How to record decent quality video?

Alright I actually asked a fellow Guru user this in PM but he didn't seem to want to reply.

At the moment all I have is Sony Vegas Pro 9. I have run out of things to do in Guild Wars, and so I have decided I wish to make tutorial videos on how to perform tasks that many people seem to have problems with. I want to have decent quality videos (none of that blurry crap that 60% of game videos are tainted with) but I have never done this before so I need a little help setting up.

So what programs/devices do I need to begin recording? I'd be grateful for any tips and anything you can think off to add to this.

Thanks in advance :P.

get fraps. best if you buy it or get the full version the other way.
get virtualdub.

google a bit about usage of both.
download additional codecs for virtualdub.

in general, you want the best quality, so you'll need to set the highest fps and resolution & use one of the best codecs. for different types of videos, different options should be set. there are loads of tutorials for both fraps and virtualdub on the web and both are very intuitivie.

keep in mind that a raw video from fraps needs a lot of hdd space. 10 min video may be as big as 4-8gb, depends on your settings and the videos' content. a postprocessed 10 min video might be anywhere in range of 40-300mb, maybe even more - again, depends on your codecs and other stuff you choose in virtualdub.
you can get really nice quality of videos that way and you'll be able to learn those two programs in a few days with no real problems.

So is Sony Vegas Pro pretty useless? I was told to get this by a forum member if I wanted to record videos :/.

Sony Vegas Pro is primarily a video editor. It can capture(record) from external sources, but I don't believe it can do screen capture like FRAPS. It can also author to DVD and Blu-Ray, but I presume you want to upload videos online. It has some codec support for compression. It can do much of what virtualdub can do, so you could use that instead if you want. I've never used Vegas, but I have used virtualdub.

You need a screen capture program to record video from games. There are a number of free alternatives to FRAPS.

XFire has nice quality, although the files end up being huge. I'm sure there are ways to record only a window, compress the video, etc, but I don't use it much.

XFire is free of couse.

I personally use Vegas 6.0 (yeah, oooold version!) and fraps.
Ahh, I can't really think of much else to tell you about them, but I will say this; make an effort to record voice on your videos. Even if it's added in post production.

If I see walls of text appearing on a video tutorial and some music playing, I switch off. If someone's talking to me, I want to listen.

Indeed xfire has never steered me wrong in terms of video quality...

running guild wars at max settings the file size may be huge..but you have to expect that....

While I haven't seen what fraps can do...just hit up xfire.com and take a look at some of the video's there...just keep in mind not all of them may be running at max graphics and such...

Fraps files are huge too. Problem is that both of them dump uncompressed video to disk at around 3Gig for every 3-4 minutes.

OP: I'm guessing you want something that looks like this: Link (Ignore the subject matter)

Few tips:

• If you don't want your video to look horribly blurry you need to set up your capture engine to full size. Game graphics to full
  
• Make sure your hard drive can cope. Laptop drives generally cant. Try recording for a bit - if your game looks really stuttery then thats what you're getting on file (as seen a few times in the video I linked). If you're recording on a laptop, I found sending video files to an external hard drive helps enormously.
  
• Work with Youtube. It can take 4-5 goes before an upload looks the way you want it to.
  
• Consider getting a new hard drive if you're going to take this seriously. You'll be able to keep all your footage and project files regardless of an unexpected install. 1 Tb drives aren't that much these days and will keep you going for a looooong time.
  
• Check codecs. I've had real issues with codecs that it can use that will work well with Adobe Premier (which is my video editor of choice). DivX or XVid are just the wrong format to compress with and make the program very hard to use as Adobe has to decode the files to a format it can use before doing anything with it (they aren't actually supported video types). Sony Vega may not have this problem, but its worth investigating. I ended up using uncompressed footage for the most part when I was editing.
  
• Consider ditching Fraps audio for another program. That way you won't need to keep 2 files if you get the actions right on one take and get the audio perfect on another. Ventrilo (set up a recording bot in another copy) and Audacity (both free) work great.

Hope that helps some.

Very helpful everyone thank you heeps!

Tasha do you mind telling me what software you use? Your videos are pretty much exactly what I want mine to be looking like. Just bought this new comp and its fairly high end so I'm pretty sure it can handle this.

