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FRAPs and other Video Recording Software
Dragim
Member UncommonPosts: 867
Hey all, I have always been interested in recording in-game footage of my exploits (not literally exploiting) and have recently looked into fraps.
I have been playing planetside, and was wanting to show some of the bigger, more fun battles I have been involved in, but upon recording, I notice that these recordings take up a massive amount of space.
Granted---I have a 2 TB drive my movies are being saved on, but an 8 minute FRAPs video is like 4 gigs?
I am new to the whole video recording thing, so is this normal for an 8 minute video? I would assume so, since well, that's what my computer tells me, but still found it odd that the size of the 8 minute movie was so large.
I was just thinking about movies that you stream, like Zune of Netflix off of my xbox and some are about 3 gigs, for an entire movie.
Granted--I am sure they use sophisticated technology and perhaps change the type of file from (just a random example) a JPG to a VFI. (I understand these aren't proper terms for movies and JPG is a picture thing)
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So is it just FRAPs that makes the movies large, or is there a way for me to convert them to take up less space? Also-- when uploading to youtube, if the size is like 8gigs, will youtube allow uploads that big?
I suppose I can just check myself later, but was just curious.
I am entitled to my opinions, misspellings, and grammatical errors.
Comments
Dxtory is best I found you can set tons of differn't encoding codecs and play with all the settings you want for in-game recording. Fraps sucks imho for video recording since you will have to re-encode the video afterwards anyway.
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
The size of your file once recorded is uncoded, it a RAW file from fraps. So the file sizes are indeed large, because it's lossless. So it tends to be very good if you wish to edit the files alot for a montage or mini movie.
There are other programmes you can use like Bandicam that actually encode the file as it records and makes them much much smaller.
The files you watch on places like youtube and so fourth are not the RAW files from fraps, those are then compressed into the MB size files you watch [avi example] so they're easier to upload. Game related movies you watch online recorded with fraps are then edited in Sony Vegas and redered into a MWP/youtube HD [examples] file so they're nice and small to upload.
If you're after small file sizes for minimal editing or no editing with preprgrammed presets for youtube and so fourth then Bandicam is what you're looking for. DxTory is a much more indepth software that offers things like multiple audio tracks and lossless files [like Fraps] which is much better for editing and creating impressive montages.
There are times when one must ask themselves is it my passion that truly frightens you? Or your own?
So, is it relatively easy to encode things then?
If I have fraps and multiple movies I want to splice parts together to make a montage as posted, do I need another type of video editing software to do this?
Or if perhaps I just wanted to merely encode the video to make it smaller without splicing or cutting, do I need a special type of software to do this?
Unfortunately (well, sorta) I already bought FRAPs thinking it was the best one to use, but i suppose I could buy bandicam as well, but hate to waste the money I already spent on Fraps.
Thanks everyone for your replies.
I am entitled to my opinions, misspellings, and grammatical errors.
With FRAPs, you can go into the settings and change the video capture settings to cut down the file sizes. Go to half-size instead of full size. Don't record sound, if you feel you don't need it. Or just use stereo sound instead of multi-channel.
I use FRAPs and agree that their file sizes are immense, but that gives you better raw quality to work with later. It is the encoding when you manipulate the video that cuts down on the file size. That still gives you 720HD quality. (I think...)
Microsoft's MovieMaker is an adequate clip manipulator with some built in encoding choices. I use Sony Vegas, but that costs a pretty penny.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
http://designbeep.com/2010/06/17/20-free-screen-recording-tools-for-creating-tutorials-and-presentations/
go check this page out a presentation of screen recorder programs other than fraps theyre free as a bonus
used some when playin shareware demos not covered or supported by fraps and also recorded playin web browser puzzle games w em
(avnt done tht cause the programs cant seem to find my integrated soundcard for some reason)
edit:spell checked a lil n activated the link
When it comes to recording software you'll get a ton of different opinions. Here's Mine..
As you can see form the link in my signature I make videos on youtube.
For me 720 or 1080 is a must. I usually use 2 programs Bandicam or Fraps.
Fraps is nice, but its old. They used up until recently the older version of the avi codec and so their files were capped at 4 gigs and were epic. They've recently fixed the 4gig size limit, so you get one clip instead of 20 but the sizes are still insane.
Bandicam is another alternative. The quality is equal to fraps but the files are about 10 - 20% of the size. Fraps is about 1 gig per minute. Bandicam can is about 7 gigs per 20 mins. Bandicams files are small due to the way they encode the video. Only issue is the software isnt quite as user friendly as fraps and occasionally requires a bit of work.
Once you have your raw clips you can use just about anything to encode them and drastically drop the file sizes but that takes a lot of time and CPU. If you are pushing a ton of clips a week like myself, then bandicam is going to save you loads of time a week on encoding. If you are just doing it occasionally for fun then go with which ever software you enjoy more.
I've been using bandicam, it seems to work the best for me. The main reason I enjoy it the most is because I have a 3+ year old gaming computer, and when I record with fraps or playclaw it will slow my computer down way to much. While I'm able to record faster with bandicam and have higher quality with a small file size. I've also heard dxtory is great to use, but since I don't record that often, I haven't bothered to give it a go. My friends who have used it have said they like it more than bandicam, fraps and playclaw.
Greetings,
I just wanted to share a quick blurb about EpicRewind here:
EpicRewind is video capture software that has a key differentiating feature: RAM RollingBuffer mode. This works like an on-demand instant-replay: a game is hooked and the video is continuously buffered in system RAM, when something cool happens the user can save the buffer contents with the press of a hotkey. So rather than saving video from your entire gaming session you can just save the good stuff after it actually happens. In addition, EpicRewind provides some nice performance benefits over traditional capture software: video processing, encoding and writing to disk only happen when you choose to save a video clip. During video buffering, the contents of the framebuffer are just being copied to system memory X times per second based your specified capture FPS.
The base version is free and can be downloaded here:
http://epicrewind.com
Anyway, thanks for reading!