//www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/ Sat, 16 May 2026 02:59:58 +0000 MyBB //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1293 Mon, 17 Oct 2016 09:45:35 -0500 Jason]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1293 ]]> ]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1208 Fri, 26 Aug 2016 09:33:04 -0500 Jason]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1208 ]]> ]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1028 Wed, 20 Jul 2016 23:31:32 -0500 Jason]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1028


Get It Here]]>


Get It Here]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=959 Mon, 09 May 2016 17:53:40 -0500 Jason]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=959 ]]> ]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=731 Fri, 19 Jun 2015 12:08:25 -0500 Jason]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=731
Today I'll briefly go over a couple of the more common programs out there and maybe a couple you're not too sure about.


Windows Movie Maker

Or Windows Live Movie Maker or WMM or Movie Maker or whatever it's called these days is an easy one. If you've got Windows installed you probably already have it. It's been a staple of the home pc video group of software for years and will probably continue to be so because it just works and is pretty easy to use.

It has an interface that goes along with the basic windows themes so it's pretty easy to navigate. The newer version have a lot of presets and a handy "Recommended For This Project" button that will save your project to the mp4/wmv with the settings of your choosing and you can even make some custom save settings.

Editing is a little tricky on the new version as they've done away with the timeline view but it's not too bad. You can still add transitions, effects, animation, subtitles, voice overs, music tracks and all of that.

Bigger files sometimes do take a little longer to pre-render which can be a bit frustrating if you just need to get it done right then and there but that's not a "feature" that's available only on WMM.

Long story short, if you just need to covert some videos with light to moderate editing, this is a good way to go. And it's free. Can't beat the price.


VideoPad

From our good friends at NCH Software. The folks that bring us Prism to convert video and Debut to record it and about a hundred other tiny little programs we get VideoPad. It's their take on software like Camtasia, Vegas, Pinnacle and that other one I can never remember cause it never worked.

It's a slightly more feature rich environment than Movie Maker and can easily tie in with any other piece of NCH software and will download and install it right away if you need to do something VideoPad just can't. It doesn't have quite the range of options when it comes to effects, animations and transitions that Movie Maker has and it's not as friendly to work through but it does have the timeline view which I really like for editing.

It can save to just about any format you want with plenty of preset save options for frame rate, dimensions, bit rate and container. However some features are locked after the free trial period expires.

You can snag a copy at the NCH Software website and give it a test drive. The "Home Edition" will run you around $40 and the "Master Edition" for $70.

The Home Edition isn't as fully featured and doesn't support external plugins but if you're only looking for a little cropping, adding some backing tracks/voice overs and really like that timeline view... this is a good one.

Oh yeah, it's pretty lightweight too. Doesn't eat up a lot of resources.


Camtasia

This one I hear a lot of people rave about and I tried it for a while and it did do a pretty good job. I used it to do some of the editing on the Baten Kaitos videos you may have seen... the blurryness it should be said was not because of this software but of my own sillyness in recording. For a better idea of what it can do, look at the Smash TV video from Ragnatz and I.

It'll do everything and does it all pretty well. It has a lot more features when it comes to... well everything. Animations, transitions, effects, audio edition, multiple tracks, multiple video tracks. It's a force to be reckoned with.

However so is the price. You can expect to spend over $300 for this software. It's great... but it's not $300 great.


VirtualDub

Here's another standard. VirtualDub works more as an encoder/converter than an editor really. I use it to record my console game footage and do some final encoding if I'm adding a seperate audio track for voice over stuff. I also use it to resize and deinterlace video as it's got just about the best damn filters for that that I've ever seen. The cropping is also pretty excellent.

Where VirtualDub falls short for the average user however is in the editing department. It was built to work only with AVI files... thus if you download it right out of the box you can only open and save to the AVI format. Now I personally don't have a problem with that. Fraps records to AVI so it'll go fine there... and since I use VDub to record my footage it's an AVI there anyway. If you want to open other goodies though there are hundreds of plugin packs out there that will allow you to read just about any kind of file you can think of.

The interface falls a little short for the "power user" as well though. The editing is basically a crop or trim method without any type of transition/animation at all.

Still without the more advanced features like that it is a pretty powerful little (very tiny really) program and does an excellent job. I've been using it for final production work for a while and it'll do some batch processing which is super handy... though admittedly it was a little difficult to find out how to do some of the things in the program. Maybe I can make a tutorial.

