Recording games

MagicSean

I purchased FRAPS for making some Lets Play videos for Youtube and recording some online gaming. The problem is that it only records avi files up to a max of 4gb so it splits the video up. So i need to combine the videos and compress them for viewing on Youtube. Anyone got suggestions on some programs I could use for this? Also does anyone know if Fraps can be targeted to record a specific window as opposed to fullscreen?

PerrinV2

Try posting in this forum man
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1377

Likely to get a good response(not that you wouldn't get one here)

yoyo

Thread Moved

MagicSean

I did not know this forum existed. I found the naswer on Youtube. a program called VirtualDub joins and compresses videos. Seems to do a good job and it's free.

gazzamc

This is what i do:

Records with fraps, join the small files together with Boilers Video Joiner.. (you can make then any length but you might need a hefty HDD for this)..

Once i have my videos to the length i want then i convert them to Mp4 using Winff (ffmpeg)..

Since mine are 3D and about 56GB per video (25mins).. yours would be a lot smaller... once converted i get it down to 600Mb per video... (bare in mind i'm converting to 1920x1080 from 3840x1080, so if your video is smaller than 1080p it will be a smaller file size..)

Anyway here is the command i use in winff :

[COLOR="Red"]-threads 4[/COLOR] -acodec libfaac -ar 44100 [COLOR="Cyan"]-ab 96k[/COLOR] -vcodec libx264 -level 41 [COLOR="DarkOrange"]-b 3200k[/COLOR] -bufsize 20000k -maxrate 25000k -g 320 -r 20 -s [COLOR="Yellow"]1920x1080[/COLOR] -coder 1 -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -partitions +parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -flags2 +dct8x8+bpyramid -me_method umh -subq 7 -me_range 16 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -rc_eq 'blurCplx^(1-qComp)' -bf 16 -b_strategy 1 -bidir_refine 1 -refs 6 -deblockalpha 0 -deblockbeta 0

Remove this if you don't have a multi-core CPU/ or change it to the number of cores you do have.. eg. 4 for core i7 920

Audio bit rate, i wouldn't make it any smaller.

Video bit rate, mess with it and see what works for you, this can effect file size greatly.

Video resolution, pretty self-explanatory

Hope that helps.

MagicSean

I've been able to compress them using virtuadub to about 1.2gb but it's still quite big and takes ages to upload. I'll probably invest in something better when I have the money but for now fraps and virtudub will have to do me.

MagicSean

Is there any particular format that is best for uploading to youtube?

gazzamc

RopeDrink wrote: »

Once again, I will stress an Editor over methods such as above... Using one program to record, one to merge the files and a third to compress the final result is all just too much work when you can bung everything into an editor, edit the clips / forge full blown top production movies / simply merge them AND compress the result after once you're done.

Do any of the programs you keep swearing to in all the threads even allow editing of any kind? If not then I really can't see why you'd recommend using two programs just to merge and compress files together.

Since i don`t edit my finished videos.. my method is perfect for me.. you could also switch the process.. convert first then join the video (as there is no loss in quality when joining..

Is there any particular format that is best for uploading to youtube?

again i would recommend Mp4.

I've been able to compress them using virtuadub to about 1.2gb but it's still quite big and takes ages to upload. I'll probably invest in something better when I have the money but for now fraps and virtudub will have to do me.

i would urge you to at least try winff for conversion.. i can get one fraps video (4Gb) to 8Mb without much loss in quality.. and best of all winff is free..

Doing it all through an video editor is great but the vast size of each file will put a strain on your machine/ram.. also i find that editors don`t usually have good conversion methods (Very lossy quality)..

if you don`t need to edit your videos straight conversion is your best bet..

gazzamc

RopeDrink wrote: »

Well I do stress to people that they should stick to what works for them and what they are comfortable with - Though if the roles were reversed I'd hate the fact there was no editing capability.

There will surely be a time where something you've recorded is just gagging for a simple edit or a bit of a tweak so using not one, but two, programs to string your work together but neither having editing capability (to me) is a real waste.

Yes, I say that as someone who loves editing and making machinima, or just the simple addition of text overlays, or at the very least, altering colour or quality via editing for the better, so again, if it works for you, all the power to you.

But for those who are hoping to edit their work rather than just merge and compress, you only really need one solid Editor to Merge/Edit/Compress - Considering how long compression etc can take, especially on the unfortunate people who don't have a beastly machine, I would never recommend more than one program when that program can do it all in one go, over a multitude of programs that aren't versatile.

If i need to edit a video i usually do so before joining them all together.. i also have Adobe Premiere CS5 if i need to do anything more.. but for now i'm good with what i've got..

I'm just posting my method for anyone who wants to try and see if it works for them.. if not by all means move on to another... they are so many guides/tuts available on the internet for editing ect..

If you have time give "google" a go you would be surprised what you might find..

Here's an example http://bit.ly/yEc2Ef (I love this site)

Best of luck..

MagicSean

invested in Bandicam. Brilliant. Comes with presets format and compression for youtube upload. Suits me to the ground.