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Let's Talk About Recording / Streaming Software

To be fair, streaming 1080p and 60fps aint nothin to sneeze at!

Oh no doubt about that but let's be honest, Twitch struggles with even 480p at 30FPS. Those popular streaming sites have turned to shit over the past year. When you start asking around it seems to be a pretty popular opinion. So much buffering and stuttering, seems to get really bad for Europeans.
 
Just wanted to chime in and say that you can use OBS to record locally too.

czOw1NK.png


It makes .mp4s with ok quality settings by default and I followed a guide on their forum to make them better quality. I've also used Afterburner with great results.
 
Oh no doubt about that but let's be honest, Twitch struggles with even 480p at 30FPS. Those popular streaming sites have turned to shit over the past year. When you start asking around it seems to be a pretty popular opinion. So much buffering and stuttering, seems to get really bad for Europeans.

I get none at all... But then again I'm with 60 MBPS :P
 
I get none at all... But then again I'm with 60 MBPS :P

If you have more than 10Mbit/s then speed isn't the problem anymore. It's their shitty servers and you just have to be lucky and get connected to a good one. For me this rarely happens and I can get stutter on 360p with my 114Mbit connection.

When I was doing some testing to setup a stream, my friend got constant stuttering and freezing on Twitch. I didn't change a single thing but switched to Ustream and it was silky smooth for him.

Twitch just have to invest in better servers to handle all the load. I don't even want to think about how it will be when the consoles launch and have streaming to Twitch at everyones fingertips.

Under Windows 8 with Lagarith, Dxtory isn't working for me. It starts an empty contain but it always stays at 0 bytes, like nothing is being recorded. When ending the recording it disappears. Not that it matters since I'm not using it any longer, just wanted to test it out.

Huh, I'm using Dxtory with Lagarith under Win 8 now and I'm having no problems with it. I'm currently uploading a video with BF4 gameplay that I recorded to test out the RawCap now that I got an extra drive to record to. I went a little crazy with the settings, so I recorded it at 1440p and rendered at 50Mbps just for the heck of it. 4,3GB for an 11 minute video. Totally overkill but fuck that, I just want to see how it will look on youtube. Only about an hour to upload anyway.
 
Huh, I'm using Dxtory with Lagarith under Win 8 now and I'm having no problems with it. I'm currently uploading a video with BF4 gameplay that I recorded to test out the RawCap now that I got an extra drive to record to. I went a little crazy with the settings, so I recorded it at 1440p and rendered at 50Mbps just for the heck of it. 4,3GB for an 11 minute video. Totally overkill but fuck that, I just want to see how it will look on youtube. Only about an hour to upload anyway.

Posting here, as well...more relevant thread - Dxtory/Win8/Lagarith isn't working too great for me. I get pretty horrible performance/choppy video and I've got a 4930K and 3 TITANS. I wonder if it's because of SLI? That's one thing Sethos and I have in common. Action! on the other hand, worked perfectly...but after shelling out $37 for Dxtory I'd prefer not to spend more. Teaches me to buy before I try!!!

EDIT: I have "Enabled Multi GPU Fixed Code" checked in Dxtory.

Just wanted to chime in and say that you can use OBS to record locally too.

czOw1NK.png


It makes .mp4s with ok quality settings by default and I followed a guide on their forum to make them better quality. I've also used Afterburner with great results.


EDIT: I get a blank output when I capture with OBS...haha. Just no luck. I used the guide that spode linked above.
 
That's the thing with Dxtory, it seems to be getting increasingly 'all over the place'. Xyber can record just fine, I get an empty output while you get terrible performance.

( You should have listened to me in the first place sk3tch :P )
 
That's the thing with Dxtory, it seems to be getting increasingly 'all over the place'. Xyber can record just fine, I get an empty output while you get terrible performance.

( You should have listened to me in the first place sk3tch :P )

LOL, I know...but Xyber's video on YouTube got me all jacked and Dxtory looked like the popular choice...then I checked it out and it is developed by Japanese peeps in some back alley...I could I say no!? BTW - how do you make those cool GIFs?

I will probably buy Action! too - but I am determined to get Dxtory to work, at least. If anyone wants to join in my Dxtory troubleshooting fun: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=86255506&postcount=1744. :)
 
I'm pretty happy with Sethos' recommendation of Action!. Easy to use, filesizes are manageable, quality is good and most importantly there's no significant performance dip while recording.

