Converting FRAPS videos into H.264 MKVs with FLAC

[AnotherFRAPSuser]

I need some advice regarding converting FRAPS videos to H.264 MKV with FLAC and if anyone else here is a gamer or have used FRAPs before then here's my question:

Have any of you ever attempted to convert FRAPS AVI captures into a H.264 MKV with FLAC audio format?

If so, then what is the best converter free or open-source otherwise, and preferably with a GUI? I would prefer freeware or open source solution but if I must go with a commercial one please tell me there is one that works really well for this and is not too expensive.

I've already tried FreeMake Video Converter which does support converting a video into a H.264 MKV with FLAC for the audio stream.

But here's my problem with it, the audio stream is always out of sync in the converted output video, and the frame-rate is not properly detected by FreeMake so I always have to readjust it back to 60 FPS.

Basically I'm aiming for "Best Possible" Lossless compression for both Audio and Video conversion from FRAPS which something MP4 can Not do, although it's great and a bit more universal format as more devices can read H.264 hi-definition MP4 files but I'm gonna have to go with MKV since it can support an Audio stream that uses Lossless compression as well as because it also supports the ability to toggle subtitles which is great for a text-based commentary etc.,....

My FRAPs AVI captures are currently at 1280x720 resolution and 60 FPS, and I also used the RGB lossless capture option.

Let me know if more information is needed before any of you can give additional advice. Thanks!

[Cauptain]

Hi AnotherFRAPSuser

Try VIDCODER. Its convert to MKV+FLAC.





Claudio

[poisondeathray]

Basically I'm aiming for "Best Possible" Lossless compression for both Audio and Video conversion from FRAPS which something MP4 can Not do, although it's great and a bit more universal format as more devices can read H.264 hi-definition MP4 files but I'm gonna have to go with MKV since it can support an Audio stream that uses Lossless compression as well as because it also supports the ability to toggle subtitles which is great for a text-based commentary etc.,....

You're not going to get lossless compression and have it remain compatible:

1) No current standalone devices support lossless h.264 profile (unless you mean an HTPC)

2) Devices that play MKV are usually limited to high profile @L4.1 , and something similar to blu-ray specs (subsampled chroma YCbCr 4:2:0) , none play RGB

[aedipuss]

if you used a different container like mov you might get flac to work, but probably not, it's just not used in video work and neither are monkey audio, alac, shorten or any of the others. wav would be ok in mov, it's not that much larger.

[AnotherFRAPSuser]

Basically I'm aiming for "Best Possible" Lossless compression for both Audio and Video conversion from FRAPS which something MP4 can Not do, although it's great and a bit more universal format as more devices can read H.264 hi-definition MP4 files but I'm gonna have to go with MKV since it can support an Audio stream that uses Lossless compression as well as because it also supports the ability to toggle subtitles which is great for a text-based commentary etc.,....

You're not going to get lossless compression and have it remain compatible:

1) No current standalone devices support lossless h.264 profile (unless you mean an HTPC)

2) Devices that play MKV are usually limited to high profile @L4.1 , and something similar to blu-ray specs (subsampled chroma YCbCr 4:2:0) , none play RGB

Thanks for the tips here! I don't expect to use the same profile and format for other devices since most do not support MKV if I I recall correctly, and even if they do I don't really own any of them.

E.G. Most game systems and portable devices that playback videos only will playback H.264 MP4 files with AAC audio streams but not a H.264 MKV file (maybe unless through some other 3rd party app) and even less likely for a H.264 MKV file with a FLAC audio stream or something else other than AAC.

I'm trying to archive all my FRAPs videos for use with my computer(s) in the best possible format and if it's can be compressed using lossless compression for both video and audio then that would be great.

[poisondeathray]

So this is for computer playback only ?

Are you looking for performance (smooth playback), or achiving size ?

The lossless RGB compression codecs that compress are the most CPU intensive, so you usually don't get realtime playback (even on massively overclocked systems )

The less compression, the more likely you'll get realtime playback

jmac is currently comparing some lossless RGB compression schemes here: Note many of them are not supported in MKV container
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=165545

The only one you might get realtime playback on "regular" hardware is UT video codec

[AnotherFRAPSuser]

So this is for computer playback only ?

Yes, but if I have to convert them to other formats such as for use with portable devices then I would not aim for lossless but I'll try to convert them to the best possible quality that I could or the best quality that the device can handle.

Are you looking for performance (smooth playback), or achiving size ?

A balance between the two is what I am looking for.

