I was thinking I’d like to start positing some annotated matches on youtube. My plan is to play someone, get a quality match recorded, and then play the match in slow motion with commentary as I go, describing what I was thinking at each point in the match.
I was wondering if someone could help me with this (Insert obligatory F-U to backbone/capcom for not having replays here). How do people capture video? Using my camera to record on screen seems lame since I have a lame camera. Are there easy ways to directly capture TV or xbox output? Also I’d like to play the games locally so we don’t have lag problems and have the highest quality game.
I’d love some help with this. I haven’t seen anything like this on youtube and I think it would be really instructive.
A capture card will allow you to display TV inputs on your computer monitor and record them. You can probably find a real cheap one ($15~25) that’ll record composite video at 640x480. If you want better features (recording component video or HDMI in HD resolutions, or connectivity with a laptop, etc.) you’ll have to pay a lot more…
The one I use is here. It gets pretty lousy reviews (the cd key they gave me was invalid so I had to pirate the software, plus other inconveniences…) but it gets the job done for just $20. :v You’ll need a composite audio -> 3.5mm adapter if you get this one btw.
If you have a DVD recorder/player, you could just patch the AV cables into the recorder and then to your TV. If that might cause lag, then you could get split AV cables and patch one into the TV and DVD recorder. It should send the same signal to both and record whatever is on your TV.
I’d like to figure out the best way to do this too, so we can figure out a simple and high quality set-up for NWM. Preferably one that can be done on mulitple TV’s.
I sort of like it when I can hear the buttons being mashed and the players grunting/yelling during the match. That being said, I will have a 720P camera at my disposal within the next week, so that even if we film the TV, the picture quality will still be good. Unless the video camera is a piece of shit, which remains to be seen. The good thing is that you don’t have to encode anything, you just drag and drop everything off the camera. No tapes or dvds. Just a thought.
Zass (Dictator) vs Pablo (Gief), Fight of the Century. First to 100.
Pablo: If the quality on your camera is good, then that’s fine. Don’t you get refresh band problems with cameras, like when you get a dark band going up and down the screen?
sleaz: Thanks for the info. Do any seattle players have something like this? I’m kind of motivated to do this, and was hoping we could do something this week
I was under the impression that only CRT monitors gave off that crazy banding with refresh rates, could anyone clarify? I don’t have the camera yet, but I could test it out with my current camera on my plasma to see what’s up.
So I uploaded some vids. I highly recommend you watch them in high quality. No banding on the plasma which is nice. I got carried away and did hella, feel free to check my youtube page:
I warn you, some of these are HELLA gross. Usually I swear a lot more but I tried to keep it civil. Peep the MARIMOKKOSU matches, that dude is a beast.
Yeah, banding problems should only occur with CRTs. LCDs and plasmas have the entire screen lit at a time, instead of only having the pixel where the electron beam currently is at maximum brightness.
1: DVD Recorder with A/V splitter (as used at NWM 08)
Pros: On ready to watch DVD.
Cons: Standard Definition (up to 480p) only. Needs lots of equipment to set up. Uses DVDs. You’ll need software to upload video to youtube. You will need to split up files for multiple matches.
2: Digital Camera - I use a Sony Cybershot DSC-W80
Pros: Good quality. Portablity. Easy uploading to youtube. Can adjust quality settings (framerate/visual).
Cons: Poor zoom ability (3x to 5x). Can have limited picture quality depending on camera used. Low battery life.
3:Digital Camcorder - I use a Samsung Camcorder with up to 34x zoom. Uses memory card.
Pros: Excellent zoom. Great quality (framerate/visual). Ease of uploading to youtube. Portability.
Cons: Uses a bit of memory, but uploading files will reduce the quality of the visual but not the framerate (which is crucial).
I use the camcorder the most now.
Alternative method:
Dazzle Video Recorder for PC with A/V splitter
Pros: Hooks directly to your PC/Laptop. Uses HDD space.
Cons: Standard definition quality.
Other stuff - I use a program called psp video 9 which allows me to keep the framerate of the videos high but it downgrades the picture quality overall . This is generally what youtube does when videos are uploaded. Good thing to do if you want to upload videos faster.
I’m sure there’s a few things I might’ve missed but if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Julien I might have an external USB capture card you can use, but I think that you would need a splitter to actually play on the TV because it has some noticeable lag when you play on the PC with it.
O craaaaap!! LOL Pablo I had no idea you were recording me on youtube!! It makes me self conscious. LOL. Luckily nobody really takes my playing seriously plus it’s a bad habit to be self conscious during play, so yeah, I should never worry about such things. Dang I really need to work on “clutch”. I sometimes think about crap I shouldn’t. I wonder if Jason or anybody has any tips regarding that. Pablo you killed me in the second match up. Good games though man.
Pablo can I borrow your cam? We can make a session of it, get some quality games in and then I’ll try to annotate a good one – the goal here is not necessary to showcase a game where ZOMG I PWN3D THAT NUBS LULZ but instead show the decision making at each step.
anyone want to do some matches and record tomorrow? I think this weekend would be a good time to try to do one of these
Someone with a good camera? Pablo?
I support you