Recording your gaming/online experiences to MPEG/DivX

[UILanMan]

Basically what I'm wanting to do is capture the raw video output of the machine I play games on and encode that to some format of video, for now let's just say MPEG4. I'm a novice in this area (encoding) - I've done my fair share of dvd encoding, but not capturing like this. I've tried Fraps, HyperCam and a few others, and all are unacceptable due to the framerate loss when encoding. What I'd like to do is play like normal on my main machine, and have my video card split the vga output - one to my monitor, the other to my second machine which will encode the video. I don't know if they make a video splitter like that (Vga split into VGA and say, component/s-video), or if I'm out of luck. I know at bare minimum I can get svideo to the second machine via a tranceiver (Micro T-View XGA), but what I'm more concerned about is the type of card / software / machine spec that my second machine will need to have. I assumed I could get another AIW, but the prices are pretty steep for the higher end ones (9600 and 9800). I'll spend what I need to make this work, but I didn't want to overdo it. That being said, is the AIW the best solution? I'd like to have some kind of hardware encoder that has MPEG4 support so that I can make longer videos - obviously those of us who game a lot know one session of any MMO can last for a few hours, or a good session of your favorite FPS can go for at least an hour or more. So a good size drive is needed (I have an 120g in there now), but the proc is only a 1.33 t-bird. The box has a gig of memory, but I was wondering if the proc speed would be enough. If the card did the encoding, you'd think the processor wouldn't need to be state of the art.

So you can kind of see what I want to do - for now I'm not worried about sound, I might mess with that later. But the question is can I get a decent hardware encoder that will do MPEG4 for a decent price (somewhere around/under $300)? And what to get? I know someone has to be doing this, I refuse to believe so many of the fan-made gaming videos are made with Fraps Thanks for any help!!

 

[rbV5]

The problem is that using analog TV-out, your resolution will be a crappy 480i (no matter what), and trying to capture raw pixel data from YPbPr, VGA or DVI is pretty much out of the question due to the lack of hardware to capture it with (capture card with VGA, component or DVI input) and the lack of bandwidth to be able to get it on the storage medium. If there's something better than FRAPS, I haven't heard about it. (certainly doesn't mean there isn't a way to do it)

 

[UILanMan]

Thanks for the response...

Actually though, just to be sure I'm not misunderstanding you (and vice-versa), the TView is a device that connects to your VGA out of your vid card, and your monitor cable plugs into the back of it (just a passthrough device). The device then has an svideo out that you can run to your TV, making it so you have TV out and never have to mess with any video settings, and it works with any video card. Very handy. So with this, as long as whatever encoder card had svideo in (as do all the AIWs), I'd be able to capture no problem..

Your comment "capture card with VGA, component or DVI input" - this is kind of what I was looking for. So you don't know of any capture card like this with those kind of inputs? I just want another machine to do the encoding, so I don't have to ruin my gameplay experience while I record. I know the AIWs will do what I want, the only problem with them is that I'm not sure if I have to use their software to capture the video. Meaning, if I don't have to use their multimedia center (because as far as I know, it only has a few codecs, like mpeg1 and mpeg2, and those are HUGE) - if I can use another piece of software that would let me encode the video with another codec (like bbmpeg or divx, etc) maybe that would work?

Again I'm no expert... just looking for 1) my main machine to have no needed hardware added 2) second machine to do the recording 3) have that recording be with a codec that isn't "fat" (ie, take up 400mb for 1min of video). The video quality doesn't have to be insanely good.. I know that in using svideo it's going to be downgraded somewhat anyway, I just dont want to have to drop a ton of frames, or make it look *really* bad I'm sure I'm going to have to give somewhere, that's fine, just want to make sure I buy the right parts. So if you wanted to do what I wanted rbV5, what would you do?

 

[rbV5]

So with this, as long as whatever encoder card had svideo in (as do all the AIWs), I'd be able to capture no problem..

Sure, just remember that it will be 480i resolution(640x480 interlaced)

Your comment "capture card with VGA, component or DVI input" - this is kind of what I was looking for. So you don't know of any capture card like this with those kind of inputs?

The ones that I'm aware of(H3d), don't actually capture anyway, they pass-through to a display device and are pretty pricey. Even if you had the capture card, for 480p resolution alone, Vdub tells me you need 36,173KB/s for the video + PCM audio...thats just for 640x480 progressive, up the resolution and you up the bandwidth requirement exponentially.

I know the AIWs will do what I want, the only problem with them is that I'm not sure if I have to use their software to capture the video. Meaning, if I don't have to use their multimedia center (because as far as I know, it only has a few codecs, like mpeg1 and mpeg2, and those are HUGE)

ATI MMC supports codecs that use the AVI container like Indeo, huffyuv and divx(as long as you have them installed), as well as editable presets for MPEG1/2/4 an WMV, as well as their own proprietary VCR codec. File sizes are directly related to resolution, bitrate and compression.

So if you wanted to do what I wanted rbV5, what would you do?

I think it would be cool to record in-game videos. Its something I've not given much thought to however. I've not even used FRAPS to record video before. I think I would have to perhaps give the 2 machine method a try and compare the results with FRAPS. At best, it will be not quite as good as gaming via TV-out using s-video...I've done it, and its quality, while not great, it is OK. As for VGA/DVI or Component...any of the higher bandwith connections, I'd say forget it..there isn't any hardware capable of doing it for anything reasonably affordable. Other than that, perhaps a little research will turn up something?

 

[UILanMan]

Thanks so much for all your help! I'll do a bit more research and see if I can't find some more information.

 

[vshah]

fraps works perfectly on my rig...recording to a second hard drive however

-vivan