A set of videos I've recorded for 1 level took up to around 9 GB of HDD space so I would definitely want to lower the file size as much as possible without sacrificing/compromising the quality of the original video captures.

The lossless RGB compression codecs that compress are the most CPU intensive, so you usually don't get realtime playback (even on massively overclocked systems )

LOL I don't even bother to overclock mines since it's an older computer. Although may try that some day when I am ready with the right equipment such as a a liquid cooling system which is something I currently lack.

Aside from H.264 and the UT video codec what other good lossless compression codecs are there?

Is there really one that is most consistent and can be considered the best? Is UT really a better alternative than H.264 for lossless?

The less compression, the more likely you'll get realtime playback

Obviously, but that's why they call it 'lossless' compression am I correct?

jmac is currently comparing some lossless RGB compression schemes here: Note many of them are not supported in MKV container
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=165545

The only one you might get realtime playback on "regular" hardware is UT video codec

I see, but I think MKV container is the most appropriate in case I want to edit the video in the future and add in subtitles to the video such as making a text commentary that can be switched on/off or just to explain certain things about the game, kind of like a Video-style game FAQ of some sort. ;-D

[poisondeathray]

So this is for computer playback only ?

Yes, but if I have to convert them to other formats such as for use with portable devices then I would not aim for lossless but I'll try to convert them to the best possible quality that I could or the best quality that the device can handle.

You will have to for sure, and usually there are different formats for different devices as well (certain restrictions on some that others don't have).

Aside from H.264 and the UT video codec what other good lossless compression codecs are there?

Is there really one that is most consistent and can be considered the best? Is UT really a better alternative than H.264 for lossless?

No. they all have pros and cons

The commonly used RGB lossless codecs are compared in the link (compression wise) .

Lossless codecs are rated on their 1) compression 2) encode speed 3) decode speed 4) compatibility with other programs e.g. NLE's . #3 is important if you actually want to edit the thing, otherwise it's a PITA.

There is none that is absolute best in all, there are trade offs. If you want better compression , it will usually be slower etc... If you want faster, compression will usually be worse

Most end delivery formats are not RGB. They use subsampled YCbCr (usually 4:2:0) . The color information is a lot less

The less compression, the more likely you'll get realtime playback

Obviously, but that's why they call it 'lossless' compression am I correct?

No, it's lossless vs. lossy.

The analogy is flac vs mp3. Flac is lossless (the decoded audio is bit for bit identical). It can incur infinite genrations without losing quality.

In contrast, lossy audio or video compression throws away bits of information to achieve compression. Each round of encoding throws away information, it gets worse and worse each stage.

The reason why more compressed formats is more difficult to play , is they take more to decompress it as well . That's also why highly compressed codecs are less suitable for editing. Timeline performance is very slow

I see, but I think MKV container is the most appropriate in case I want to edit the video in the future and add in subtitles to the video such as making a text commentary that can be switched on/off or just to explain certain things about the game, kind of like a Video-style game FAQ of some sort. ;-D

It's actually the most inappropriate container . MKV is the absolutely the most difficult to edit container. It' s not supported by any standard editors (NLE's like premiere pro, sony vegas etc...) . And lossless h264 isn't supported by any of them (not directly) . You can edit them in things like avisynth, avidemux, but no "real" NLE's support it

[AnotherFRAPSuser]

I see, but I think MKV container is the most appropriate in case I want to edit the video in the future and add in subtitles to the video such as making a text commentary that can be switched on/off or just to explain certain things about the game, kind of like a Video-style game FAQ of some sort. ;-D

It's actually the most inappropriate container . MKV is the absolutely the most difficult to edit container. It' s not supported by any standard editors (NLE's like premiere pro, sony vegas etc...) . And lossless h264 isn't supported by any of them (not directly) . You can edit them in things like avisynth, avidemux, but no "real" NLE's support it[/QUOTE]

But it's the one of containers that can use a H.264 video stream and FLAC audio stream right? I heard someone say mov can have that combination but I've never seen it in a video converter before.

When it comes to editing the video what I meant was I only want to merge a custom subtitle file with a MKV with those stream types. And even this is difficult to execute at the moment due to limited support from video editors or am I missing something else?

I did not mean the kind of video editing that includes really fancy edited effects such as fades, cropping, or other misc video effects in various video editors.

And it's also because the MKV container allows you to toggle subtitles on or off (all in 1 file) but MP4's requires a separate subtitle file.

