Recording a video snap

[dprush83]

I can't find a video snap of the game I'm dedicating my MAME build artwork to, so I need to make one.  I'm using Hyperspin, so I need to create a FLV file.  Does anybody know what to use to record gameplay and create a snap? 

[Sjaak]

Start mame from the command line with the following option:

mame <gamename> -aviwrite <filename>

This will write an avi file of the gameplay.

Then convert the .avi to .flv. Not sure which conversion tool is the easiest, maybe someone else can make a suggestion. I use the Adobe Creative Suite, but that is probably overkill.

[dprush83]

Excellent, thanks!  I will take a look at conversion software -- I have found some free online conversion pages, but the file sizes make that timely and I'm not sure it's going to work in the end. If anybody knows of free conversion software that will let me clip the first 3-4 seconds that would be great! 

[lordnacho]

You can upload it to youtube and have them convert it to flv, then use a firefox plugin to download it

I've used VirtualDub in the past to trim.

[dprush83]

Thanks for the youtube idea, since that last post I had actually downloaded "Any Video Converter."  It's free and worked well, so on that alone I'd recommend it.

Of course, when one problem is solved another emerges....I now have the FLV in my snap folder and it sounds great and was converted just the way I wanted (the program let me clip the first few seconds and whatnot).  Now the problem is that the way it was recorded it looks like crap in hyperspin.  The dimensions are off so it looks like it's zoomed too far to the center.  I've played with making the video as small as possible in this program, but overall it's the same problem.  Does anybody know the recommended dimensions? 


Ugh, at least I'm CLOSER to a solution....

[lordnacho]

Doesn't it depend on the theme?  Do you have one for that game or is it the default one for that system?

[dprush83]

I think you're right, it's probably the theme.  As far as I know there is a WIP for this theme, once it's done maybe I can mess around in Hypertheme if it still doesn't line up...thank you for the thought!