Recording Software

[Nishok]

I need a good recording software for games that can do this:

- Take screenshots

- Record vids (duh)

- Doesn't have 1Gb vids for only 1 minute recording (Fraps..)

- Doesn't need too much from your hardware (to keep the frames rate high)

 

I have 2 recording softwares installed atm:

1) Fraps - Good quality, but huge files.. takes ages to compress the files

2) Xfire - Quality is just meh, but has small files, doesn't eat your frames, but minecraft isn't supported

 

So, if you know of any good software, please share

[Dracula]

Procaster.

[Coffee Crisp]

I heard playclaw was pretty good.

 

http://playclaw.com/

[Chainedlord]

Do you have the full version of fraps?

[Harry]

You're pretty much asking for the impossible.

 

As far as I can tell, you have three choices:

1) Get a nice high quality video with a huge file, and compress it into a smaller file later.

 

2) A low quality video with an initially small filesize.

 

3) Spend a ton of money on a professional hardware recorder.

 

Solutions (corresponding to the choices):

1) You have a modern computer. Use FRAPS. Will drop the FPS a bit, but it's really no huge hit unless your computer is very old. After you're done recording, compress it. Video into H264 @ $whatever_FPS_you_had_FRAPS_record_at (I lock FRAPS at 60 FPS, so I will encode the video at 60 FPS as well). AAC @ 44100 HZ, 320 kbps bitrate, dual-channel. This will get the filesize down a lot, without much noticeable quality loss. (Usually a 5 minute video at these settings can go down to ~120 MB filesize, from the raw FRAPS size of about 15 GBs).

 

2) Your computer is older, you don't mind noticeable quality loss, AND/OR you do not want to mess with encoding the video. I have no idea, I would never chose this. Ask someone else.

 

3) Buy a professional external hardware screen recorder. One that would plug directly into your HDMI/VGA/DVI port, and record the raw streams. Now you're still going to get huge files, but much less of an FPS drop than FRAPS would (as it would not be using your computer's power to record it). I don't know if there are anything like this that would be sold pre-made to the end user, as it would be insanely expensive compared to getting a better computer.

 

So yeah... those are the only three choices I know of.

 

Now, you must chose what would work out best for your screen recording given the options and solutions.

[Nishok]

Do you have the full version of fraps?

 

Yep

[Nishok]

I heard playclaw was pretty good.

 

http://playclaw.com/

 

I have installed this, but it doesn't work on minecraft either?

 

 

Edit:

 

No automerging?

[Psyche]

If you wanna record browser games like minecraft or just stuff you do on your PC. Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 is pretty good. Records in excellent quality for minecraft. I use FRAPS for everything else.

[jazzy]

Sorry but Fraps is your best choice, Fraps uses the xvid codec (or is it divx..), and offers a high quality way to record videos, that's just the way it is, free up hard drive space and then re-encode to an easier format.

 

 

Also if you need it reduced, use Half-Size, and 30 fps (to you, 30 fps will seem laggy, but when you watch the video it will look perfect)

[Nishok]

Alright, thanks all, I guess I'll have to stick with Fraps.

 

Edit: any good converter program, to make it a lot smaller?