I had this problem when i used converters, however since your not using one, i would suggest using the default program:
My settings when using component were the following:
is there a device that can play and record in hd?
Should be like $50 for some devices but don’t depend on me for that.
Try using Avidemux for specific splitting.
I guess you want to play and record through a computer, no TV passthrough. Although I don’t know about the Blackmagic Intensity Pro providing those benefits but for the same price you can get the Spawn Labs HD-720. The process works through your network (doesn’t affect your broadband connection).
For example, you connect your console component cables to the HD-720’s input and plug the device to your router (via ethernet cable) then link your computer or laptop to the network. Now you are able to record and play on a computer at the same time in HD! The disadvantage thought is the 30 FPS max rate. Also lag can be a possible issue.
If you do get it, there is no actual software with it as it’s intended as a streaming solution for people who would want to play games while at another area. I guess FRAPS wouldn’t be a hassle.
Thanks, this works but for some reason when I cut out a clip, the sound doesn’t get copied, and I’m sure the original mpg file I recorded has sound.
I’ve been looking around with google but I can’t seem to find a solution.
Did you pick the audio encoder? Make sure everything on the left is set.
Well the short tut I found online said to just leave it as is. I tried a few settings, but I don’t know how or what to set it to.
For video I recommend MPEG-4 AVC and audio as MP3 (Lame).
to tell you the truth the caps come VERY clean. and on my LCD tv, when i play back the cap it looks just like it does while i’m actually playing, but on my pc monitor and some other peoples the cap looks a bit washed. might be just the monitor i’m using.
i’m going to see if graphedit has a color filter before encode - from what i’ve read the default drivers let you adjust the colors but don’t really do anything (drivers from hauppage).
here’s a test clip.
[media=youtube]eYQOOfB3VIo"[/media]
i’m very impressed with this little box (i’ll be modding it to run off usb power, 5v 2.0amp so i can have an almost complete portable solution for simple capturing on a laptop).
just a bit annoyed that i overpaid by like $40 from a local store, i didn’t want to wait for shipping from newegg.
@ Gasaraki:
I use to do ***lots ***of heavy editing and capturing cartoons and tv with crappy vid cards a few years ago before HD made our oldschool methods semi-obsolete.
My tools of choice are Avisynth+VdubMod+FFdshow (called ffdshow-tryouts now for the codec pack)
scripts and plugins to load video and audio into vdub at once without demuxing are very simple to use. let me know what your initial file format is and audio type and i’ll help you out as much as i can.
Sweet that worked! Thanks alot
A few more questions though, when I recorded my vid, there was a strange blurry bar at the bottom of the screen, how do I fix that? Also the recording program didn’t record it at exactly 4:3 for some reason, so how would I fix that as well?
I’ve seen people get much higher quality videos with the easycap, not HD or anything, but still alot clearer, how do I do that?
You can view it here to see what I’m talking about: [media=youtube]bfhEVF4hVnk[/media]
One more thing I noticed jsut now, Youtube drops the quality of your vids ALOT doesn’t it? anyway around that if anyone’s used it?
If you can help me with the other quality-related problems I’m having that would be sweet. The original video type i recorded in is mpg, I don’t know or know how to find out what the audio was lol. I’m assuming it’s the “encoder” though which is listed as “QDesign (guess)”
In the Filter section of Video, there should be a crop option. For recording were you trying to record in 4:3? Easycap and other similar devices are odd in aspect ratios.
For quality, I would recommend recording with a bitrate of about 5MBPS then lowering it to maybe 3MBPS on Avidemux. Resolution size on a 16:9 format, I would set it to either 640x360 or 853x480 but make sure your recording resolution 720x480.
After watching the video, I am gonna rewatch it again because the resolution settings are not showing unless you uploaded the file on 240p resolution.
Here is my test video using a very similar Easycap like device: [media=youtube]0g5DWZJmkDo[/media]
If you compare both 480p and 720p, there isn’t any obvious difference except for maybe bitrate but YouTube does weird stuff with compression.