I've been doing quite a bit of GW video lately (for a project I will release some time in the future.) I've spent many hours trying different approaches and different formats to come up with a decent workflow. I'm quite happy with the way things are going right now. I'll share my experience...

* First, I've been a Vegas user from way back when it was a Sonic Foundry program. Like you, I am using the latest version of Sony Vegas 9 Pro.

* My computer is a modest 3GHz Pentium running Win XP with 1GB RAM.

* I normally play GW in 1600x1200 on an NVidia 6600 GPU.

* I've been a Fraps user for many years.

Now, it's nice that you want good quality, but don't go overboard. If you're going to share your videos via YouTube, or even burn a standard DVD (at 720x480) you will be wasting disk and CPU with extremely high resolutions.

If you've got the disk space and processing power, then knock yourself out, but editing a HD video project can be frustrating if you're not prepared going in.

For me, I decided I would work in 800x600. I set GW graphics to 800x600 with anti-aliasing all the way up (4x). For my purposes I turn off the interface completely. For your tutorials you'll probably want the interface but you can at least turn off many unnecessary elements. (Yes, 800x600 doesn't look as wonderful as 1600x1200 but I got used to it.)

Next you'll need a capture program. Fraps is pretty much the standard here. The free version is too limited for your needs. Buy the full version. If you can afford Sony Vegas Pro you can certainly afford the modest price for Fraps.

I set Fraps to capture full video at 30fps (it captures audio too.)

Now, Fraps creates very large files. At 800x600, it takes about 1GB for 2 minutes of video. Fraps main purpose is to capture the video with minimal interference in the performance of the game. It is not going to spend precious CPU cycles doing tight compression. Fraps will do a modest amount of quick compression. The resulting capture is quite decent.

Fraps create its files with a .avi wrapper using its own codec. When you install Fraps, it will install the codec to decode its files. Sony Vegas will have no trouble opening and playing Fraps files.

Be warned that media players might stutter a bit playing Fraps videos due to the sheer size of the files and the need to read a lot of data from the disk. However, the problem is not with the video file.

Once you've done some video captures (and created 1 or more Fraps files) you'll need to go through them and decide what to keep and what to throw away. It may take several takes in GW to get just the right thing to happen. Much of your captured video is not going to make it into the final project.

Since these files are large and starting to eat up your drive, this is a good place to do some initial editing.

You can, of course, use Vegas to do this. But at this stage, I found it quicker to use VirtualDub. VirtualDub is a handy video utility designed specifically to handle .avi files. It is a free download (google for it).

In VirtualDub you can open one of your Fraps files. You then browse through the video and select parts you want to keep. Then output a new Fraps file with just those parts without recompressing or generational loss (by using "direct stream copy" feature.) This is done by passing each video frame in its "raw" form to the output file without decoding and re-encoding. (This is important to note that the installed Fraps codec does NOT provide a Fraps encoder - only a decoder.)

Now your video clips are ready for serious editing in Vegas. Or are they?

On my modest system, Vegas can work with the large Fraps files reasonably well. You may well choose to work directly with the Fraps files on your Vegas timeline.

In my case, I wanted something more compact without sacrificing visual quality. I ended up using the Cineform codec.

An earlier version of Cineform used to come with Vegas but Sony is no longer licensed to distribute Cineform with Vegas. Shame, because it is an absolutely wonderful codec. It looks great (even at it's lowest quality setting). The files are typically less than 1/2 the size of Fraps files. And they're light as a feather on the timeline. Vegas just breezes along with Cineform video.

So I use VirtualDub to quickly convert my Fraps files to Cineform. (Cineform, like Fraps, uses the .avi wrapper.) VirtualDub can work with Cineform if you have the Cineform codec installed.

Unfortunately, the cheapest entry level package that gives you the Cineform encoder is Cineform NeoScene for $129. I've seen it offered for $99. The Cineform decoder can be downloaded for free. (Google for Cineform.) NeoScene comes with an application for capturing and encoding videos from HD camcorders. You might find that useful if you have a camcorder. However, the real reason to get it is for the codec. For my purposes, I don't regret spending the money on it.

