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How to record videos fast and cheap

Zankoku

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Okay, so technically you still need enough money for a decent laptop, but this setup is still quick and cheap.

The Hardware - Computer
The only three things that really matter are portability, hard drive space, and CPU speed. One of my recording setups is (my work computer) an Intel Core i5 M560 2.67 GHz, but my old laptop that's still sporting a Core 2 Duo works just fine as well. However, recording a full day of videos takes anywhere between 10 and 30 GB, depending on video quality, so having the space to get it all is pretty important. Finally, laptops are easy to carry, but desktops are cheaper for comparable parts, so depending on how much you travel for tournaments you can make your decision on whether to emphasize cost or ease of transport.

Overall, this level of hardware should rarely run you over $500-700, plus you'll have a perfectly functional laptop when you're not busy recording Smash vids with it.

A small addition that you might want to consider is an SSD if you have the money, since the additional write speed will let you record higher quality video without risk of dropping frames, but this isn't a top priority.

The Hardware - Capture Card
Since you're sporting a laptop, you can now buy a capture card that connects to it rather than the more expensive dedicated capture card that records to a flash drive. Here are a couple options.

ENCORE USB Audio/Video Grabber - $24.99
This is one that I'm currently using. It takes composite and S-Video input and sends it all to USB.

This card seems to be having quality issues as of late. It's convenient, but purchase and use at your own risk.

KWorld DVD Maker USB - $25.99
This is an older one that I have for my secondary recording setup. It takes composite and S-Video input, but only sends the video signal to USB, while audio is sent through a stereo output that you'll have to plug into your microphone jack.

DBTech USB 2.0 HD Video and Audio Capture Device - $19.99
Currently out of stock. Despite the name, this thing at best captures an awkward 480p at 30 frames per second. Usable, but audio has slight feedback. Takes composite, S-Video, or component input and sends it along with audio to USB.

EasyCAP DC60 - $7.66
I have not personally used this, but from what I've seen it's good at capturing video. Unfortunately, it seems that that audio capture suffers a bit on the more extreme pitches. Still, at less than $8, it's by far the cheapest capture card option. EasyCAP takes composite and S-Video input and sends it all to USB.

Cables and Such
There are several ways to record video, so I'm going to go over the most common ones here.

Splitting all three RCA signals - $3.99 x3 = $11.97 total
PROS: The most universal solution, cheap
CONS: Splitting the video signal this way makes it look darker in both recording and on the TV
Basically you get three RCA Y-Cables so you can plug each one into both the TV and the capture card. While splitting audio this way isn't a problem, the video signal becomes weaker overall, so you'll have to adjust brightness and contrast settings to get it to look right.

Use the A/V out on your TV - $8.99
PROS: Single cable, simple, cheapest
CONS: Not every TV has this
Even more straightforward than splitting the signal. You plug one end of the cables to the back of your TV, and plug the other end into your capture card. Too bad the A/V out feature isn't a very common one. If you're only recording locals and you already have a setup that supports this, though, go for it.

Record from S-Video and split the audio - $7.97 + $3.99 x2 = $15.95 total
PROS: S-Video is cleaner than composite, universal solution
CONS: Most expensive method
If you really want clean video without messing with brightness settings but don't have an A/V Out on your TV, this is the best alternative. Wii S-Video+AV cables output to both the composite and the S-Video, meaning you can play from the composite source like normal while capturing from the S-Video source. However, this is more expensive since it involves buying an entire dedicated console cable. Keep in mind that the Wii and the Gamecube use different cables, so this method will cost even more money if you need to buy the cables for both consoles.

Codecs
This section is on the stuff that'll keep your videos compressed to manageable sizes, since raw video format is gigantic (like 1 GB per minute).

XviD Video Codec
The free alternative to DivX. This only compresses video.

LAME ACM Codec
A free MP3 codec. This only compresses audio.

K-Lite Codec Pack
This is the easy-mode download, for those of you who don't like going to the trouble of finding separate components. Get the Full or Mega, install everything, done.

The Capture Software
Most capture software that comes with the capture cards kinda suck, so we'll go with a free one that was coded by a college student.

VirtualDub
This does everything that you'll need at the basic level - capturing, cutting, and encoding. Keep in mind that if you get the 64-bit version, it might be harder to set up your codecs since newer versions of Windows kinda make it a headache.

