when is the cutoff for video proof needed? After playing the game a few times, I set a record that I can't seem to beat while recording. my best lies at 7:04, but if video proof is a requirement across the board for the game I will submit that time instead.

Definitely need video proof for submissions for any game on speedrun.com.

some games list that video proof is only required for runs under a certain time, but I understand if that's not the case here.

Yeah not all games require it, but most do, and I would think it's just better for everyone if there is a video 🙂

In this day and age, there shouldn't be any excuse not to have video evidence.

For emulators, you have OBS which can record specific apps or your entire screen setup.
For consoles, you have a plethora of capture cards available at various price points. And if that won't do for whatever reason, everyone and their pets nowadays have a smartphone they can use to record the screen.

And as for timing, most mods will be happy to properly time your run if, for some reason, you can't use one of the various solutions available to time your runs.

The way I see it, there is no excuse not to provide video evidence.

My biggest hurdle would be spending money for capture cards, and my smartphone is an Android so that means pretty cheap video quality. Sure, it's feasible, but it's a headache for anyone watching. I guess for the most part I'll be stuck with NES because that's pretty much the 'least grey area' of emulation and I do own a physical copy of Tetris and an NES.
The only reason I asked in the first place was because I got better times when I was practicing and not recording than I did when recording, but that has since changed, with a recorded attempt coming within 2 seconds of my personal best. Any further improvement would warrant that problem completely fixed.

Well you could get a 30$ (or even less) USB2 composite/svideo capture adapter and use it alongside AmarecTV (it'll deinterlace the 30fps feed and bring it back to 60 fps) and OBS (32-bit so it can see the AmarecTV virtual device), That would easily yield 60fps footage of your NES.

People usually praise the GV-USB2 adapter as it's the "bang for your buck" option, but really, any USB2 composite/svideo adapter that is supported on your version of Windows should work with AmarecTV.

I use a $12 composite/S-video capture card off of amazon, which shows up as a capture device in OBS. Works fine for my purposes.