Hi Terry

. . . . Despite the wide gulf in bitrate? (FRAPS is 44 times higher.) . . .

For me the contrast and definition is better than the FRAPS video.

John EB

Hi John,

I was surprised how close they were in 'quality', given the very large bitrate (and hence file size) differences.

I've done another comparison. This time I tried hard to make the recordings as similar as possible, bearing in mind I'm using a hand-held navigation device. And, of course, capturing 'artificial' content, including simulated 3D models.

The respective file sizes, durations and codecs of the two files captured were:
FRAPS: 1030 MB, 20s, Codec ID: FPS1
Game Bar: 32 MB, 27s, Codec ID: mp42 (mp41/isom)

I could see a little finer detail in the FRAPS AVI, but still not as much as I'd expect.
I imported both into a 50 fps project, PAL 1920x1080, and exported the following composite file (112 MB) to the same spec:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jk5s68c4323u537/Test-GameBar%2BFRAPS.mp4?dl=0

I can still just about see the better resolution in the FRAPS. What do you and others think?

Hi Terry

Personally I find the Game Bar video more pleasant, the colours are better - especially in the white yacht and the grey building in front of it.

Both exhibit some aliasing and shimmer at the edges of objects again I prefer the Game Bar shimmer over the FRAPS.

The trees have better definition using FRAPS, with Game Bar they appear a little blocky.

IMO there is no definitive winner - both programs have their plus and minus points and the resultant quality, clarity and colour are dependent on the range of tones, FRAPS is better with mid tones, Game Bar better in the highlights and contrasty areas.

The music is good - what is it?

HTH

John EB

Hi John,

Many thanks for that detailed feedback.

I've emailed you the music track.

Hi

I imported both into a 50 fps project, PAL 1920x1080, and exported the following composite file (112 MB) to the same spec:

Where did the spec come from? Was it the same as the captured Game Bar footage used?

To me the Fraps footage looked noticeably better in every way, and of course there should be no blockiness as there are no B or P frames in the fraps original. Fraps is probably like Motion JPEG (MJPEG) in that all the compression is in the individual frames so no motion search hence no macro blocks.

I am not sure why there is so much aliasing - in the Game Bar it only looks less obvious because it is blurrier in my opinion. Both the originals were not captured at any higher res than 1920x1080 were they?

Peter

Hi

I imported both into a 50 fps project, PAL 1920x1080, and exported the following composite file (112 MB) to the same spec:

Hi Peter,

Where did the spec come from? Was it the same as the captured Game Bar footage used?

No, I chose 50 fps because I've recently started using that as my MEP project setting instead of 25 fps. That in turn is because FRAPS allows that capture option and, unlike my old PC, this one is happy with that.

Here is the Game Bar footage spec (before reducing its duration in MEP):

BTW, do you know the meaning of 'Original frame rate: 29.970 (30000/1001)FPS' please?

FWIW, here also is the spec of my last comparison video:

To me the Fraps footage looked noticeably better in every way, and of course there should be no blockiness as there are no B or P frames in the fraps original. Fraps is probably like Motion JPEG (MJPEG) in that all the compression is in the individual frames so no motion search hence no macro blocks.

I am not sure why there is so much aliasing - in the Game Bar it only looks less obvious because it is blurrier in my opinion. Both the originals were not captured at any higher res than 1920x1080 were they?

No. Can you amplify on the aliasing please, Peter, i.e. tell me what to look for.

Hi Terry

Aliasing/shimmering - look at the the areas indicate below as you play the clip

HTH

John EB

John, Peter,

Don't forget that the source itself was GE with '3D Buildings' enabled. A small variation in my manual navigation, especially speed, apparently made quite a significant difference. IOW, not necessarily attributable to the capture program.

If I ever repeat the test I'll set up an automatic tour instead, so that user influence is excluded.

Hi Terry

As John has indicated, in the areas around the features there are white 'Jaggies" which are caused by aliasing. Aliasing is a result of a bitmap which is sampled at a higher frequency/resolution, being scaled or displayed at a lower resolution, which to simplify, means that the bigger pixel in the scaled down (lower resn.) image, needing to contain several lighter and darker pixels of the Hidef detail, cannot decide accurately whether it should be white or black to create the edge of the detail. IOW a sloping line becomes a staircase that can jitter from black to white as a result of movement in the picture. Hence my question about whether you had scaled the objects and looking at the Media info data of the 3 files, it appears there has been some scaling of the resn. although not enough I would have thought, to create this.

FYI - The "Anti flicker Filter" (actually a Spatial Anti interlace filter) in MEP is there to help this by blurring the higher resn image prior to the scaling during encoding - IOW reducing the resolution of the hires image whose resolution will be reduced anyway, by the scaling. Digital cameras utilise an optical low pass filter on the chip to achieve a similar thing by not allowing detail higher than the resolution of the sensor from reaching it's surface.

If there are any settings in the capture software or any where else in the chain to enable Anti aliasing then I would enable it in your examples. I would only normally enable it if I had a moving PinP of an HD clip or Hi Res photo within an HD or SD clip, or if I was encoding an HD timeline to DVD. Note that this Anti flicker filter can be applied and adjusted (blurring more, or less) in the overall "Movie Setting" from the top Effects menu prior, to encoding.

Peter

Hi Peter,

Thanks, I'll explore along those lines later.

I do normally have the Anti Flicker filter enabled in MEP for all exports. There are no aliasing options in Game Bar or FRAPS. I don't know of any 'scaling' I did, just cropping in MEP.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

I don't know of any 'scaling' I did, just cropping in MEP.

I was referring to the Media info where the resolution of the Game Bar file was 1824x1080 and the Fraps file 1696x1088 which to me means it has been re-scaled. Like I said, I do not think it would be significant as to cause aliasing, but who knows?