird.

So I usually go with the rule of thumb: if the game is "pixely" -> use Lagarith. Otherwise -> use UtVideo Codec.

I edit my video with sony movie studio and it seems that preview playback is solid 30 (or 60fps) when handling UtVideo footage, but Lagarith footage seems to slow down preview to ~20fps. Probably due to Lagarith's higher compression.
This also shows as longer render times for Lagarith recordings. Kind of weird that my system can encode Lagarith 60fps @ 1080p easily, but decoding seems to be a problem.

*I don't normally keep my fps unlocked, it's waste of resources.

edit: way too many edits, I can't seem to put down a coherrent sentence to save my life.

I hope it's okey that i borrow this thread.

I have some problems with recording when im gaming. My computer setup are like this: i5 4670K Haswell, ASUS Radeon R9 280X, 16 gb ram and 500 mbit up/down.

What settings shall i have in Loseless and UTvideo? I've tried a lot of different settings, but some of them lags when im playing or it lags in movie when i've recorded.

Would appreciate help!