[poisondeathray]

But it's the one of containers that can use a H.264 video stream and FLAC audio stream right? I heard someone say mov can have that combination but I've never seen it in a video converter before.

When it comes to editing the video what I meant was I only want to merge a custom subtitle file with a MKV with those stream types. And even this is difficult to execute at the moment due to limited support from video editors or am I missing something else?

I did not mean the kind of video editing that includes really fancy edited effects such as fades, cropping, or other misc video effects in various video editors.

Yes if that's what you mean by "editing", then mkv is fine . You don't need any of those other programs

mkvtoolnix for muxing, aegisub for sub editing

And it's also because the MKV container allows you to toggle subtitles on or off (all in 1 file) but MP4's requires a separate subtitle file.

MP4 does support muxed plain text subs (.ttxt) , but MKV is far far superior for types of subtitles, fonts, attachments and multiple streams and types of streams (both audio and video) support

[AnotherFRAPSuser]

Yes if that's what you mean by "editing", then mkv is fine . You don't need any of those other programs

mkvtoolnix for muxing, aegisub for sub editing

That's what I meant when I said this earlier : 'add in subtitles to the video such as making a text commentary that can be switched on/off or just to explain certain things about the game, kind of like a Video-style game FAQ of some sort. ;-D'

But what about voice commentary?

E.G. Kind of like how movies have a director's or cast member(s)' commentaries track.

Such as a second or 3rd audio stream? Will that still be a problem? I assume it should not be since it's just Muxing another Audio stream that could be selected/toggled.

And it's also because the MKV container allows you to toggle subtitles on or off (all in 1 file) but MP4's requires a separate subtitle file.

MP4 does support muxed plain text subs (.ttxt) , but MKV is far far superior for types of subtitles, fonts, attachments and multiple streams and types of streams (both audio and video) support[/QUOTE]

Which editors or converters have that ability to mux subtitle files that could be toggled on or off? My friend said he was only able to embed subtitles which means the subtitles is always on and could not be toggled off.

I guess I would have to stick with H.264 MP4's when it comes to the fancy or professional type of editing then?

Or at least wait around until MKV is starting to get more support from NLE and we don't know when or if that will happen?

I generally avoid that kind of editing but my friend prefers it, since I'm a bit of a purist of preserving my videos captures.

[poisondeathray]

Which editors or converters have that ability to mux subtitle files that could be toggled on or off? My friend said he was only able to embed subtitles which means the subtitles is always on and could not be toggled off.

All you need is mkvtoonix .

You're distinguishing between soft subs and hard subs

Soft subs can be toggled (they are separate files, but muxed into the same container)

Hard subs are encoded into the video (sort of like a "tatoo" or watermark)

I guess I would have to stick with H.264 MP4's when it comes to the fancy or professional type of editing then?

MP4 as a container is supported, but the details of the compression is more important. "h.264" comes in 100's of diffferent types. It's a very very broad category . What type of h264 ? There are diffeernt colorspaces and chroma sampling and bit depths choices. Certain encoding settings make it less compatible. The lossless variant usually isn't support at all . Even the lossless variant has several different kinds - intraframe vs. long gop, fast decode settings (no cabac) . Even within h264 lossess or lossy varieties - the more compressed, the harder to decode . When you start to disable functions and certain settings, it's less compressed and easier to decode

Or at least wait around until MKV is starting to get more support from NLE and we don't know when or if that will happen?

Likely won't happen

I generally avoid that kind of editing but my friend prefers it, since I'm a bit of a purist of preserving my videos captures.

And you should preserve things that are important to you

[AnotherFRAPSuser]

Here is more info I am providing about the videos I am trying to convert to a possible best lossless MKV video

The following below is extracted via Media File Info from Format Factory-

General
Complete name : video00.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 54.6 MiB
Duration : 9s 283ms
Overall bit rate : 49.3 Mbps

Video
ID : 0
Format : Fraps
Codec ID : FPS1
Duration : 9s 283ms
Bit rate : 47.9 Mbps
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 60.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Bit depth : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 2.600
Stream size : 53.0 MiB (97%)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : 1
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Duration : 9s 283ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 411.2 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 1.56 MiB (3%)
Interleave, duration : 928 ms (55.70 video frames)


General

Complete name : video01.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 3.91 GiB
Duration : 2mn 17s
Overall bit rate : 244 Mbps

Video
ID : 0
Format : Fraps
Codec ID : FPS1
Duration : 2mn 17s
Bit rate : 243 Mbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 60.000 fps
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 4.390
Stream size : 3.88 GiB (99%)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : 1
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Duration : 2mn 17s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 411.2 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 23.1 MiB (1%)
Interleave, duration : 996 ms (59.75 video frames)

I've just noticed 1 little problem here. Because the resolution of the opening screens and menus of the game are all originally 640x480. Is there a way I can Mux it with any other of my 1280x720 and force that video (video00.avi) to stretch to 1280x720?