Unfortunately, the file sizes are still too big for me to upload so I'm trying to figure out how to effectively use virtualdub + x264vfw to encode them. The default settings seem to encode at a lower quality than I'd like and if I try changing them around I start getting empty files. Does anyone know of a good forum/tutorial where I can learn this stuff properly?

edit - random side note. I found out that Action! was greenlit on Steam last year and it still hasn't been released. The last communication from the developers was back in February so it's safe to assume they've given up on the idea now. Bit unfortunate because they said they'd give purchasers a Steam key for free as well. The reason it's not up is probably because Steam has issues running 2 apps at once (it works but how to give the game priority over the recording app etc.)
 
Have you guys ever tried FFSplit for streaming? It's inferior to OBS in terms of stability, scene composition, and plug-in selection, but it lets you record locally with different settings than you're using to stream, which comes in handy for games that don't like it when you use multiple DirectX hooks. Its Twitch.tv integration is also very easy and straightforward, which might be nice for people who are new to streaming.
 
sk3tch said:
EDIT: I get a blank output when I capture with OBS...haha. Just no luck. I used the guide that spode linked above.
Have you tried the 3 alternatives for 'source' (Game Capture, Window Capture / Monitor Capture). From what I've understood Game Capture is the most efficient one but some games simply don't work with it. Also try disabling Aero if you're using windows 7. There's a checkbox for it in the OBS settings somewhere.

The guide I linked is just for increasing quality of recorded videos, not really a how-to on File Output recording.
 
Have you tried the 3 alternatives for 'source' (Game Capture, Window Capture / Monitor Capture). From what I've understood Game Capture is the most efficient one but some games simply don't work with it. Also try disabling Aero if you're using windows 7. There's a checkbox for it in the OBS settings somewhere.

The guide I linked is just for increasing quality of recorded videos, not really a how-to on File Output recording.

Ah ha! That worked. Thank you! That was the step that I was missing. It looks pretty good. Not awesome quality but definitely real nice for the size.
 
Unfortunately, the file sizes are still too big for me to upload so I'm trying to figure out how to effectively use virtualdub + x264vfw to encode them. The default settings seem to encode at a lower quality than I'd like and if I try changing them around I start getting empty files. Does anyone know of a good forum/tutorial where I can learn this stuff properly?
Are you doing multipass encoding? I don't think the first pass actually encodes anything to the file.

Have you guys ever tried FFSplit for streaming? It's inferior to OBS in terms of stability, scene composition, and plug-in selection, but it lets you record locally with different settings than you're using to stream, which comes in handy for games that don't like it when you use multiple DirectX hooks. Its Twitch.tv integration is also very easy and straightforward, which might be nice for people who are new to streaming.
Last I checked, FFSplit still didn't support capture cards at all, so it's useless to me.

XSplit also allows you to stream and record with different settings simultaneously. In fact, it's the main reason I haven't seriously considered switching to OBS yet.
 
Are you doing multipass encoding? I don't think the first pass actually encodes anything to the file.

Yea I did try multipass with 1 pass. I assumed that it wouldn't count the first pass where it evaluates the file because what's the point of giving the option for just an evaluation pass? I read somewhere that going for multiple passes doesn't significantly increase the quality and that I'd have to do it multiple times or something so I didn't bother.
 
Yea I did try multipass with 1 pass. I assumed that it wouldn't count the first pass where it evaluates the file because what's the point of giving the option for just an evaluation pass? I read somewhere that going for multiple passes doesn't significantly increase the quality and that I'd have to do it multiple times or something so I didn't bother.
If you do multipass encoding, the 1st pass produces an empty video file and a stats file. On the 2nd pass, the stats file is used to properly encode the video.
 
I am trying to use Lagarith Lossless with MSI Afterburner. But when installing Lagarith Lossless it goes instantly through the actual install part in a flash of a second and says it has succeeded.

Can I check whether it is installed correctly? Because I do not think so and do not see it listed in the dropdown menu with the external codecs of MSI afterburner.

I have Windows 8.1, maybe it does not work there?
 
So yeah, this thread basically showed me the error of still using Fraps for capture (yes, really). That said, Expression Encoder is powerful enough to convert that raw capture into anything and has a convenient interface to go with it. Except afaik it can't do splitting without reencoding, for which I've taken to Avidemux.

For those who might also have been wondering about that last bit.
(the other unmentioned program being Audacity, which is also free, yay)
 
I am trying to use Lagarith Lossless with MSI Afterburner. But when installing Lagarith Lossless it goes instantly through the actual install part in a flash of a second and says it has succeeded.