Once in Vegas, considering rendering your project to .mp4 (use Sony AVC templates) or .wmv (use Window Media Video templates). These are pretty good delivery formats. Also, if you want standard DVD you'll render to .mpg (use the Main Concept MPEG-2 templates that come with Vegas.)

Vegas itself is a very powerful and can produce high quality results but it doesn't happen just automatically. I found various Vegas forums extremely helpful. Take some time to look through them:

Sony Vegas forum: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/....asp?forumid=4

Creative Cow:
http://forums.creativecow.net/sonyvegas

Another nice Vegas forum:
http://www.jetdv.com/vegas/forum/index.php

At DVinfo:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/what-happens-vegas/

Good luck!

Fraps and Adobe Premier Pro CS4. I used VirtualDub for a while but found the compression did more harm than good when it came to working with files. (I'll happily admit this was down to my inability to find a codec that I could export to that would work well with Adobe. I'm aware of a Panasonic codec that will do the job but couldn't get it to work)

My main PC is a Quad core Intel Q660 with 4 Gigs ram and a Nvidia 290x graphics card. My laptop is horrible by comparison - Dual core, 2 Gig RAM and 8400M graphics chip. Both record equally well - the only thing is I have to direct Fraps to dump its files onto an external drive on the Laptop or I get the stuttering I spoke of earlier. Adobe works on both machines, its just a lot faster to encode on the main one.

Oh and one last thing - export to H264 where possible. You'll get a better picture than to normal .avi files. I have a really high res (usually 1080p), a low res and a youtube version of all my films.

If you get stuck at any point feel free to PM me.

I use Fraps for capture, like most everyone else in this thread.

VirtualDub is useful if you need some simple video management tasks; compression, trimming, resizing and the like. There are mods which aid working with a video's integrated audio as well, like saving the integrated sound to its own audio file.

For working with multiple files; editing and mixing etc, I use Sony Vegas. I've found it a relatively intuitive program, and is good for mixing and blending multiple video files, audio files and pictures, with useful blending, and cross-fading tools, and a clear graphic timeline.

For audio manipulation, i use Audacity. Free and very versatile

Especially if someone decides that everyone wants to listen to some crap thrash metal while watching a video.
(Even the music in Tasha's video gets annoying real fast.)

I would suggest, especially if you plan to add narration, that you don't add any music at all, except perhaps for in-game music.

Uhm, with english not being my first language, I wouldn't find helpful any tutorial that is not understandable without sound (I find understanding the pronounced sentences much harder then written ones), so I'd say that any tutorial aimed to help as much people as possible should contain at least some basic text.

Record video with Fraps. Then edit the video using Sony Vegas. I highly recommend Sony Vegas because its a very good video editing app for Windows.

Render the video and upload it. Simple.

Hey guys, managed to get it all sorted at the moment (:D) but having the stupidest problem. I'm using Sony Vegas Pro, and I did a test audio which I got to overtake the audio of Guild Wars that fraps recorded, but when I recorded my real audio with me giving instructions I can't seem to get it to go over the Guild Wars Audio. So pretty much I cant hear myself on the track because the recorded audio is underneath the in game sounds of Guild Wars.

Long story short, how do I get my voice recorded audio to play over the Guild Wars sounds audio?

Just to clarify: You want to mix your voice audio with the background GW together in one audio track? Or do you want to replace the Guild Wars background with just the voice track?

You can mix 2 audio tracks with Audacity, and VirtualdubMod can replace audio easily. No idea how to do it in Vegas.

Mix would be preferable. I know you can do it in vegas because I somehow fluked into doing it >.<; just needing to know what I did!

If you put your voice file onto a new audio track (right click on the track areas to the left) then you can hear both sets of audio.
Aaaand if you hover your mouse at the very top of the audio track and drag it down, you'll lower the volume on it. You can also change the volume on the left hand side, in the track areas. There's a sliding bar.

I'll see if I can come up with a screenshot...

/edit - here we go



I like thrash metal...

It doesnt matter how much I lower the volume on one, the Guild Wars sounds take priority over my recording and for some reason makes my recording go totally mute. I need a way for them both to play at the same time. I know it's possible because I fluked it at some point.