Oh yeah, another downside is that it generally wants to save files in as lossless a format as possible. While that's not too bad the files can be quite HUGE so you may want to find your own AVI encoders like Xvid to run the files through to compress em down a bit.

Also... Free. As in money.


Wondershare Video Editor

This is a new one I recently came across and I gotta say... I'm pretty impressed. It bridges the gap between VideoPad and Camtasia. More features than VP and less then CamT but still plently able to do what you might need.

It has a lot of filters, transitions, animations, overlays and editing options.

It saves in a multitude of formats and can even upload directly to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, DailyMotion and make DVD ready files. I also like that it gives you an idea of how big the file will be before you save it so you can easily compare formats without having to save and check multiple times.

An easy to use interface that's pretty easy on the eyes, good quality output with good compression without loss of quality.

So far the few videos I made with it have looked just fine and the YouTube uploader worked pretty well too. I was able to upload a few test videos that went up as Private and they were ready to go without any issues at all.

Here's a nice thing too... while it's not free it is waaaaaaaay more affordable than Camtasia. You can get a one year "subscription" for $20. That gets you a license for a year and all the updates that come along in that time for $20. You can get the lifetime license for a minuscule $40.

When I compare this to VideoPad and Camtasia... this one is really the way to go. More features than VideoPad for less money... nearly the same functionality as Camtasia for almost 10% of the price. Don't take my word for it. There's a trial at their website. Right here as a matter of fact. Though the trial does put a huge watermark on the final product it's enough to see what it can do.


=======================================

That all being said... my current method of recording runs roughly as follows...

1. Video gets recorded either with Fraps on PC or VirtualDub if it's a console game. Audio will be recorded separately with GoldWave or later in post and be edited and cleaned up in GoldWave a well.
   
2. If the video is from a console, it will be processed with VirtualDub for any cropping and resizing that may be needed and it will always be deinterlaced.
   
3. Any editing that needs to be done to the video (i.e. cutting out battles or things like that) will be done either in Movie Maker, VideoPad or Wondershare. Currently it's been VideoPad but I'm going to move to Wondershare.
   
4. If the video is from a PC, the audio from said video will be processed through GoldWave with my commentary to create a single audio track with the voice over feature in GoldWave. This keeps me from having to get a second program like Audacity to auto duck the game audio.
   
5. After the audio has been processed the merged audio track will go into VirtualDub with the finalized video file where the new audio will be placed on top of the video. The final product is ready to go at that point. It will be saved and uploaded when ready.
   

]]>
Today I'll briefly go over a couple of the more common programs out there and maybe a couple you're not too sure about.


Windows Movie Maker

Or Windows Live Movie Maker or WMM or Movie Maker or whatever it's called these days is an easy one. If you've got Windows installed you probably already have it. It's been a staple of the home pc video group of software for years and will probably continue to be so because it just works and is pretty easy to use.

It has an interface that goes along with the basic windows themes so it's pretty easy to navigate. The newer version have a lot of presets and a handy "Recommended For This Project" button that will save your project to the mp4/wmv with the settings of your choosing and you can even make some custom save settings.

Editing is a little tricky on the new version as they've done away with the timeline view but it's not too bad. You can still add transitions, effects, animation, subtitles, voice overs, music tracks and all of that.

Bigger files sometimes do take a little longer to pre-render which can be a bit frustrating if you just need to get it done right then and there but that's not a "feature" that's available only on WMM.

Long story short, if you just need to covert some videos with light to moderate editing, this is a good way to go. And it's free. Can't beat the price.


VideoPad

From our good friends at NCH Software. The folks that bring us Prism to convert video and Debut to record it and about a hundred other tiny little programs we get VideoPad. It's their take on software like Camtasia, Vegas, Pinnacle and that other one I can never remember cause it never worked.

It's a slightly more feature rich environment than Movie Maker and can easily tie in with any other piece of NCH software and will download and install it right away if you need to do something VideoPad just can't. It doesn't have quite the range of options when it comes to effects, animations and transitions that Movie Maker has and it's not as friendly to work through but it does have the timeline view which I really like for editing.

It can save to just about any format you want with plenty of preset save options for frame rate, dimensions, bit rate and container. However some features are locked after the free trial period expires.

You can snag a copy at the NCH Software website and give it a test drive. The "Home Edition" will run you around $40 and the "Master Edition" for $70.

