F1 2011 I want to start recording my races but.....

[Dan Wootton]

I don't know what the best program is to use!

I've been hunting around for a decent program i could use to record a race with so i can upload it on Youtube afterwards.I've currently got Fraps but if i record at 60 FPS i lag in game a little and for 2.30 minutes of footage it was almost 4GB!!
I haven't tried lowering the recording FPS on Fraps just yet because i wanted to ask here in the hope that someone has a better program i could use to record my races.
I'm thinking of using Sony Vegas to edit the videos but it's recording i'm having the issues with.

I've also heard that if i record to a different HDD that what my game is on it will increase performance and i won't lag as much and as i have a spare external HDD that isn't really an issue as such, but yeah 2.30 minutes of footage is 4GB! That's mad, imagine what a Qual + Race would be.....

Please bare in mind guys that i'm most likely going to be recording an hour or more at a time with Qual + 100% full length race and i just don't have the HDD space to spare 200-250GB or more per race. I want to be able to record my full season if possible.

So... What do you guys use currently? Would be interesting to know... Any recommendations?

I'd appreciate any help given.

Thanks guys.

 

[ML2166]

Have you looked at Playclaw as an option?

 

[Graham Laing]

I have Fraps, but you can get a frame rate drop depending on the game, and as you said it has large video file sizes, which doesn't bother me.

The other one I use a lot is Playclaw. If you have a reasonable system and a multi-core processor, then all the better. Playclaw can be set to use a bit of compression (on the fly), substantially cutting down on the file size. You can set how many cores can be used for the compression thread. I have Playclaw 2, but Playclaw 3 is in beta at the moment, and is a free upgrade to v2. The beta can be obtained via their forum

www.playclaw.com

I have installed 2 other trial versions of software, but can't really comment on them really, as I haven't used them much yet. As they free trials, why not try them for yourself. One of them is called ACTION :-

http://www.mirillis.com/en/products/action.html

The other one is called DXTory :-

http://dxtory.com/v2-home-en.html

Regarding the external hard drive, they are a waste if time if it is a USB drive, UNLESS it is USB3, therefore fast enough for video capture. eSATA drives should be OK too, also SCSI drives, but most home PC's don't use SCSI. Firewire drives (IEEE 1394) have a similar speed as USB2 so won't be suitable either.

You would be better of moving large files, such as video files, downloads etc. to general storage on the external USB drive, and capture to your internal hard drive.

Cheers

 

[Ivan Aksenov]

Msi afterburnong is great if you want to record in 1080p then it would be like 400gb 50% race but in slower quality it would be 2-3gb.
After that you can use virtualdub to compress and edit it, it's free and easy to use

 

[Dan Wootton]

Cheers for you're help guys. Going to a) try MSI afterBurner aswell as Playclaw and then b) buy a 1TB HDD just for the recordings. Appreciate the help fellas.

 

[Graham Laing]

For a good speed at a really good price, you may want to consider the Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200 rpm ......

 

[Ivan Aksenov]

By the way i downloaded playclaw and it told that it's uregistred, actually what restrictions it's make?

 

[Dan Wootton]

I've tried Playclaw, nothing but issues with it so i got rid of it. Best 1 i've managed to find and use so far is Bandicam, worked first time, isn't free but u can just torrent it with a crack records decently and 2.37 minute video was only 200mb which seems to be rather good, will test it fully tomorrow in a 3 lap race to see if i get FPS drops aswell as the size and quality of the video and audio. Will test it online tomorrow aswell as i'm racing in a 50% race. Will upload afterwards if anyone wants to see it.

 

[RowingAce]

But don't try to record on a external drive via USB 2.0. The transfer rates are just too low.
Internal, eSATA or USB 3.0 is a must here ..

 

[Bill Devery]

MSI Afterburner. No FPS drop and very reliable....and it's free!

 

[Graham Laing]

By the way i downloaded playclaw and it told that it's uregistred, actually what restrictions it's make?

It's not in the FAQ, but in the forum someone complains that after 30 seconds of video, and unregistered warning pops up in the middle of the screen. Perhaps it just 'watermarks' the video with that warning every 30 seconds, but I am not sure.

Cheers

 

[Dan Wootton]

Currently testing MSI Afterburner, love the fact there is almost no FPS drop at all however the sound on the beta only records my mic? Any idea how to change that to what's playing through my speakers?

 

[James Maskell]

Change the sound input?

 

[Dan Wootton]

I've managed to get the sound recording now however it almost always goes out of sync with the video! any ideas?

 

[James Maskell]

What FPS are you recording at? I record at 30 cause thats all that is needed for youtube.

 

[Graham Laing]

Different software handles different games in different ways. Some do get audio sync issues. You may not be able to capture at the fps you are attempting, and you say there is little fps drop in your game, but you probably cannot be sure how many frames the capturing software is dropping, because it can't keep up. Full HD @ 1920x1080 is a sizeable amount of streaming data.

Stuttering can cause the audio to go out of sync, in some games the menu system can cause it, so you have to capture once you are playing whatever you are playing, not the menus you used to get there.

Usually the audio can be fixed within the editing software you are using like Vegas or Virtualdub, or in the final render to the final format you want. This only works when the audio is out of sync by a constant amount, usually in milliseconds.

So in a program like virtualdub, where for example you might do a final render to XviD or divx as an .avi, you tell the software to advance or delay the audio by so many milliseconds. The amount and direction of the delay can usually be guessed, by doing a test render of a section of video at different delays, until it looks good to you when playing the final file.

If the audio is out of sync by varying amounts, then try another capture setting or use different capturing software, because it is generally just not worth the effort to try and fix it. You can try chopping the video into chunks when rendering, then rejoining them, but the result is usually disappointing.

If the audio is out of sync by a fixed amount, and you are using Vegas, you can see this visually, as the audio track will longer or shorter than the video track. In this case you can stretch the audio to fit the video, without distorting it, and usually it's successful. If it still sounds out of sync after stretching (or shortening), then you are back to what I said above about changing settings or trying different capturing software.

In Vegas, to stretch (or shorten) the audio, do this :-

1/ Click you cursor at the end of the video, and note the video length, e.g 2:37.15 - note that if you are using 30 fps, that time is 2 mins, 37 1/2 seconds. The .15 is 15 frames which is half a second. At 60 fps, that .15 is quarter of a second.

2/ Right click on the audio track and select 'properties' - you should by default be on the 'audio event' tab

3/ Use the drop down menu item next to 'Time Stretch/Pitch Shift' and select 'élastique', then in the new drop menu 'Stretch Attributes' select 'Pro'

4/ There is 2 time boxes, one is the original audio length, and the other is the new length. Enter the video length into the NEW LENGTH box, in this example it's 2:37.15

5/ Click OK ..... do not select any other settings like 'pitch change' or 'formant shift'

Done!

You will now see that the audio track is the same length as the video track, and if you are lucky, they are in sync.

Cheers