How to record videos fast and cheap

[Zankoku]

Youtube:
multiple 3D video formats
4K+ support
30 fps

 

[Wavebuster]

True, Youtube at present does not support 60fps through conventional means. I still want 60fps recordings though for my own ends, or if future improvements to Youtube or some other video streaming site allow 60fps videos. I like how Youtube supports 4K, 3d video, some other ridiculous prosumer standard etc. yet not 60fps even at resolutions 480p and below. -_-

http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=294561#294561 details a type of workaround method to get 60fps videos on Youtube.

The product I linked only came to market some months ago, and I also ordered one to give it a whirl since it also includes standard def composite and S-video inputs. We'll see what it's capable of hopefully within a week or two.

 

[Zankoku]

Well, I guess at $20, it makes a decent capture card for a bargain price. Unfortunately it doesn't do anything amazing.

 

[Cummings]

Im currently trying to set up the encore but its simply not being recognized by my computer. is the light supposed to turn on when i plug it into the USB port? i bought gamecube RCA+S-Video cable for my cube, but the splitter you recomended doesnt split the audio. like the RCA cable's components are weirdly sized and just dont fit into the splitter, so i figured id just record muted. for now at least.
anyways back to the main point, the encore isnt being recognized by the computer, and im wondering if its because the audio components arent hooked in? the S-Video fits fine, although i cant be sure of anything until it registers on my computer.
also i tested it with a friend's computer and it still didnt work on his. this is of course after installing the software on the provided disk...
any ideas?

Edit: oh also i checked under device manager and it had registered something, but it was labeled as TV tuner or something. so i removed the driver hardware for the encore and reinstalled it, and now it shows up as video grabber, but the same problem exists(not registered under virtualdub nor the provided capture software)

 

[Dcold]

Whenever I record, I get a large amount of frames inserted, which throws off the audio severely and makes it speed up for no reason. Do you know any way to fix that?

 

[k_bot]

Does anyone have experience or know how to configurate the settings properly on pinnacle studio 14?

Every time i try to record the quality is just to unacceptable and there are I think too many dropped frames also.

 

[Tee ay eye]

hey aisight

why do you use the quantizer when you can just manually set the bitrate?

 

[Zankoku]

From the first couple of posts:

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

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.

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.

 

[Tee ay eye]

i can't believe i forgot i asked that already.

 

[bertbusdriver]

anyone have a recommendation for the best capture card for under $100? Only looking to record melee, so i don't really wanna spend $190 on a blackmagic shuttle intensity...

 

[Kadano]

@bertbusdriver: The best simple one is Pinnacle Video Transfer; with this one, you don't even need a PC/laptop! Here is a video example of the quality you should expect:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKw3GKPnBX0
You also need a fast USB stick. With very cheap ones, audio desynchs after about 10 minutes. I'm using "Verbatim Store n Go USB3 32GB" right now and it works perfect. It's also great value, compared with other fast USB3 sticks.

If you opt for best quality, I think an internal capture card that supports uncompressed video would be best. At least, that's what ajp_anton always says, and it's hard to question him if you look at the quality of his videos =)

@thread: The 20$ component grabber is sold out on Amazon. The same chip, but in a different casing, is also available on Dealextreme:
http://dx.com/p/usb-video-audio-capture-adapter-white-113103?item=5

 

[Atrain]

So, a few quick questions.

I want to buy a capture card and use it to stream on twitch. I don't have much space on my HD (Less than 10GB left), so I figured I might as well just stream since Twitch automatically saves VODs anyways.

I'm ordering the ENCORE capture card, and was wondering if it would be better quality if I split the the cables in the opposite way? Seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=AU&hl=en-GB&v=rAUdxytNn6A

Is that just for Dazzle? If it does work ENCORE, will it give better quality or is it just a waste of money and just more cables to deal with?

ALSO, the RCA splitter you linked to on NewEgg - is that only for the audio or does it work with the video as well? Or do I need a different splitter for the video?

Thanks so much for your time.

 

[Zankoku]

Splitting the cables the opposite way will end up with the same video quality; it's roughly the same number of cables and pretty much boils down to personal preference on which way you'd rather set it up. The RCA splitter works for any RCA-type output, whether it's composite video, RCA audio, or component video.

