Hardware alternative to FRAPS--does it exist?

[PCJake]

I have used FRAPS to record my PC gameplay for years and it has worked pretty darn well. I have a great graphics card, I lower in-game settings, and I install games and record video on separate hard drives in order to get the best results, but, of course, I still get a fair amount of slow-down when I record. I am searching for a hardware alternative to FRAPS--something that I can use to capture whatever is being shown on my monitor without getting that slow-down.

I have been searching for "capture cards" and haven't had much luck--I mostly find things that are made to capture console gameplay, like this for example: http://www.amazon.com/Elgato-Capture...7117444&sr=1-1

So, is there something out there for me?

 

[JAG87]

That box is a great solution and will probably work for PC too, just use HDMI out from your graphics card instead of DVI, and send the audio output to HDMI in Windows.

The only downside is that it already compresses in H264 (not sure what bitrate, but it has to if it's using USB), so if you're doing editing you're going to have to re-compress again when rendering.

Not that it matters that much since if you're putting it on Youtube the quality will be killed anyways.

 

[Viper GTS]

Something like this is the pro solution:

http://atomos.com/ninja2/

There are probably cheaper consumer alternatives but recording HDMI output (presumably you do want that, and not analog s-video/component?) is not an easy task so be prepared to throw $$$ at this.

I'm guessing the box you posted is going to require a second PC, at $190 and USB powered I doubt it is doing any major encoding. Notice how it requires a 2 GHz dual core CPU? You're essentially doing the same thing FRAPS is doing, just a more circuitous route.

Viper GTS

 

[djsb]

This looks up your alley: AVerMedai Live Gamer HD Hardware encoder, video/audio pass through. The huge caveat keeping me from buying it is that it doesn't work on 1920x1200 monitors. Looks like it supports a wide range of resolutions up to 1080p though.

 

[Zap]

How about upgrading your PC to support FRAPS better? For instance a nice overclocked Ivy Bridge.

Also, have you tried alternatives to FRAPS to see if it lags less? One option is the video capture built into MSI Afterburner. Latest version adds audio. You can capture at a fraction of the frame size (I use 1/2 since my monitor is 2560x1600). It supports some basic compression, plus a quality setting (for bitrate?). It also supports multithreads for the compression, and can downmix audio to stereo. Best part is that it is absolutely free, so won't cost you anything to try out.

 

[MarkLuvsCS]

FRAPs is purely IO bound. It's recording a series of uncompressed images of the display and recording to disk. I would definitely suggest MSI Afterburner because it will actually encode the video while recording so with your quad core you probably won't notice any slowdown. MSI Afterburner allows you to tinker with codec settings IIRC so if the default one isn't as good as expected you can change it. When I used it last recording 1080p@30fps I think it was about 1gb / min vs. fraps using like several gb / min.

I'm shocked FRAPs hasn't really changed from ~10 yrs (IIRC) ago. It was the rage back in the day because there was nothing like it, but now I can't believe they haven't tried to change much other than adding >4gb file support, a few more video FPS options, random interface changes.

*EDIT* Recorded using 100% video quality MJPG @ 30fps @ 1080p full frame, and everything else default it was 12.5gb for 5 mins of video with audio. Used handbrake @ 30fps 8000 bitrate 2 pass encoding turning that into 289mb.

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

PlayClaw 3

Just like you I used to swear by fraps just because I was used to it and never really bothered researching, but the truth is fraps has TERRIBLE performance and ridiculous file sizes

Of course, its not free, but Ive tried all the popular ones like bandicam etc and nothing comes close in performance, give the trial a try and you might be impressed

 

[ViRGE]

Diamond also has a new box out for a list price of $140.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6197/...-pvr-with-video-passthrough-for-game-consoles

 

[PCJake]

This is all great information. I'm going to try some of the other software recommended here and see if any of them work better for me than FRAPS. I will post again after I've done that.

 

[lopri]

Bandicam is an excellent screen recording app. Easy to configure and much lighter on system.