Capture device for PC and consoles.

steve_

Hi guys. Im looking at getting a video capture device to use on my PC mainly but ill also dip into console recording too. I used WeGame for a while but after about 5mins of recording the audio just decides to jump out of sync. Happens all the time!! So i decided to get something to do the job properly. Id like to record in high quality. What should i be looking to get? Like i said ill mainly be doing PC recording so i dont mind buying something solely for that and picking up a device for the consoles later.

At the moment iv a dual monitor setup on my pc. The graphics card has two DVI outs which are both used. My laptop has a hdmi port on it so im thinking maybe if its possible to let my laptop do the video recording and the pc just for playing the games on. Is it possible to do this? I assume i need a DVI splitter and also a HDMI to DVI cable for my laptop.


Thanks for any advice.

TheChrisD

steve_ wrote: »

My laptop has a hdmi port on it

Which is 99.9% likely to be an HDMI out port, rather than an HDMI in port.

If you want to record PC gameplay, you'll need to have a good enough CPU to be able to cope with both the game and the recording program.

FRAPS and Xfire are other alternatives for recording games, Xfire is free, a FRAPS licence costs $37. Haven't used Xfire in a couple of years, so I can't attest to how well it performs, but recent releases of FRAPS have much improved it's impact on your CPU when recording, so I would recommend you trial it and see how well it would work on your setup.

You really won't be able to get a device that can record both your PC and your consoles in one, definitely not without sacrificing your second monitor. The only plausible option I can think of is a Blackmagic Intensity Pro, with your second display port setup to be a mirror of your primary and then having that hooked straight into the Intensity. But I'm not sure whether or not that works for full-screen stuff, so best to stick with the recording program, and worrying about consoles as a separate matter.

steve_

Doh yeah its HDMI out. Iv a q6600 CPU which is stock clocked. If im getting trouble recording ill look into overclocking it. Wasnt aware xfire done recording. Last time i used FRAPS it was a bit cpu intensive. Maybe they have fixed this recently though.

Edit: Was talking to a friend just there he said he used fraps, but a two minute video was about 4gigs in size. Theres no way ill go near it if thats the case. I understand its uncompressed footage but i just dont have the space for that. Considering a battlefield round might last 20 mins thats at least 40gb HDD space taken up for one game.

TheChrisD

steve_ wrote: »

Wasnt aware xfire done recording.

Not sure when they added it, but they have.

a two minute video was about 4gigs in size

Sounds about right. That's why I have a dedicated 1.5TB drive for FRAPS footage. I know Xfire recordings are smaller because it's not uncompressed, but I can't say how much less.

steve_

Ah ok i guess ill invest in a 1tb drive, cheap as chips nowadays. Is there anyway from stopping fraps chopping up videos? From what i remember if i hit record and play for a while fraps would split the gameplay into loads of different segments which was just a bit annoying having to stitch them back together

TheChrisD

steve_ wrote: »

Is there anyway from stopping fraps chopping up videos?

Nope, FRAPS still uses an old version of the AVI codec which is limited to those 4GB files. If you're worried about loads of file chunks, then test out Xfire.

steve_

just installed the trial of playclaw. I recorded 15mins of gameplay at half screen and it came in just under 2gb. Also it was one whole video file.

When uploading a video file to youtube, how long would you wait for it to upload? would 2 hours be a reasonable estimate for a 2-3gb video?

TheChrisD

Assuming your upload speed is sufficient, that sounds about right for 2GB.

steve_

Tried to upload a video to youtube last night, got stuck with five minutes remaining for about an hour so i cancelled and went to bed. Im gonna record another one maybe later and ill upload it. So far the quality has been great. Audio and video are spot on. Also you can specify how many cores your processor has and set the compression rate to high. I was averaging about 30fps while recording. Audio stayed in sync all the way through, so im well impressed. Just curious if i should upload the file as is or should i compress it further? Like i said for about 15min gameplay it was a 2gb file. What programs could i use to convert the file to a compress format?

TheChrisD

RopeDrink wrote: »

XFire has a recording AND streaming feature but I never saw any reason to use the recorder as I use FRAPS.

Same here. Even when I did utilise Xfire religiously for game tracking, I rarely utilised the recording as it was never really spot on. Also, recently, it's a fair bit less useful than FRAPS, and now FRAPS enabled you to record from two audio sources at once, and now has a function to only record your second audio source (aka mic!) when you have a PTT key pushed.

As for the streaming side of it, it's handy, but you have more control if you make an actual Livestream account and use their program, instead of being given a standard sort of "templated" channel that you can't customise at all.

steve_

Cheers guys i think ill get a new external drive. Bit of a silly question but is it ok to stack external drives? Just dont wanna clog up space if they can sit on top of eachother. Also seeing as FRAPS breaks up the videos, what software do you guys use to stitch them together? And when up loading to youtube is there a program you use to compress the footage too? Or would you upload the uncompressed file?

TheChrisD

steve_ wrote: »

Also seeing as FRAPS breaks up the videos, what software do you guys use to stitch them together? And when up loading to youtube is there a program you use to compress the footage too? Or would you upload the uncompressed file?

I use Sony Vegas for putting the video files together, and for rendering into a better file size.

I only ever upload uncompressed if I am only specifically recording my desktop for a very quick message to put on YouTube straight as it is.

TheChrisD

RopeDrink wrote: »

No idea how SVegas handles compression if at all.

Well, I just there managed to take I'd say around 51GB worth of 1080p FRAPS footage, edit it, add some effects and stuff here and there and turn it into a 23.5 minute MP4 size 1.26GB?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZUU-X-ZzGE

Tallon

I use Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 and I have to say, it's one of the best programmes I've ever used

It will record, video, my voice and anyone through skype all into the one managable file

docdolittle

Tallon wrote: »

I use Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 and I have to say, it's one of the best programmes I've ever used

It will record, video, my voice and anyone through skype all into the one managable file

I got expression studio free off some microsoft reps a while ago, didn't even look at what it did :P Might come in handy in the future

steve_

Just tried using expression there a while ago. For some reason it will only record one screen for me. Iv a dual monitor set up and for some reason it will only record on my secondary monitor and not the primary one. Even in control panel the monitors are identified as 1 and 2 but it will only start recording on screen 2.

Edit: Ok got it working seems it didnt like full screen, dropped the size down and it works...........but i get a white screen when recording