Recording game play footage

[Golbez]

Basically looking at all the possible ways to convert my game play videos into recordings I can show/host to people at a future date from my PC.

What are possible solutions for decent quality recordings that aren't too expensive?

No, I don't want to use a web cam.

Console to PC to make it more clear.

[ToeMissile]

so you're saying you already have vids recorded that you want to convert to a different format to show locally on your machine? or you want to stream them so people at other locations can watch them? or you don't know how to record footage in the first place?

[Golbez]

Originally Posted by ToeMissile

so you're saying you already have vids recorded that you want to convert to a different format to show locally on your machine? or you want to stream them so people at other locations can watch them? or you don't know how to record footage in the first place?

To elaborate I want to be able to record myself playing video games on my PS3 and show them at a later date to people. I haven't got as far as recording the actual footage, that is where I am currently stuck at.

[ToeMissile]

well i don't really know about recording console footage, but i imagine one way would be to have a vid capture device on your pc, and the the video out from the ps3 into the pc. But like I said, I dunno.

[Cryptin]

Only software/hardware I know people use to record 360/PS3 games is called Dazzle. My buddy use it to record SF4 matches and uploads them to youtube.

Here is the link to their site.

Video Capture and Video Transfer to DVD with Pinnacle Dazzle DVD Recorder and Pinnacle Video Transfer

I'm sure they are others out there that do the same.

[Twobit Whore]

Yes, you need a video capture device. There are plenty of add-in cards that you can get to do this. You hook up the console to the PC and use the software to record.

Something like this, but there are plenty of other options: Newegg.com - DIAMOND One Touch Video Capture USB 2.0 VC500 USB 2.0 Interface - TV Tuners & Video Devices

[Golbez]

Originally Posted by Twobit Whore

Yes, you need a video capture device. There are plenty of add-in cards that you can get to do this. You hook up the console to the PC and use the software to record.

Something like this, but there are plenty of other options: Newegg.com - DIAMOND One Touch Video Capture USB 2.0 VC500 USB 2.0 Interface - TV Tuners & Video Devices

Does this work like a video capture card that you would slot into your motherboard?

[Twobit Whore]

Yes, it just uses a USB 2.0 interface instead of PCI one.

[Fyro]

About a year or two back before Halo 3 came out I got really into watching Halo 2 montages on youtube. I looked into it and ended up getting all my own gear to start my own montages. I am not sure if Ps3 and Xbox 360 cords are similiar or not, but I assume they have the same principles.

I got myself a used Capture Card off of Ebay something like Dazzle Pro for like 80 bucks I think. I forgot the type and I am not home to check at the moment. It all seemed really confusing before I hooked it up, but now it really isn`t too confusing.

I had to buy a different cord that connected my Xbox to the TV that had extra AV output. Anyways, with all the shit connected into the TV I still have the extra AV output cord and that gets plugged into the Capture Card device. Then there is a USB that runs from Capture card to my computer.

I then used the regular Capture card program on my computer and the video streamed from the tv directly onto the computer. After that I got a program called Vegas 7.0 I think, I got it pirated from a friend. I then take the file from the capture card program into Vegas and I edit and compose my montages there.

I am fairly fucking inept at computers and I would go out on a limb and say that if I can figure this shit out anyone that comes to FoH should be able to do it as well.

One piece of advice though, don`t be cheap and get the cheapest capture card you can find. The quality of the video streamed onto your computer makes a big difference and if you are going to be cheap about it you would be better off not starting it at all. A mid range card will do you fine for mostly everything.

[Darus Grey]

Personally I'd recommend the Black Magic Intensity Pro.

They recently slashed the price from $400 to $199, which makes it very competitive.

It can record 408i/720p/1080i(and kinda p in a round-about way), so that you can record uncompressed(or compressed by the chip) video in SD or HD.

If you don't care about HD than the Dazzles will do the job fine, if you want to go above that than the BMIP is a great bargain(and it's still great even just for SD), the only caveat to HD recording is you need a very fast raid0/raid5 array to handle the recording, though just 3 drives is good enough.

Blackmagic Design: Intensity

Edit: Index of /video
Can see some examples of videos I made with my BMIP there, though they all have a sound issue I have since resolved.

[Malakie Torsade]

Thanks for that info, Darus; + invisi-internets for you. I've been wanting to do this same thing and up until your post I didn't think it would be feasible to record in HD. $200 is still pretty damn steep... and I don't have a RAID set up. Is it really that intensive? If you only have 1 drive recording, does the video end up jerky?

If that's the case, I can't justify spending $200 + 2-3 more drives just to record games for my own nerdy amusement. I might just have to go with the Dazzle.

[Darus Grey]

It somewhat depends on your HDD itself. The Seagate 1.5TBs(I don't recommend them btw, bought 3 drives and have had 5 failures within a couple months...the warranty replacement ones I have now have been stable for awhile) read/write at about 110-120MB/s each, from the slow HDD test below you can see that 120MB/s is *just* enough to record 720p at 60fps.

I think the drive-speed test only measures *uncompressed* recording, so if you used the Jpeg compression option, a single fast drive could record(I'll test that later to make sure).

Even if you decide to just do SD, one of the nice things the BMIP can do is HD downconversion to SD letterbox, which if you're using a component signal spliter, means you can still play the game HD on your TV well recording it as very high quality SD(kinda like how making an "SD" version of a bluray Disk looks better than a DVD). You can also use the HDMI-out on the card instead of a signal splitter(since those are like $100 by themselves), but that adds a couple ms of delay(not an issue for most, but I'm sensitive to small delays).

If money is an issue then as I said the dazzle will do just fine, just at $199 I think the BMIP is an amazing value for being an entry level professional capture card that would of cost thousands just a few years ago.

Just to note, all my SSs are on my Mac but it's Windows and Linux compatible too.

Edit: Ok just to test it out(for my own purposes I only record in uncompressed), enabling Jpeg compression allowed me to record 720p on the Macintosh HDD listed below, I measured and it used 32MB/s.

So if your HDD is that speed or higher(likely higher, it's a very old HDD that I have) you can use the on-board compression to record 720p on a single drive. I'd still recommend *not* using the system drive since your speed will vary depending on what your OS is doing in the background(especially with Vista/Win7). The Jpeg compression looks fine, the only noticeable difference is less colors, though you'd need a side-by side to even notice. Fine for casual stuff.

[Folanlron]

I just ordered a BMIP I have been looking at them for sometime, them cutting there prices down just made me do it, awesome deal for an awesome Capture Card.

I'm hoping I'll be able to record in 1080i, I just got done building a RAID just for this.

Controller Card Adaptec 2169300-R PCI-X 64-bit/133

And 3 x Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB

Should be fun times =D

[Malakie Torsade]

Think I'll go with the Dazzle for now. If the quality isn't up to what I want it to be I'll just take it back and order the capture card. Pretty sure my hard drive should be able to handle it.

Do you think the Dazzle Plat is worth getting? From what I could tell, I think it's just the Dazzle with editing software. I could probably "find" better online.

[Darus Grey]

I've never used it, but I'd venture a guess that the platinum software probably isn't worth the premium when you can "borrow" better from the internet(hell, there's even free software that's probably as good).