Game Capture/Recording

[Al82]

So, I was wondering if anyone records footage of the games they play (longplays, let's plays etc.) and uploads them to YouTube and wanted to share them with the rest of the C&R community?

I recently got into this and it's quite fun to do, albeit quite labour-intensive with editing/encoding. Feel free to have a look at my channel: Link.

If anyone fancies doing any collaborations along these lines, I'd be interested in participating

[TomFum]

I record gameplay footage quite often. I use Fraps for my PC games and the Hauppauge for all console gaming.

I built my PC around gaming at the formost but its also great for coding and editing etc, chomps through video files nice and quickly.

Feel free to check out my channel http://www.youtube.com/tomfum

And im sure if you wanna do any kinda joint Capture id be up for some of that for sure.

[Roy42]

I've been doing them kind of inconsistently for awhile now (YouTube page); I've been meaning to finish a few others that I haven't gotten around to doing anything with the raw footage of, but I'm more or less waiting on a job and steady income. I do enjoy the hell out of doing them, though. I'll give you a shout whenever I actually record again; see if we can't make magic happen.

[Al82]

How'd you capture your Wii game footage in the Zelda Twilight Princess vids?

[Roy42]

I've been meaning to maybe explain what I do in an actual video for some time now, but there's two ways I do it. Which is probably bad that I don't just stick with one method.

I have my actual capture device that I can record footage from; the early videos that don't have the watermark are that. That worked okay, except for the audio desync that occurred, usually only noticeable after over an hour of continuous capture (though my most recent Metal Gear Solid video seemed to have it happen much more; probably a problem with the connection or the device, which, frankly, I expect).

The only real problem with doing it that way is that when I get other people to join me for them, it's usually over Skype. So when I'd have other people, I would just open the preview window for the capture and use a screen recorder, iShowU HD, to record it, since it can record both my audio and Skype audio. The other option was to record from the capture device normally, then bring it into a video editor and sync it to the commentary audio which I'd do separately. I opted for the former, simply because it meant less work for me. Also because recording the screen takes up MUCH LESS space than capturing raw game footage, and there were points where I couldn't be sure that I'd have enough space for a day's worth of recording.

I mildly regret my decision to do things that way now.

Anyway, since the extra work isn't a big deal to me anymore, future ones I record I plan to do the way I did my most recent MGS1 video and my Last Story video, where I'll record the raw game footage and the commentary separately, then mix them. The watermark (and high risk of low frame rate) get on my nerves by now.

[ratsoalbion]

Just in case some of you aren't aware, we have a Cane & Rinse youtube channel featuring a ton of Quick Rinse videos played, captured and commentated on by our own Josh and the two Darrens, Gargette and Forman: http://www.youtube.com/user/caneandrinse

[mikeleddy83]

I use the cheapest capture device on the market - the just over £5 EzCap. I've barely done anything for my channel over the last 6 months but if you can sit down to some extremely hardcore learning regime you'll learn a huge amount and come out with a half decent capture. It'll never come close to the £150 solutions but I'll always recommend it to those wanting to just see if capturing game footage is worth your time. Here's a link to one of them: Wii: Punchout - Glass Joe

[Roy42]

I also use EasyCap, for it is the objectively best choice when HD is not a concern and price overwhelmingly is.

[Guy_JD]

I've got an EZcap it's the cheap ripoff of the EasyCap device, it does the job, like said above, it can't compare to the high end HD devices but gives you a good idea as to if its something you'll enjoy doing

[Roy42]

Wait; they made a cheap ripoff of EasyCap? How? It's dirt-cheap to begin with.

[Guy_JD]

I think I payed £3 for mine including postage from China

[General Aquila]

I got the Elgato Game Capture HD. Works well and is a lot of money but the best res at the moment (1080i) on a consumer end. All HDMI also, hoping to do an AC3 walkthrough but a little less serious and more humourous.

[Roy42]

There are a few capture units that do 1080i, but frankly, until 1080p at 60fps is commonplace in them, it's not worth even bothering to go above 720p.

[James]

Just installed the free trial of XSplit. No game capture in the free version, but I'll upgrade once I have time to put into learning video capture and editing. I'd be interested what anyone and everyone here thinks of software vs hardware for capturing PC footage. Does a PCI card make a big difference to performance?

I've been considering an Avermedia Live Gamer HD to record PC and console footage, but that's a big investment for something I'm just trying out. Hey-ho, decisions, decisions.

[Alex79]

I remember as a kid I used to run my Megadrive and SNES through our video recorder and tape gameplay all the time. I used to love watching it back haha. Haven't recorded anything else for ages though.

[DomsBeard]

I'd like to see this available with all the new gen consoles out of the box.

[James]

Absolutely. The mooted 'last 15 minute' recording function for PlayStation could be great so long as it's not a resource hog. That and a suspend/sleep state are top of my want list for next gen consoles.

[Alex79]

Yeah it's always a fun feature when built in to games and you can upload directly to YouTube. (Talking about PS3 here by the way). DIRT 3 and Just Cause 2 both had it in.

[NokkonWud]

Yeah it's always a fun feature when built in to games and you can upload directly to YouTube. (Talking about PS3 here by the way). DIRT 3 and Just Cause 2 both had it in.

Yeah, those were available on 360 too. At least DiRT 2 and 3 were (not sure, didn't bother with Just Cause 2), the EA Sports games offer it too.

[ratsoalbion]

EA Sports games upload to EA's website though, not YT. And in a weird video format.

Just Cause 2's YT feature was PS3 only.