[poisondeathray]

I've just noticed 1 little problem here. Because the resolution of the opening screens and menus of the game are all originally 640x480. Is there a way I can Mux it with any other of my 1280x720 and force that video (video00.avi) to stretch to 1280x720?

No .

It's also the wrong aspect ratio 4:3 vs. 16:9 (Even if you re-encoded it and upscaled it, it would need to be pillarboxed to keep things looking normal)

[AnotherFRAPSuser]

I've just noticed 1 little problem here. Because the resolution of the opening screens and menus of the game are all originally 640x480. Is there a way I can Mux it with any other of my 1280x720 and force that video (video00.avi) to stretch to 1280x720?

No .

It's also the wrong aspect ratio 4:3 vs. 16:9 (Even if you re-encoded it and upscaled it, it would need to be pillarboxed to keep things looking normal)

How to I exactly apply this pillarboxed but leave the rest of the 1280x720 video alone when muxing them together? Can any of the editors mentioned above do this? More specifically VidCoder?

[poisondeathray]

But you're not leaving it as fraps, so it doesn't matter (I don't see what you're asking about leaving the 1280x720 video alone? Because you're re-encoding that to a lossless format)

I would do the pillarboxing and upscaling in avisynth. I don't know about vidcoder (I think it's some alternate GUI for handbrake) , I doubt it will have enough control

4:3 within a 1280x720 frame is 960x720 (that's the dimensions the 640x480 is upscaled to), then pillarboxed with 160px bars Left and right each (160+960+160 = 1280 wide) that way the aspect ratio looks right and nothing is distorted or stretched

[Cauptain]

How to I exactly apply this pillarboxed but leave the rest of the 1280x720 video alone when muxing them together? Can any of the editors mentioned above do this? More specifically VidCoder?

Its simple.






Claudio

[AnotherFRAPSuser]

I realize there is another problem. I realized that I should have mention this when I first started this thread.

Since the videos were captured on an older version of FRAPS that had not support capturing a single video file that is output over 4 GB each, all of my videos are split into 3 to 6 chunks of AVI files.

And VidCoder does not have a way to Mux ot merge those AVIs when I convert them, maybe I am missing something. Because I don't see a Join Videos option anywhere.

Will I need another converter that can apply what VidCoder does for converting AVIs to H.264 MKVs and also join them into a single video file?

If I need to use another application for this then will it be able to merge them as Passthroughs without having to re-encode them?

[poisondeathray]

If I need to use another application for this then will it be able to merge them as Passthroughs without having to re-encode them?

vdub, make sure video=>direct stream copy and audio=>direct stream copy is set

if they are sequentially numbered it should automatically join, if not file=> append AVI segment , file=>save as avi

Then you should be able to feed that joined avi into vidcoder as per cauptain's instructions

[AnotherFRAPSuser]

If I need to use another application for this then will it be able to merge them as Passthroughs without having to re-encode them?

vdub, make sure video=>direct stream copy and audio=>direct stream copy is set

if they are sequentially numbered it should automatically join, if not file=> append AVI segment , file=>save as avi

Then you should be able to feed that joined avi into vidcoder as per cauptain's instructions

This would work for all of the videos that are of the same resolution however I would not be able to direct stream copy the the lower resolution videos which contains the game's various menus captured.

They cannot be changed to any other resolution and remains at a fixed 640x480 for some unknown reason and there i no known workaround for it when I capture it.

I would need another application or something to Mux or direct stream either 2 MKV files and merge them into 1 or I would need something that could re-size the 640x480 AVI files and then direct-stream merge it with the 1280x720 videos, if possible.

One other question I have regarding VidCoder is whether or not if there is a Lossless H.264 option?

Because I didn't see one anywhere.