Setting it all up and recording
Okay, so first load up VirtualDub and confirm stuff until you get to the main window. From there, in the File Menu navigate to "Capture AVI".


This should bring up the capture mode window. I don't have my stuff hooked up right now, so this is just a mock-up, but if you do then there should be a preview of your game playing.


Before getting ready, let's pre-set the things to make capturing work as well as possible. First, choose the "Hide display on capture" option so that it'll save CPU power for capturing rather than previewing it to you in real-time.


Next, go to the Timing settings.


In here, select "Do not resync between audio and video streams". The default setting, "Sync... by resampling audio" actually distorts the audio to try to keep it at the correct timing, which ends up doing more harm than good in the case of capturing a video game with cheap hardware.

Now, let's set your codec settings. Hit 'C' for video compression, and 'A' for audio compression, and set each one accordingly.


Note here that I set the quantizer to 3.00. The lower the quantizer is, the higher quality your video will be, though it will of course be larger as well. 4.00 is the default, and I recommend against going any higher than that. Setting it too low, on the other hand, might strain your HD's write speed, so don't do that either. Try to pick something between 2.00 and 4.00 (unless you're running on SSD).

You may adjust further settings as you see fit.
Please avoid using ABR or VBR for audio.

Next, let's de-interlace the video. Enable filters in Video and then go to the Filter List.


You'll want to grab the de-interlace filter.


There's several de-interlacing methods. I personally prefer the "Blend Fields" option, but feel free to experiment on your own.

Typically the algorithmic deinterlace methods look "cleaner", while setting the field order to "double frame rate" will attempt to convert 480i 30fps video into 480p 60fps video (this is CPU intensive). I choose "Blend Fields" because Youtube currently does not support 60fps video, and the "motion blur" effect achieved through this mode keeps the video looking smooth for people who watch.

Once all that's done, hit 'F2' to set your file name, hit "Save" when done, and then...

It should show where you're planning to save your video to at the top now. That title bar will also say things like "FILE EXISTS" or "capture in progress", so pay attention to it.
Finally, hit either 'F5' or 'F6' and your video will start recording. You'll see details of it on the right sidebar.

Hit 'Esc' to stop recording.

You'll notice the "FILE EXISTS" warning now. This means that starting recording at this point will OVERWRITE YOUR FILE. Remember to save to a new file each time you stop and restart recording your videos.

Cutting videos into separate files
Back in the main window of VDub, open the video file you captured to. Be sure to set both Video and Audio to "Direct Stream Copy".

Navigate the video with left or right, holding Shift to only skip to keyframes (this will make finding beginnings and endings of matches very quick). Once you find the beginning of a video, hit 'Home', and once you find the end, hit 'End'. Use '[' and ']' to jump to the beginning and end of your selections to make sure you have it all correct.


Hit the space bar to start previewing your video. If your audio is off-sync, you'll want to adjust its timing through the Interleaving settings. Get there with Ctrl+I.

Set the number in "Audio skew correction" accordingly and keep checking how it sounds with the preview until the audio timing sounds right to you. Once you're all set, it's time to save your video segment. Hit F7, set your file name, and you're good to go. After that, just repeat for any other video segments you want to cut out of your big file.

And that's it, if you want to know anything else just ask.
 

Zankoku

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Updated with some more representative images and a little more details, plus using settings that weren't there back when I first set this up several years ago.

I'm not familiar with Europe's video output format, so if you can provide some more insight on that I'd appreciate it, thanks.
 

Tee ay eye

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Is there any reason you use the target quantizer instead of just setting the target bitrate?
 

Zankoku

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Quantizer allows the codec to run at a lower bitrate during times when a high bitrate wouldn't be needed for the same level of quality.

Basically, bitrate is best used for when you know what you want the filesize to be, quantizer is for when you know how good you want the video to look.
 

ajp_anton

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I don't know how constant XviD's 1-pass bitrate is, but apart from easy parts wasting bitrate on unnecessarily good quality and difficult parts getting bitrate-starved to death, you also lose quality from the encoder having to desperately vary the quantizer in order to keep the bitrate you requested even though the video's complexity may vary wildly.