 

[Sleek Media]

What's the easiest setup for recording both the game audio and commentary audio together? Budget isn't an issue, I'm just looking for the best way to hit play, smash, hit stop, and have everything come together.

 

[Atrain]

@aisaight

Do you if I will be able to stream using the ENCORE capture card? If you've done it before, how?

Thanks!

 

[Zankoku]

Yes, you can stream with the ENCORE capture card. Xsplit can handle most capture cards, as far as I know.

 

[Atrain]

Yes, you can stream with the ENCORE capture card. Xsplit can handle most capture cards, as far as I know.

Thank you so much. Thanks to this thread and you, we had a successful stream yesterday. <3

 

[Sleek Media]

I have almost everything figured out. I'm set up with a capture card and recording using the included software (winTV). The only thing I haven't gotten is the microphone input. How do you add live mic input to the recording? Is it some combination of sound card settings and hardware, or is there recording software that allows this?

 

[Zankoku]

I personally use VirtualDub, since in general I hate the bundled software that comes with these capture cards. If you're asking about microphone input in addition to the game audio, that will have to be done through audio mixing, either with an external hardware mixer or by recording the mic audio separately, then splicing it together with the video later.

 

[Sleek Media]

Thanks. I'm a little surprised that there aren't any programs for recording and balancing a second audio track like that. Do you use a hardware mixer, or splice?

 

[Zankoku]

I bought a hardware mixer.

 

[WindMajor]

I was having the same problem the other day that FerrishTheFish was having, where VirtualDub would just crash right when you hit Esc to stop capturing, and then the video file would break. I found out that the problem lied purely with Xvid, not with anything else, and that you can still salvage the video, you just have to put it in VD again and re-render it, then punch in all the settings when you want to capture another one.

So now I'm wondering, is there an alternate video compression method that you recommend, Ankoku? I could manage with all the added tedious work that goes with Xvid compression, but I don't want that to be my long term solution.



Also, when you capture, is the deinterlacing supposed to take effect in the preview window? I only see the difference when I try to repair the file, when I add a second deinterlace filter. :/

 

[Zankoku]

No, deinterlacing should not occur in preview, since applying filters to preview would cause major CPU drain for no good reason.

I noticed freezing after capturing in XviD and ending the recording, but if I waited 5-10 seconds it would conclude normally so I dunno. You could look into the not-as-free alternative of DivX, or try for x264 encoding, but with x264 being the God Format you better have a beefy computer or you'll be dropping frames left and right encoding into it.

Lately I've been recording with no filters and then applying them in the re-encode, to save cycles on capture at the expense of taking more time before getting the final video to upload. See if this method helps things.

 

[WindMajor]

I figured it wasn't showing up, but it was good to know for sure. I was considering only adding the interlace afterwards too, so it's reassuring to know that you're already ahead in that game, lol.

As for DivX, I'll see what I can do. I'll probably surf around to see if there are other free alternatives before trying to get DivX.

Thanks for the help, and great guide! :D



Edit: Oh wow, I changed NOTHING and Xvid started working. ****ing please x__x

 

[AtneyB]

Hi
I'm trying to record stuff myself and followed your tutorial, but I have a problem.
I did download and install all the codec needed to compress both audio/video part, but VirtualDub doesn't seem to consider them (they just don't appear in the "select audio/video compression" window).
I use VirtualDub 1.9.11.

Edit : it's not that important because I still can use another software to compress the raw avi file to a mp4 file way lighter, but I just wanna know what's the problem.
Edit 2 : well actually it might matters a bit lol... I just record with VDub without compress anything and the result is the video randomly freeze at times for no reasons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPgj19IAhGA (here is the video compressed into a mp4 file, but the result is the same with the raw one).
Help.

 

[ajp_anton]

Are you mixing 64-bit and 32-bit stuff? Both VDub and the encoder has to be the same.
Your hard drive might not be able to handle uncompressed for longer periods, which could be why it freezes. Or if you're using USB, it's barely fast enough to transfer uncompressed video, so you might need to use the hardware encoder to fix it.

Also, you might want to deinterlace the video.
And more importantly, fix the audio.

