Windows Gameplay Video Compression Software

Black_Hawk

Skilled
Hi Folks

I recorded gameplay footage using AMD's own Adrenaline software while gaming on my PC. I want to upload the video to Youtube now but the video size is about 5GB. I would like to reduce that size keeping the quality of the video as decent as possible (post-compression). Is there a software that I can use to compress the video to a smaller size? The video has been recorded at 1080p.

Back in the day I used FRAPS to record gameplay footage and then relied on Virtualdub to compress the size of those videos. Recorded videos through FRAPS would end up being obnoxiously large in size but Virtualdub did a very good job of compressing those videos to a smaller size while maintaining the quality.
 
Since YouTube is gonna re-encode the uploaded video before hosting, you should go ahead and upload the 5GB file for max quality.

If the reason you want to re-encode it is that you don't have unlimited data, then you can use ffpmeg:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -fs 1024M -c:v libx264 output.mp4
1024M will create a 1GB output file, adjust as required.

If memory serves, FRAPS used to record uncompressed data in AVI format. CPUs back then weren't powerful enought to game and encode video at the same time. AMD Adrenaline is probably using the GPU for encoding. For future needs, see if it allows you to reduce the bitrate to reduce filesize.

I think OP has already recorded the gameplay and wants to upload that, not live stream the next session
 
Last edited:
Fantastic... thanks so much @n1r0 and @Emrebel for the inputs, appreciate it!

@n1r0: You are correct my friend, I have the recorded gameplay and want to upload that, no live-stream. I do have unlimited data and will go ahead with the full 5GB upload and see how that goes. Thing is, I have been playing Hitman 3 lately and my love for making Hitman videos has been rekindled again! This is purely for fun so I want to indulge and in the process master the game as well :)

@Emrebel : One more friend of mine a little while ago suggested the same. Will go through some tutorials regarding Handbrake. This seems to be a great tool for compressing videos.
 
Fantastic... thanks so much @n1r0 and @Emrebel for the inputs, appreciate it!

@n1r0: You are correct my friend, I have the recorded gameplay and want to upload that, no live-stream. I do have unlimited data and will go ahead with the full 5GB upload and see how that goes. Thing is, I have been playing Hitman 3 lately and my love for making Hitman videos has been rekindled again! This is purely for fun so I want to indulge and in the process master the game as well :)

@Emrebel : One more friend of mine a little while ago suggested the same. Will go through some tutorials regarding Handbrake. This seems to be a great tool for compressing videos.
You can go through the presets and see if the default settings work for you.
Otherwise you can store a profile after tweaking the settings and use them by default for your videos
 
@Black_Hawk you didn't state the duration of the video if its over an hour then better would be to upload as it is..
Stating a 1Gb size via command line thru x264 encoder would not do justice to the game play video as such videos require a lot of bit rate..
If you were to use x265 then 1gb would definitely do for a video of about 1gb size if there are not too many fast paced scenes and extremely colored pic..

To re encode to x264 or x265 handbrakes is easiest as you can re encode based on crf or biteate both
 
@Black_Hawk you didn't state the duration of the video if its over an hour then better would be to upload as it is..
Stating a 1Gb size via command line thru x264 encoder would not do justice to the game play video as such videos require a lot of bit rate..
If you were to use x265 then 1gb would definitely do for a video of about 1gb size if there are not too many fast paced scenes and extremely colored pic..

To re encode to x264 or x265 handbrakes is easiest as you can re encode based on crf or biteate both


The duration of the video is 40 minutes.

Thanks for the related info mate. I will try and upload the entire video (5GB) and see how it goes. Will report back here.
 
As others said, upload it as is. Youtube will literally massacre the video. So it's advisable that you don't do any pre mortem.
Handbrake is what I've been using for as long as I remember. Does a brilliant job. I do the same thing, for self pleasure. My recorded files show a total of 800 GB lol. Must delete these.
 
Since YouTube is gonna re-encode the uploaded video before hosting, you should go ahead and upload the 5GB file for max quality.

If the reason you want to re-encode it is that you don't have unlimited data, then you can use ffpmeg:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -fs 1024M -c:v libx264 output.mp4
1024M will create a 1GB output file, adjust as required.

If memory serves, FRAPS used to record uncompressed data in AVI format. CPUs back then weren't powerful enought to game and encode video at the same time. AMD Adrenaline is probably using the GPU for encoding. For future needs, see if it allows you to reduce the bitrate to reduce filesize.


I think OP has already recorded the gameplay and wants to upload that, not live stream the next session
obs is not just for streaming. it can be used as a screen recorder which works for games as well and it can output compressed videos. I thought op wanted a solution for recording games with compressed video. if he already has a video which needs compression yes handbrake is a good option.
 
An update on this:

I went ahead and uploaded the entire video file to Youtube without using any software to compress it and it worked fine:


The above file size was a little over 5GB. I have now uploaded multiple video files to Youtube (size ranging from 2GB to 5GB) without any compression and haven't faced any issues till now. Youtube uploads them and then processes them. Then I get the option to Publish (public) them. Maximum resolution for the videos uploaded on Youtube is 1080p60.

Cheers guys and thanks again! :)
 
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