By setting a constant quantizer, everything will just get the same quality, and the encoder will use as much bitrate as it needs to keep it at that level.

And just for some extra info, 2-pass bitrate will use the first pass to find out what constant quantizer will result in the overall average bitrate that you requested, and then use that for the second pass. Kind of. Obviously only useful when you need to fit a video into a certain size.
 

FerrishTheFish

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I'm using version 1.9.11 on Windows 7 (32-bit), and VirtualDubs keeps crashing my computer. I have all the software and codecs, I'm using your settings, and everything seems OK while it is capturing, but once I try to stop capturing the program freezes. If I wait for it to respond, two minutes later I get a blue screen. Is this version just bad?

EDIT: I'm using EZ-cap which is connected to my TV's line output (not that it should really make much difference).
 

Zankoku

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I'm not really sure what the problem could be. Does the file at least save, or is everything lost altogether? Also, you can try setting Video to No Preview instead of just having it disabled when recording.
 

FerrishTheFish

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I'm not really sure what the problem could be. Does the file at least save, or is everything lost altogether? Also, you can try setting Video to No Preview instead of just having it disabled when recording.
I already did the No Preview thing. I have done everything exactly like the OP says to. The file "saves" (that is, it exists after my computer crashes and reboots) but cannot be viewed.

I will do a few more tests, but crashing my computer over and over is not very appealing to me ...
 

Zankoku

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How do you stop capturing? Just Esc key?
Admittedly I've never used EasyCap so I dunno if it might be that or not.
 

ajp_anton

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After you reboot, how are you trying to open the file? Does it have a non-zero size?
When recording (or maybe even with avi files in general?), the frame index is saved at the very end of the file. If the recording is somehow interrupted, this index is lost, but all data is still intact.
VirtualDub can open these files. In the "Open video file" window, check the "Ask for extended options..." at the bottom. There, check "Re-derive keyframe flags". It will then scan the video (might take a while), and then you can save this (of course with video\direct stream copy) into a new file that works.

Have you tried to stop it by just killing VirtualDub? =)
 

FerrishTheFish

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I've tried stopping capturing both with Esc and with the dropdown menu option.

The files have non-zero size. Yes, I can stop it with Task Manager, it's just that one way or another I want to end up with video files AND a non-crashed computer. Re-doing all of those settings is a pain, too.

EDIT: VirtualDub is able to open the files and re-index them as you say. I'll have to do some tinkering with the settings, tho, cuz they seem to be taking up as much memory as uncompressed.
 

ajp_anton

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Yeah, ending up with broken files isn't really an ideal solution, but it works until you can find a better solution.
You mean the repaired file is much bigger than the original? Did you check "video \ direct stream copy" ? Otherwise it will decode the file and re-compress it. Default is uncompressed, but you don't want to decode it at all, you want to just copy the original, so the "compression" settings will not have any effect.
 

FerrishTheFish

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I just now got it to work. When I start recording, this Xvid window pops up. Unless I select the "Auto-close Window" option, apparently VirtualDub does not know what to do and crashes. SO. DUMB.

EDIT: The only issue now is that I get a bunch of garbage at the end of the video. I'll record like a 2:00 video and get a video clip 5:00 long, where everything after I hit escape is just a frozen image and garbage audio.
 

Zankoku

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I have never encountered an issue like yours. It's interesting, to say the least.
 

FerrishTheFish

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Yeah, it's funky stuff -.-

After listening more closely to the "garbage" audio, I have determined that it is not, actually, "garbage." The video and audio are both separately intact, but the audio has just been really, really slowed down. I know it's not EzCap's fault or my TV's fault because when I Enable Audio Playback, the audio plays in realtime (with some delay, of course). Trying to fix it, but none of the options are working.
 

Zankoku

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Did you remember to make sure it doesn't attempt to resync?
 

FerrishTheFish

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Yes, I did. The other options didn't fix the audio and on top of that messed up the video. I tested them out just to see.

I guess I'll just have to be satisfied capturing video only, as that seems to work fine.
 

ajp_anton

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Did you try "Sync audio to video..." in that screenshot above?
If it doesn't work, why not just speed up the audio again?
 

