What's the best recording software out there?

Hey guys,

So I want to start recording some project reality gameplay and want to know what the best capture software is. I have researched this on google but nothing really helpful comes up.

If anyone knows of any good ones then I would appreciate it if you posted it here for me to check out. I want to record in game sound / mumble sound from sqd mates and the sound that comes out of my mic (so it records when I am not talking in mumble but talking into the headset).

So far Fraps seems like a decent option however I feel there is something better out there.

Thanks guys

loki seems to have it nailed, you could do worse than have a chat with him, our very own Nayt is also a bit of a wiz with such things and i think voodon't does a bit an all.

hope that helps

Its not the recording software its the editing software that makes it pretty.

Get a "dodgy" copy of fraps from a various torrent site otherwise you get the watermark whilst your on that site download Sony vegas pro 11

Fraps does what you're asking for, it records your voice with voice activation anyways or you can set the same talk key on it as you have with mumble if you don't want your voice recording all the time and only when you are talking with your SQ.

I'd say Fraps is by far the best recording software out there, but its major flaw is the fact it gives raw video files and so they are what, like 5GB on a 2 min video or something silly until they are converted.

If you have an external harddrive its defo the best just for fraps.


However, one that I noticed most people overlook is Xfire, that has a really good piece of recording software i'd also reccomend, but I don't think it records your voice very well.

TL;DR - Fraps is good with an external Harddrive.

Fraps is most likely the best, but it requires a pretty powerful machine and a lot of harddisk space to record everything. It records everything pretty much raw, so if you intend on recording 1080p, we're talking about 4GB per minute..

I've worked with Vegas for a couple of years, when I get my new PC I think I'll be trying out Adobe Premiere. Can't tell you yet which is beter.



Edit: I'd not record to an external harddrive, ever. It doesn't have enough bandwidth, unless we're talking eSATA For storage it would work, I suppose.

FRAPS!

Right I see awesome guys thanks

@ Viglen - I have adobe première CS5 so I got the editing software down

@ Fuggut and Nixy - I have a 1 TB external harddrive that I planned to store the files on, hopefully it's good enough quality to handle the bandwidth demands.

I have a quad core, GTX 260, 4GB RAM etc so hopefully my machine is powerful enough.

Fraps sounds like the best option, I shall check them out some more.

Thanks guys

Simple calculation.

If in 1 minute you write 4GB of data, you're writing about 68MB per second. An USB 2.0 connection can only, theoretically, transfer around 480mbit (60ish MB) per second. So even if USB 2.0 could reach those speeds, it wouldn't be fast enough. In reality, it usually doesn't even reach half those speeds.. Recording straight to an USB device is a no-go.

Right got you Nix, I will try around with lower resolutions maybe or clear out some space on my internal etc. Will test around with it and see what I come up with

I just bought a second internal disk for recording. It's something to dish out, but it has two main benefits.

1: You'll always have enough space.

2: Fraps will really, really love you if you record to a seperate disk. Trust me on that one.

Often, internal HDD are alot cheaper than external. Piece of piss to install as well. recording at 1080 is crazy too, who is going to watch it back at that resolution!?

MSI afterburner beta, Dxtory, Playclaw.

All of the above are way better than fraps.

@ Pectus - Just checking out this guys video on Dxtory, looks pretty good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0KqsTa_HpM

@ everyone - My write speed for the external is around 28 MB/sec and my internal is 54 MB/sec. So if I want to record 720p around 30 FPS i would need at least 40 MB/sec write speed according to the guy in the video.

My internal is 116GB, not sure if that will be enough space to record unfortunately. Might look to get a new internal HD

I use an external 500 GB hard drive and have been recording using fraps for about 5 years now. I would highly recommend using an external as opposed to an internal because the difference are minor.

You need to find a place to download a full version of Fraps from, as the free version only allows 30 seconds of recording at a time. Also, when recording with fraps I suggest you record in half size, and also set your video capture settings to 60 FPS as opposed to the default of 30. This makes your game run smoother, and the recording smoother regardless of whether you can actually hit 60 FPS or not.

For me, a 30 second Fraps file (which records in AVI) will set you back about 600 MB so 100 odd Gb is not gonna be enough. Once you have edited the clips in whatever programme you choose, they can be rendered into a WMV, a far smaller and more manageable file which can be easily uploaded to youtube.

Example of latest Fraps recording - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uintFZ5QaA&lc=cVqVrO8NOBPXcZ5Uc0ACZaQ4OomDUKesQZ8qVid88wc&lch=email&feature=em-comment_received

@ Slorg - Thanks for the info Slorg. Do you recommend a certain write speed? Like I said I have a 1TB external hard drive but it has a 28 MB/sec write speed. I did say internal HD but what I meant was a HD with a higher write speed.

Do you know what write speed your one is?

p.s - Nice vid

I have a 1TB internal, Usually about 500~600gb is FRAPS footage. FRAPS is ace, but.. Since I have a great rig (i5 2500k @ 4.5 + GTX 470) I barely notice a frame rate difference when recording in PR, in newer games, I usually get a constant 30. I've been weighing up the purchase of a 1TB harddrive purely for recording.

I use Sony Vegas + FRAPS, if you want some "Questionable" sources to get them at "a very high discount", then meet me tomorrow in the back alley outside your house I'll sort you out on TS sometime.

Ban him!

No really, I am probbaly somewhat of a quality purist. Can't stand recording at half size, it makes everything look smudgy

Viglen wrote:Its not the recording software its the editing software that makes it pretty.

Get a "dodgy" copy of fraps from a various torrent site otherwise you get the watermark whilst your on that site download Sony vegas pro 11

I've been using Xsplit to record my videos, it does require you to run in windowed but it allows you to record various parts of the screen to record at will, as well as layer images on top of that. The sound is in Speex, and whilst that may seem nice because it's the same as mumble, it isn't that great when coupled into a video. The memory requirement is huge and it will set your desktop to turn off aero mode, but the video is in FLV and not AVI so it doesnt take up FIFTY GIG like fraps does.

Im on way to work but if you wanna have a chat sometime im back in two weeks.

check naytdawg on youtube (shameless plug)


mostly depends on do you want to record while you play live or battle recorded edited.movies? Havnt read every post but yeah fraps and sony vegas yoi womt go.wrong

Cheers Nayt, I'll catch you when you get back. I would like to record live

Isn't there some sort of Sir BattleDirector tool that you can run? I remember it takes ages and best be done on a seperate computer. On the positive side you can create your own camera track in BattleRecorder. Then put that in After Affects and put some post processing on and you should be fine. If not then go for Fraps. Do not forget to turn off the hud. I believe the command is "renderer.drawHud 0" and if you want to turn it back on again you replace the 0 with a 1. Sorry, I am presuming you are recording for PR.

Personally I do not use Sony Vegas unless I have to do much editing. If you do not mind waiting for like 15 min to create a video that is over 1GB in size and have not have a crappy upload, use Vegas. I usually use MeGUI for LPs and stuff but I am pretty sure there is some sound desync on the microphone, game sounds seem to be fine. So it is MeGUI's problem or maybe the batch scripter program I use. I'll try to mess around whenever I have the time. Though none of your concern, really.

Best of luck on your recording endeavours!