 

[AtneyB]

Well it's all 32-bit stuff I don't think it's about that kind of confilcts.
Also for the endurance of my hd, I doubt it's so weak that it can't handle a 37 sec slow definition video lol.
Moreover I did use the deinterlace filter for this vid on VDub.
And I would like to fix the audio but I don't know ish about this stuff, except for the audio compression, but like I said I can't use codecs...

 

[Zankoku]

Raw video is gigantic. Unless you're running on an SSD, I would argue that you cannot properly record uncompressed video in real-time.

The video test you posted did not look de-interlaced at all.

 

[AtneyB]

Well maybe, but I still did it tho.
And I get it now for the relation file size/file quality.
I just need someone who can help me to fix my initial problem.

 

[Zankoku]

I don't really have any solution to "I installed everything just like it said, but it seems to not be installed."

Other than ajpanton's suggestion of making sure you have the 32-bit VDub and 32-bit codecs (or 64 and 64), all I can say is try installing the K-Lite Codec Pack since that one at least seems consistent in working for people.

 

[AtneyB]

I just checked again and now I can see some codecs which, I assume, are coming from the software I used to convert the avi file into mp4 (it asked for codecs installation in addition during the main setup).

So this is not because of VirtualDub which seems ok for the codecs recognition.

 

[AtneyB]

I've downloaded the xvid codec somewhere else and it finally worked (Xvid 1.3.2 bugfix release). My issue about files size is gone.
Now about the freezes, I noticed that with VDub, these freezes appear once I launch the AVI capture, while it doesn't happen with another software (Ulead VideoStudio SE DVD).
On the other hand, that other software really randomly crash leading to bsod, and works fine other times. I also can't/don't know how to record the audio with that one.
If someone has some tips for my problem don't not hesitate. If not Imma just return that Easycap ish lol.

Srry about the double post

 

[byron]

I bought a easycap dc60 but it won't work on my macbook pro I downloaded the mac software program easycapviewer but my laptop won't even detect the easy cap. Can anybody help?

 

[Sim]

Greetings guys,

I followed this tutorial and bought an ENCORE video USB grabber, which came with a video recording software. It was all laggy and stuff so I wanted to try VirtualDub. Problem is, I followed the steps in your tutorial but when I try to record, I choose the device, ENCORE video USB grabber, but then the PC starts to lag MASSIVELY. Like, I can't do anything. I then try to shut it down and it takes a whole 5 minutes to do so. So, right now I'm stuck with the software that came with the CD and it's garbage. I can't even record in Final Destination because it lags like crazy, and the FPS is all but constant in many maps.

Any ideas? I tried a fresh install of VirtualDub but it seems like since it's a non-installed software and just runs from a file, so there's no way to actually "reset" its parameters.

I'm quite confused with how my PC could lag massively, especially since it's a multimedia laptop equipped with a good video card. I bought it especially for that and I made multiple videos with it before.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Zankoku]

Eep, I probably should update my OP.

Recently Encore's USB capture card seems to be absolutely horrible as far as proper capture goes, causing tons of frameskips and sound popping. I'm not really sure what I can say to help, other than maybe turning off video preview on VirtualDub and seeing if that helps at all.

 

[StonedEmu]

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[Zankoku]

Dolphin is viable for high quality capture provided you collect all the replays, yes. This was more of a general purpose thread for being able to capture both Melee and Brawl, as Melee notably does not have a replay feature.

 

[Sim]

Thank you guys for your replies, I will try Dolphin when I go back home in 5 days, and I will try turning off the preview as well aisight.

> If you have a machine that can fluidly capture streaming 480i

I would say my laptop is slightly above average, so I think it will be okay.

 

[Apasher]

Got a new (good) computer (Intel Core i5-3210M 2.50GHz) . I can finally capture with VDub smoothly now.

 

[KayB]

Got an EasyCap D60 and attached it to my HDTV using component cables and split the video using 3 y-cable splitters female to dual male. When I installed Virtualdub and the codecs, when I click capture AVI the video preview doesn't come out. Plus, the codecs I downloaded aren't showing in the window when I press C. I downloaded the K-Lite program and I'm stuck. I really want to be able to record my matches. Any tips guys?