[poisondeathray]

Like I said earlier, I would do the join and upscale through avisynth (so you just encode 1 video)

I suppose you can encode videos separately (some upscaled) then join them, but that doesn't always work that well

Lossless h.264 would be CRF 0

[AnotherFRAPSuser]

Like I said earlier, I would do the join and upscale through avisynth (so you just encode 1 video)

I suppose you can encode videos separately (some upscaled) then join them, but that doesn't always work that well

Lossless h.264 would be CRF 0

About CRF, I'm thinking taht stands for Constant Rate Factor so maybe that would be the Quantisizer setting or what ever it was called. Basically set that to the lowest available setting and don't use the Size or MBPS options, or maybe I'm wrong?

If there is a way to Mux/Join both converted MKV videos into 1 MKV video I would prefer that, but I'll download AVIsynth although I'm not sure what I have to do with that in order to apply the pillarbox method mentioned by you previously. Could you or someone provide some quick tutorial screenshots for this step? Much appreciated for all the support I got here already from you guys, thanks!.

I thinkyou said the proper tool for this would be MKVmerge?

If so, is it able to Passthrough all audio and video streams when joining MKV files?

Also I think MKVmerge is only a command line executable so I'd need a GUI frontend of some kind just to keep things simple.

[Cauptain]

If there is a way to Mux/Join both converted MKV videos into 1 MKV video I would prefer that, but I'll download AVIsynth although I'm not sure what I have to do with that in order to apply the pillarbox method mentioned by you previously. Could you or someone provide some quick tutorial screenshots for this step? Much appreciated for all the support I got here already from you guys, thanks!.

Avisynth script:


Virtualdub method:







Claudio

[poisondeathray]

The point about using avisynth was so you could join everything using the script, then encode 1 mkv in 1 step . Joining video afterward can be less reliable, and prone to problems

e.g. let's say you have video1.avi, video2.avi, video3.avi. Video1.avi is the 4:3 SD video 640x480

AVISource("video1.avi")
nnedi3_rpow2(rfactor=2,cshift="spline36resize", fwidth=960, fheight=720) 
AddBorders(160,0,160,0)
a=last

b=AVISource("video2.avi")

c=AVISource("video3.avi")

a++b++c

[AnotherFRAPSuser]

The point about using avisynth was so you could join everything using the script, then encode 1 mkv in 1 step . Joining video afterward can be less reliable, and prone to problems

e.g. let's say you have video1.avi, video2.avi, video3.avi. Video1.avi is the 4:3 SD video 640x480

AVISource("video1.avi")
nnedi3_rpow2(rfactor=2,cshift="spline36resize", fwidth=960, fheight=720) 
AddBorders(160,0,160,0)
a=last

b=AVISource("video2.avi")

c=AVISource("video3.avi")

a++b++c

Will the joined AVI still be using the original Fraps codec with no loss to quality?

I asked about whether I should do 2 MKVs, 1 with the upscaled from 640x480 and the other where all the 1280x720 avis are all joined together and then use a separate MKV video joiner for them. But you said joining video afterward can be less reliable, and prone to problems and that's another concern especially if the Audio De-Synchs

I tested a conversion via VidCoder for a H264 MKV with FLAC and it synched fine. I tried it previously using another converter called FreeMake and it has the de-synch issue, probably because it does Not even detect the proper framerate of my videos which are all 60 FPS and FreeMake sees them all as 25 FPS

It's actually the most inappropriate container . MKV is the absolutely the most difficult to edit container. It' s not supported by any standard editors (NLE's like premiere pro, sony vegas etc...) . And lossless h264 isn't supported by any of them (not directly) . You can edit them in things like avisynth, avidemux, but no "real" NLE's support it

Also in regards to this, what about the m4v format? Does that support lossless streams for both video and audio and is it supported enough in many standard editors? If so maybe then M4V is better than MKV? Although I still think a lossless H264 and FLAC combination MKV would be my current first choice for archiving purposes.

My friend asked me about this and wanted to know because he prefers fading out effects and a customized intro and ending to the recorded gameplay videos.

In general he uses MP4 format which even I had for a long time.

I don't know if any video converters out there will support both lossless streams for MP4 files and if so what editors will support this that is if any even exist for it yet?

And MP4 does not support FLAC for a lossless audio stream the last I've recalled or am I wrong about this?

But there must be another lossless stream audio codec that could be used when converting to MP4 isn't there?

[poisondeathray]

Will the joined AVI still be using the original Fraps codec with no loss to quality?

