How to Record and Compress a VisualBoyAdvance Video

***EDIT***
PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THESE DOWNLOADS MIGHT BE A LITTLE DIFFERENT FROM THE TIME THIS VIDEO WAS MADE. THEY SHOULD STILL WORK THOUGH. =)

This is a brief tutorial on how I made all my Golden Sun: The Lost Age videos for my walkthrough. Here are the steps shown in this video.

1) Make a file folder for all your downloaded files.
2) Open up Google and find the proper download sites for the MSU codec, the Xvid codec, and VirtualDub.
3) Download/extract/install all three.
4) Open up VBA and ROM, get to where you need to record, and go to "Tools, Record, Start AVI recording..."
5) Save the file wherever and use the MSU Screen Capture Lossless codec in the "Video Compression" box.
6) Record the video. Notice how things start to lag a little...don't worry, that's normal (but annoying).
7) Once done recording, go to "Tools, Record, Stop AVI recording" to end the video.
8) Find the *.avi file you just recorded and open it in VirtualDub.
9) Click "Video, Filters" to open the Filters box, click "Add..." and choose "resize" to make the video bigger. Change the "Relative (%)" box to about 270% and click OK twice.
10) Now go "Video, Frame Rate" and click to choose the second circle "Change frame rate to (fps):" and type in the number that appears just under it. That number will almost always change, so make sure to type in exactly what you see.
11) Now go to "Video, Compression" and scroll down to find "Xvid MPEG-4 Codec" and click "Configure." Change the "Target quantizer" to about 13.00 and click OK.
12) Go to "Audio, Full processing mode" then "Audio, Compression..." and choose "MPEG Layer-3. Pick the highest number you see, usually 56, for the best sound quality, and click OK.
13) Finally, save your video by clicking "File, Save as AVI..." and save it wherever.
14) Notice the three boxes that appear. You can close the "Xvid Status" one, but leave the other two alone.
15) Once it's saved, you can upload it to YouTube!

VirtualDub is what resizes the video, compresses it into a smaller file, and makes the audio match the video perfectly. The two codecs make for good viewing quality, so those are optional. Keep in mind that without compressing the video, you'll have a 200+ MB file to upload, instead of a nicely compressed 60 MB video.

Download links:

MSU Screen Capture Lossless Codec v1.2 -
http://compression.ru/video/ls-codec/screen_capture_codec_en.html

Xvid Codec v1.2.2 -
http://www.xvid.org/Downloads.43.0.html

VirtualDub v1.9.9 -
http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/

These links are all VIRUS FREE and shouldn't pose any problem. Notice that if you have McAfee Anti Virus Software, it will scan "Dialer-182" as a potential threat. This is just part of VirtualDub, so don't worry!

Also, the version of VirtualDub I used in the video is 1.8.8 instead of 1.9.9, the current version. They are practically the same, so nothing will be different if you use v1.9.9.

The music came courtesy of StreamLineV2's download link. It's called "Requiem [Remix]."

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[Kiptracx]

Why go with the second option under the Video - Frame Rate editing? Won't the third one [where it automatically adjusts the frame rate to that number] achieve the same effect?

[zipdog12]

@Kiptracx Well I tried that a couple years ago thinking the exact same thing, but for some reason the audio/video still wasn't synced properly. Have you tried it yourself?

[SmashBrosWii1]

hey i was recording on of my pokemon fire red vids when one of my the video got like corruptyed or somtin, it wont play adn when i put it in a converter it says its empty, help me!

[zipdog12]

@SmashBrosWii1 Hmm, there's probably 1000 reasons a video can be corrupted. Check the file extension, check the codec you used and make sure it's a stable version, etc. I would suggest just re-recording, unless ALL of your videos become corrupted...

[pikachupal21]

@zipdog12 when i try to put it to msu it isnt there i download it

[zipdog12]

@pikachupal21 If you can't get it to work at all, just record using the Uncompressed option. Everything else should be the same.

[codehackerzane]

It's fun to to record my code videos on!

[Kiptracx]

@zipdog12 Ah.. that [the third option] is what I normally do and it works fine for me. Then again, I use different codecs so that might be part of it. That being said, thank you for this, since I was able to get it working right when it consistently crashed on me.

[Kiptracx]

Just would like to say that, while it does take a few minutes to finish everything with VirtualDub [~40-70 fps], it works perfectly fine. Even when hours of scouring brought me no other results.

Also, from a friendly VBA recorder to another, I'd recommend using the ffdshow codec whilst recording, it gives little if any lag at all [for me, anyway]. 99-100% speed almost all the time.

[DrFreenote]

Let me know if this helped, and if you need a better explanation, feel free to reply and I'll get back to you. There's only so much a person can do with five hundred characters with which to use, but I'll do my best. ;D

[DrFreenote]

I'm not sure if people are still looking for this or not, but for those with lower-end computers who can't deal with the lag while recording, I have a nice fix that you might appreciate.

Under "Start AVI Recording...", VBA has an option to "Start Movie Recording...". This movie will always be a very low file size, doesn't seem to lag at all, and can only be played back using Visual Boy Advance. The plus side? You can record AVI footage while this movie is playing back.