Odd, I've never had that problem myself.
A couple of suggestions, have you got seperate audio tracks for game sound and commentary?
If you have, try un-grouping the video from the game sounds and see if that helps. Mind you, be careful when doing this, if you move either track, it could go out of sync.
Have you accidentally pressed the mute button on either track? That's the strikethrough sign kinda thing.

Other than that I'm stumped

The audio for the Game sounds and the video are not seperate, and I don't really wanna move them because that will make them out of sync. Also neither of the sounds are muted. I have a very short 10 second introduction on what the video is about before the video actually plays, and with that my voice actually goes perfectly. But as soon as the video comes up all you can hear is the in game sounds.

I would advise re-recording your commentary and adding it in afterwards. I always try and do this because I can't think of what I'm trying to say when I'm busy playing the game, heh.
If you could post a screenshot of what it is you're looking at in Vegas then it would help.

Audio tracks don't have "priority" in Vegas the way video tracks do. They simply mix together.

As someone already said, a screenshot would help a lot.

I gather from your description that you have a spoken introduction that I assume you recorded separately from the video. That this introduction has its own wave file and sits on its own track in Vegas timeline (separate from the audio track for the game.) You should be hearing it unless it is muted or the that the other audio track is being soloed.

Heres a pic of what is going on.

Added a This bit plays to point out that that bit of my voice plays in the box that doesnt intersect with the video, but as soon as they meet it stops:

It doesn't look like there's any sound output at all. If you compare my screenshot of the audio bars, you can see the wave forms that indicate sound.

Simple solution, re-record it. Play with settings until you can hear yourself.
Or, record audio using a seperate program running at the same time. (i.e. audacity, but I don't know how to use that personally.)

I think you'd be best off trying again until you find the right settings to record sound correctly. Once the raw file sounds ok, stick it in Vegas, fine tune the video and render.

I have gone to the raw sound file and have listened to it. It is all there so I'm sure I recorded it correctly. The first part of it plays in that box that doesnt have any video but bam video kicks in and I cant hear my recording.

There must be a way to fix this T_T; I know my recording is fine I just need both to play at the same time.

Ok, the very last thing I can think of here is that the voice and the game sound is on the same track.
If they're in the same raw file, then I have NO idea. If they're seperate, then you've put them on the same line.

Again, see example:


I never have audio problems like this because I record my commentary seperately, later on.

Normally I don't record game sound at all anyway, but it's just easier to manage. If you want to see the video I keep posting pics of, just ask.

My voice recording was done after I recorded the ingame footage and sound. So it is likely I have put it in on the same track. How do I separate it?

Delete the stuff from your timeline and re-add it. Yes you'll lose the fades but you'll be able to do it properly this time.
Like I said, right click on the left hand side of the tracks and select "add audio track". Put your voice file on that one and you should be good.

I <3 you!

Alright it all works now, had to add in another audio track xD. I'm rendering it now, thank you so much everyone lawd I'm glad I finally got this working. Would have been guttered dropping the $50 onto fraps if it didn't work >.<;.

fraps is just a recording software. it doesn't allow you to do any editing whatsoever.

btw, can vegas pro actually record? i've never noticed that feature if it could.

Welcome from me, was waiting for a "hoorah!"-type post here

Nope Vegas cant record, didn't realize that when I first got it >.<;.

Yay for victory!

Yes, that is how Vegas works. When you have two overlapping audio clips (called "events") on the same track, the first event will fade into the second event at point where they overlap. That makes it easy to put together a series of seamless cuts - but its not "mixing".

To have two overlapping audio events play at the same time, they must be on separate tracks. You can then adjust the volume slider each track to get the mix you want.

Here's a handy shortcut: Just click and drag one of the audio events (such as your narration) to a blank area beneath your current audio track and Vegas will automatically create a new audio track. Saves a few mouse clicks.

You can have almost an unlimited number of audio and video tracks.

I record with Vegas all the time. If you have a sound card with audio inputs, Vegas can record from them.

Vegas just doesn't capture in-game video the way Fraps does.

(Back in the early days, Vegas started out as a full-fledged recording studio application with limited video handling. Once Sony acquired it from Sonic Foundry, it became more centered around video production. Although I enjoy doing the occasional video project with Vegas, I mostly use it for audio alone.)