No - whenever you use avisynth it frameserves uncompressed video . So if you re-encode with a lossless codec it doesn't matter quality wise, it just won't be fraps

You were planning to re-encode with lossless codec (lossless x264) anyway so the point is moot

You can't access fraps encoder separately, so there is no way to upscale that section with fraps only , then join with the 720p fraps segments (unless you do some convoluted screen capture method.. won't work very well)

I asked about whether I should do 2 MKVs, 1 with the upscaled from 640x480 and the other where all the 1280x720 avis are all joined together and then use a separate MKV video joiner for them. But you said joining video afterward can be less reliable, and prone to problems and that's another concern especially if the Audio De-Synchs

It is less reliable, but if you use a lossless codec with I-frames only, it will be more reliable and *should* be ok. The problems occur more often when you try to join, and it doesn't join properly or at all with "normal" encoding profiles. But it will 100% be ok if you do it all at once . It's up to you if you want to take the risk

Also in regards to this, what about the m4v format? Does that support lossless streams for both video and audio and is it supported enough in many standard editors? If so maybe then M4V is better than MKV? Although I still think a lossless H264 and FLAC combination MKV would be my current first choice for archiving purposes.




My friend asked me about this and wanted to know because he prefers fading out effects and a customized intro and ending to the recorded gameplay videos.

In general he uses MP4 format which even I had for a long time.

I don't know if any video converters out there will support both lossless streams for MP4 files and if so what editors will support this that is if any even exist for it yet?

And MP4 does not support FLAC for a lossless audio stream the last I've recalled or am I wrong about this?

But there must be another lossless stream audio codec that could be used when converting to MP4 isn't there?

No, m4v is just a modifed mp4 container. It's not quite as bad as mkv , but still not ideal . "lossless h.264" is hopeless and won't work in NLE's using normal import methods.

No common editors support lossless video in MP4 container . And x264 lossless isn't supported . Period. In any container combination. So forget about it if you are even considering using a video editor

FLAC isn't supported directly by common NLE's either in any combination

Now there are always workarounds , like frameserving in , or re-encoding to another lossless format. But you might as well use a lossless codec and container combination that is supported in the first place IMO instead of jumping through hoops

But there must be another lossless stream audio codec that could be used when converting to MP4 isn't there?

uncompressed is , but even uncompressed audio has problems in mp4 container (problems with muxing it in with common software) .

On a windows PC, the best combination for compatiblity is lossless video in AVI with uncompressed audio (e.g. lagarith, ut video codec) . UT is about the only lossless codec that you won't have performance (editing performance) issues in a NLE. All others are far too slow

If you don't care about editing performance then use something with better compression like lagarith, or ffv1

Again , you make the trade offs depending on what goals you plan to achieve. No single lossless compression scheme is the best at everything . Encode speed, decode speed , compression, compatibility .

[AnotherFRAPSuser]

Will the joined AVI still be using the original Fraps codec with no loss to quality?

No - whenever you use avisynth it frameserves uncompressed video . So if you re-encode with a lossless codec it doesn't matter quality wise, it just won't be fraps

So it outputs the join video using Uncompressed video, such as a RGB uncompressed AVI?

Or like the "Uncompressed (Full Frames)" option when outputting any AVI file? If so then it's really no big worry that it is no longer using the original Fraps codec since it's like converting it to uncompressed video rather than re-encoding it.

Well that should not be a problem, it almost reminds me of outputting to WAV when it comes to audio since WAV format is generally uncompressed.

[poisondeathray]

Will the joined AVI still be using the original Fraps codec with no loss to quality?

No - whenever you use avisynth it frameserves uncompressed video . So if you re-encode with a lossless codec it doesn't matter quality wise, it just won't be fraps

So it outputs the join video using Uncompressed video, such as a RGB uncompressed AVI?

Or like the "Uncompressed (Full Frames)" option when outputting any AVI file? If so then it's really no big worry that it is no longer using the original Fraps codec since it's like converting it to uncompressed video rather than re-encoding it.

Well that should not be a problem, it almost reminds me of outputting to WAV when it comes to audio since WAV format is generally uncompressed.

It outputs whatever you input in terms of colorspace, unless you tell it otherwise . Uncompressed always comes out

If you feed fraps RGB in, uncompressed RGB will come out . That's what a "frameserver" does. When you link that .avs script to an encoder , that's the stage where compression is applied (whether lossy or lossless etc...)

Uncompressed video or audio is large in filesize - that's why people resort to compression . If you have lots of HDD in Raid-0 or a few SSD's go ahead (a single mechanical HDD cannot handle I/O transfer rates of a single 1280x720p60 stream) . Isn't that why you were planning on re-encoding the FRAPS in the first place ? Why not leave it as FRAPS ?