Capture Device for PC Gaming

FMTopfan · 28 Mar 2013 at 02:57

I've always used Fraps on my main gaming rig to record gameplay footage to a dedicated 2TB WD Caviar Black. I edit purely with Sony Vegas and output file is saved to 1080p MP4 at 12Mbps with AAC audio at 48KHz sampling, 320Kbps bit-rate. My gaming sample rate is 96KHz/24-bit from the Phoebus. These settings are used because I appreciate high quality.

Put simply, I'm after a device that doesn't affect the performance as much as Fraps with all the overheads so that I can retain normal high ingame settings and maintain smooth performance because faffing with that all the time means I always wasting my spare time. As a bonus there's years of classic freeview content (non-HD) to take off my box and pop onto a DVD or bluray disc. Will also store them on my media server as backup to avoid my efforts being lost.

It's noted that the Elgato Game Capture HD is a popular solution that is able to support 1080p and record at 30fps with 60fps passthrough. I'm unsure if this is the best solution and it has crossed my mind regarding a dedicated capture card but that's a different kettle of fish

Could someone enlightening me if Elgato would work using it on the same PC for gaming using dedicated HDD (there's a dedicated 3570K+GTX650Ti Folding rig I could take offline if needed), and anyone know about capturing Sweetfx effects this way?

Thanks

DaleTheWhale · 28 Mar 2013 at 08:29

I thought the Elgato was optimised to work with consoles instead of PC's, not sure if it would connect and work the same.

Have you tried DxTory, that seems to be the favoured capture software used by most people on youtube/interwebs.

FMTopfan · 28 Mar 2013 at 10:37

I checked DxTory out back in January because I thought it was on par with Fraps but compatibility isn't as good vs Fraps, certainly not as good image quality either from what I'm used to.

Yes Elgato is aimed at consoles but there's not a huge choice for PC gamers out there. DxTory popularity is due to being able to record separate tracks for the game audio and commentary, features a type of passthrough whereby you record at 30fps but framerate isn't capped at all. Lots of customised options. I hope there is a better solution and need to find other options if I'm to keep the highest settings possible.

Bacon? · 28 Mar 2013 at 10:45

I've just started using Bandicam and I'm quite happy with it

FMTopfan · 29 Mar 2013 at 04:05

Bacon? said:
I've just started using Bandicam and I'm quite happy with it

It's a versatile piece of software but since I'll be editing, Lagarith codec has the same effect on performance as Fraps. I haven't tried x264 and will see how that affects performance and check the final quality once edited. There's quite a number of options to try and games to test it with.

Other software/hardware suggestions are welcome

DaleTheWhale · 29 Mar 2013 at 12:59

Depending on the file sizes, recording straight to an SSD can be the most beneficial as it won't affect the game play at all. There is a video around Youtube that gives a very good example of this.

I don't think a external type recorder will help much as it will still be streaming/saving the video to the hard drive thus having the same affect. I found that the speed of saving the files has more affect on the smoothness.