Can I check whether it is installed correctly? Because I do not think so and do not see it listed in the dropdown menu with the external codecs of MSI afterburner.

I have Windows 8.1, maybe it does not work there?
Just checked it for you. Select VFW as the video format and hit the "..." button next to it. Select the Lagarith codec there.


MSI Afterburner 3.0.0 Beta 16 was released with some nice features such as prerecording.
Change notes:


  • Added prerecording support to video capture engine. Two different prerecording modes are available to the client applications:
  • Prerecord to a temporary file. This mode suits best for prerecording long videos (e.g. 10 minutes or more of H.264 video)
    or for prerecording videos with low compression ratio (e.g. lossless Lagarith video)
  • Prerecord to RAM. This mode suits best for prerecording short videos (e.g. a couple minutes of H.264 video) and it
    provides a bit better performance than prerecord to file. Also, unlike prerecord to file, prerecord to RAM minimizes
    writes so it can increase the lifetime of SSD if you plan to use the prerecording frequently
  • Improved muxer architecture with better extendibility makes it much easier to add new video containers support in future versions
  • Fixed incorrect minutes being shown in video capture timer in On-Screen Display for videos longer than 1 hour
  • Updated profiles list

More at: Guru3D
 
So yeah, this thread basically showed me the error of still using Fraps for capture (yes, really). That said, Expression Encoder is powerful enough to convert that raw capture into anything and has a convenient interface to go with it. Except afaik it can't do splitting without reencoding, for which I've taken to Avidemux.

For those who might also have been wondering about that last bit.
(the other unmentioned program being Audacity, which is also free, yay)

Well, Audacity only records audio. I love the program, but it would not really fit there.

Just checked it for you. Select VFW as the video format and hit the "..." button next to it. Select the Lagarith codec there.


MSI Afterburner 3.0.0 Beta 16 was released with some nice features such as prerecording.


More at: Guru3D

Ah thanks! I know little about codecs so could not find it.
 
What would you guys recommend as a mid range/hobbyist video editing software. Which basically means more functionality than Windows Movie Maker but doesn't cost $700 like Premiere Pro and the likes. I see Premiere Elements costs $99. Does anyone have any experience with that? Or any other recommendations?
 
What would you guys recommend as a mid range/hobbyist video editing software. Which basically means more functionality than Windows Movie Maker but doesn't cost $700 like Premiere Pro and the likes. I see Premiere Elements costs $99. Does anyone have any experience with that? Or any other recommendations?

You could try the free Lightworks, I think it has a paid version too so you can try that out. Apparently it is a bit complicated though.
 
What would you guys recommend as a mid range/hobbyist video editing software. Which basically means more functionality than Windows Movie Maker but doesn't cost $700 like Premiere Pro and the likes. I see Premiere Elements costs $99. Does anyone have any experience with that? Or any other recommendations?

Sony has some cheaper alternatives to Vegas, definitely worth checking out.
 
Picked up Xsplit license early when it was cheap.
Almost up though, been using OBS though the interface is still super basic.

Xsplit is a resource hog, OBS is extremely light, but nowhere near as robust in changing things on the fly and far less user friendly.

Curious to see how shadowplay works.
 
Picked up Xsplit license early when it was cheap.
Almost up though, been using OBS though the interface is still super basic.

Xsplit is a resource hog, OBS is extremely light, but nowhere near as robust in changing things on the fly and far less user friendly.

Curious to see how shadowplay works.

You could give FFSplit a go and see how you like that, also free and has been working well for me when I tried it.
 
Apologies for bumping, but seeing as there's no other thread to post this in and I'm a junior, I'll post it here.

AMD users can (now) record videos with hardware acceleration using AMDs very own VCE (Video Codec Engine). It's AMDs hardware encoding and decoding technology which can be used in a similar way as NVIDIAs ShadowPlay.

So which GPUs/APU's are supported?
You can find a list on AMDs blog here.
Here's a picture of it which will get out of date at some point.
supported-gpus2yuvg.jpg


What do I need?
Recording software that allows you to set up your own codecs such as DXtory and MSI Afterburner
OpenEncodeVFW

How do I set it up?
- Download the ZIP and extract it somewhere.
- Run install.bat with administrator rights.
- Open up your recording software and choose OpenEncodeVFW Encoder using Amd APP/VCE as the codec and configure it

Don't go too crazy with the settings. Here's what I'm using as a reference with my R9 280X. I haven't tweaked it yet, but the results are pretty good already.
vce-settingsktuof.jpg
 
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