FerrishTheFish

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Did you try "Sync audio to video..." in that screenshot above?
If it doesn't work, why not just speed up the audio again?
Tried both. The "Sync audio to video..." messed up the video timing and didn't even fix the problem with the audio. The sped-up audio sounded horrible, every sound was full of crunchy static noises.
 

FerrishTheFish

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I've made some discoveries regarding my earlier situation.

First of all, I have discovered that the trashy audio is unrelated to VirtualDub. Not sure if it's EasyCap or my TV's line output, tho.

Secondly, I have been using a software called Debut Video Capture: http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html
There is a free version of it available, which is the one I'm using. Sample recording: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ_taUAUFPY (won't be up for quite a while, it's over an hour long and I just uploaded it).

Thirdly, either EasyCap or Debut is having some major issues recording .mpg (I know this isn't directly related, just FYI). The files come out 4~5x bigger than than the corresponding .avi files, and the quality is worse. Absolutely no clue what could be causing this, since it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the .avi is wrapped around a .mpg formatted video.

EDIT: I suppose I should mention that I used my desktop to record these, and my desktop is amazing. Before I was using my laptop, since that was what I was planning to bring to tournaments.
 

John2k4

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For video conversion, I would highly recommend SUPER.
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

Free video converter, and I've used it with great results for converting some videos in the past.

Chops a 1.5GB Uncompressed AVI file down to about 200MB with little quality loss.

Settings I use it with:
 

FerrishTheFish

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I think you got it backwards ... I recorded a 75min .avi and it came out to 689 MB. I then recorded a 45min .mpg and it came out to 1.66 GB. The .avi is fine. The .mpg is not.
 

John2k4

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For me, the AVI files (uncompressed) are what take up the space. I use Pinnacle Studio 8 with BlueBox capture card & dongle.
 

Zankoku

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I'm not a fan of saving space by converting down to 240p.
 

John2k4

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I'm not a fan of saving space by converting down to 240p.
Neither am I, which is why I usually do not re-encode the replays I convert.

If someone has a space / size restriction, then I will.
 

FerrishTheFish

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Bought a 6' USB extension cable so I can bypass the TV altogether without rearranging my room. I'm just splitting the signal now. Still using Debut, but the results so far have been satisfactory.
 

Apasher

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I get a lot of lag using vdub due to having a slow computer. Is there a capture software that gives just as good quality but more CPU friendly?
 

FerrishTheFish

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What do you mean by "a lot of lag?" If it outputs the video/audio in realtime but with a delay relative to your TV, then that is completely normal and pretty much unavoidable regardless of your recording device, CPU, and software. If you mean the video/audio is slower than it should be/out of sync, your problem is similar to mine so you can try some of the same fixes. If the fixes fail, you can try Debut Video Capture: http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html
 

Apasher

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By a lot of lag, i meant off sync video/audio and the video is slower/faster than it should be.

I tried Debut a while ago and I still had problems with that software.
 

Zankoku

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Is your laptop incredibly weak? Did you try manually disabling preview altogether? What video compression are you using?
 

Apasher

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Yes, I disabled the preview, and I still got a bad result. I tried using the same compression settings you use and it ended up even worse than recording uncompressed.

As for my laptop............... it doesn't even have a gig of RAM >_>
 

ajp_anton

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Amount of RAM says nothing of importance about your computer, but one can assume that <1GB is very likely coupled with something very slow.

Uncompressed video requires insane amounts of data to be transferred to your hard drive, I doubt your laptop drive (again making assumptions about your computer), or even an external USB one, can handle it.

There are some really fast compression options. You could for example try x264 (install x264vfw) with the fastest possible settings. It won't look pretty, but if it still drops frames, you can just forget about it all.
 

Zankoku

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I certainly do hope you're running on nothing newer than XP.
 

Apasher

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Yes, I actually am running on XP.

EDIT: My laptop's specs and stuff; Intel(R) Celeron(R) M CPU, 1.60GHz, 896MB of RAM
 

Zankoku

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Very interesting. It's only $20, so I'll order one and let you know how it goes.
 

ajp_anton

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I don't think 480p even exists in other than 50/60 fps.
edit: I'm stupid, 50fps would be 576p =). So 480p should be just 60fps. Except 30fps on Youtube, but they don't follow any standards anyway.
 
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