Well I WOULD like to record in widescreen but it warped the recording. I guess I could have just recorded in widescreen then fixed it afterward though.
I’ll try your rec for quality though. Also is there an ideal file type to choose for the best ratio of quality to small file size?
The uploaded files are in 352 x 240, really weird looking numbers to me.
And yeah I agree with the last part, I can’t even see a difference in any youtube vid from 480 to 720
edit: actually can you recommend a good free recording program? I’m using the one that came with easycap but it seems kinda ass.
Well AVI or MP4 works but I believe the MPEG-4 AVC codec only works on AVI. That codec is also known as H.264 which is a really popular compression standard as it allows good quality at a lower bit rate in comparison to others.
For recording, I use VirtualDub. I plug my device and select Capture AVI from file. I then pick the device from the Device options. The compression encoder on VirtualDub is ffdshow. Finding a 32 bit version of ffdshow shouldn’t be a problem but 64 is a bit challenging (I can’t remember how I got and installed it). Ffdshow has H.264 and you can put your recording bit rate there too.
Er, when I try to record with virtual dub, the display screen of the window flips out and displays everything in green and inverts the image, among other things.
Edit: nm I figured out how to avoid that. but now I have another question. When I use VD to record, the recording file size is ENORMOUS much more so than the original 300~MB from the first video I posted. After less than 5 min it was already at 6GB. Am I doing something wrong or is this unavoidable for better quality?
Edit 2: whoops forgot to set the ffdshow encoder lol.
Uncompressed looks great! 
I was thinking of a way to record in 720p to save on file size and overhead when editing afterwards but the signal is 1080p.
If your screen is a native 1080p, as most are, does the blackmagic have the option to downscale that 1080p to 720p for recording but still pass through the 1080p signal to the screen?
I doubt this is the case, but it’s worth asking anyway. Otherwise it might be about getting a downscaler for about $400.
I agree, you need a pretty decent pc to start recording in fraps in larger resolutions with a decent frame rate.
I suggest you find and install an MJPEG codec. the MJPEG codec is pretty much MOTION JPEG, so instead of capturing in LOSSLESS AVI, you would be encoding to an already compressed format, but won’t lose much quality. you won’t notice much difference here at all.
MJPEG is perfect for stuff like cartoons, video games with vibrant colors etc… it was my codec of choice to capture in. from there i would encode to XviD which is a two part encoding process to hit a nice quality/filesize ratio. typicall, my 21 minute caps would come out to about 175megs with 192/cbr mp3 audio using LAME to encode.
FFDSHOW is a suite of codecs. I personally use VideoLan to playback all media so I never have anything installed on my main pc. my capturing pc i have ffdshow / ffdshow-tryouts installed. with XviD installed separately.
the TS files from my HD PVR seem to like getting encoded with XviD from the koepis xvid instead of the ffdshow encoder.
h/x.264 - AVCHD is usually for very high resolutions. I started capturing in 720p and 1080i a few days ago and this is the compressor of choice. very beautiful.
for your encodes, i would just recommend you stick to XviD - you will not notice any noticeable difference. do you have a raw sample you could upload to me? a simple 1 minute clip with lots of movement and audio would help me help you out.
so from capturing in raw MJPEG then cutting and converting to XviD you should be able to get some ***very ***decent encodes with the way you’re capturing now.
let me know.
Thanks for the tips. I’m not sure exactly what you mean by raw, like completely uncompressed?
Also I tried using that MJPEG codec in the ffdshow thing, but it dropped alot of frames and the sound is out of sync. My computer is not that great so yeah lol
I recorded one with mjpeg and uncompressed, do you have AIM or something I could send you the files through?
@ Gasaraki:
really? i use to record from a crapp 1.87GHZ desktop with 512RAM in MJPEG. I meant raw MJPEG as in just captured with MJPEG with no compression or postprocessing. complete RAWness would be in LOSSLESS avi, which is like so overwhelmingly oversized.
yeah i got aim - i’ll pm you my screen name.
But at the end it will be compressed already. I would get it over with by just recording in h.264. Just recording uncompressed for me is more of a hassle especially for long plays.