A question about recording software

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

Hiya,
I recently purchased one of those HD PVR things in hopes of getting something that I could use to record PC and Console games with, but I am unable to use it to record PC stuff because my monitor doesn't have an HDMI input (My GPU does, but simply connecting the HDMI out to the GPU doesn't do anything, though connecting it to the HDMI in shows a static image of my desktop background, and nothing else.) So, because my capture device is limited to consoles, I was wondering what the best way to record PC games/other software is. I don't care about paying, so long as the price isn't too ridiculous. I'm also timid to do fraps, considering what I've heard about how big the recorded files are. So, what is your recommendation for this, forum?

 

[shrekfan246]

I've been using OBS [https://obsproject.com/] for the past few months, at the recommendation of someone else around here who uses it. It's been pretty good so far and it's free, though there are a few small problems I have with it.

It can take a while to set up, particularly because you need to be really specific about what you're capturing; it's not really difficult to grasp, but it's complicated and I would recommend looking up a Youtube explanation if it seems overwhelming. Also, capturing older games or games that use strange engines (adventure games) can be an absolute nightmare. Then you also need to figure out what sort of file size/quality you want to end up with; OBS will automatically compress as it records, and it's rather high-quality about it too, so you can tweak the "bitrate" option in the "Video" tab of the options menu to be whatever you like, really. Higher bitrates = higher quality but also exponentially increase filesize. An hour of Ziggurat at 3000 k/bps 720p, 30 FPS ended up being just under 1.5 GB, and that's relatively low-quality for a 3D action game.

On that note, OBS can also automatically downscale or lock the framerate of your recording as well, so if you want to run a game at your native resolution but want the video scaled down to whatever, you can set that up too.

From what I've seen, it only outputs in .flv or .mp4, but .mp4 is a pretty widely-used standard format for video editing and it's what Youtube prefers (and you will likely want video editing software as well, which can get quite expensive; Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere are the top recommendations, Vegas is a little more user-friendly but I believe Premiere has more functionality and flexibility). Also, the biggest problem I've got with OBS is that there's no visual indicator that you're recording. If you have two monitors it's not such a problem since you can just move the OBS window entirely to your other screen and that window will show you a preview window of what you're recording and give you the bitrate/framerate, but if you have a single monitor the easiest way to work with it is to set up hotkeys for starting and ending recordings, and once or twice I've had it crash on me in between recordings. I've only lost a single video so far thanks to that, but that's still one more than I would prefer to have lost.