The Home Edition isn't as fully featured and doesn't support external plugins but if you're only looking for a little cropping, adding some backing tracks/voice overs and really like that timeline view... this is a good one.

Oh yeah, it's pretty lightweight too. Doesn't eat up a lot of resources.


Camtasia

This one I hear a lot of people rave about and I tried it for a while and it did do a pretty good job. I used it to do some of the editing on the Baten Kaitos videos you may have seen... the blurryness it should be said was not because of this software but of my own sillyness in recording. For a better idea of what it can do, look at the Smash TV video from Ragnatz and I.

It'll do everything and does it all pretty well. It has a lot more features when it comes to... well everything. Animations, transitions, effects, audio edition, multiple tracks, multiple video tracks. It's a force to be reckoned with.

However so is the price. You can expect to spend over $300 for this software. It's great... but it's not $300 great.


VirtualDub

Here's another standard. VirtualDub works more as an encoder/converter than an editor really. I use it to record my console game footage and do some final encoding if I'm adding a seperate audio track for voice over stuff. I also use it to resize and deinterlace video as it's got just about the best damn filters for that that I've ever seen. The cropping is also pretty excellent.

Where VirtualDub falls short for the average user however is in the editing department. It was built to work only with AVI files... thus if you download it right out of the box you can only open and save to the AVI format. Now I personally don't have a problem with that. Fraps records to AVI so it'll go fine there... and since I use VDub to record my footage it's an AVI there anyway. If you want to open other goodies though there are hundreds of plugin packs out there that will allow you to read just about any kind of file you can think of.

The interface falls a little short for the "power user" as well though. The editing is basically a crop or trim method without any type of transition/animation at all.

Still without the more advanced features like that it is a pretty powerful little (very tiny really) program and does an excellent job. I've been using it for final production work for a while and it'll do some batch processing which is super handy... though admittedly it was a little difficult to find out how to do some of the things in the program. Maybe I can make a tutorial.

Oh yeah, another downside is that it generally wants to save files in as lossless a format as possible. While that's not too bad the files can be quite HUGE so you may want to find your own AVI encoders like Xvid to run the files through to compress em down a bit.

Also... Free. As in money.


Wondershare Video Editor

This is a new one I recently came across and I gotta say... I'm pretty impressed. It bridges the gap between VideoPad and Camtasia. More features than VP and less then CamT but still plently able to do what you might need.

It has a lot of filters, transitions, animations, overlays and editing options.

It saves in a multitude of formats and can even upload directly to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, DailyMotion and make DVD ready files. I also like that it gives you an idea of how big the file will be before you save it so you can easily compare formats without having to save and check multiple times.

An easy to use interface that's pretty easy on the eyes, good quality output with good compression without loss of quality.

So far the few videos I made with it have looked just fine and the YouTube uploader worked pretty well too. I was able to upload a few test videos that went up as Private and they were ready to go without any issues at all.

Here's a nice thing too... while it's not free it is waaaaaaaay more affordable than Camtasia. You can get a one year "subscription" for $20. That gets you a license for a year and all the updates that come along in that time for $20. You can get the lifetime license for a minuscule $40.

When I compare this to VideoPad and Camtasia... this one is really the way to go. More features than VideoPad for less money... nearly the same functionality as Camtasia for almost 10% of the price. Don't take my word for it. There's a trial at their website. Right here as a matter of fact. Though the trial does put a huge watermark on the final product it's enough to see what it can do.


=======================================

That all being said... my current method of recording runs roughly as follows...

1. Video gets recorded either with Fraps on PC or VirtualDub if it's a console game. Audio will be recorded separately with GoldWave or later in post and be edited and cleaned up in GoldWave a well.
   
2. If the video is from a console, it will be processed with VirtualDub for any cropping and resizing that may be needed and it will always be deinterlaced.
   
3. Any editing that needs to be done to the video (i.e. cutting out battles or things like that) will be done either in Movie Maker, VideoPad or Wondershare. Currently it's been VideoPad but I'm going to move to Wondershare.
   
4. If the video is from a PC, the audio from said video will be processed through GoldWave with my commentary to create a single audio track with the voice over feature in GoldWave. This keeps me from having to get a second program like Audacity to auto duck the game audio.
   
5. After the audio has been processed the merged audio track will go into VirtualDub with the finalized video file where the new audio will be placed on top of the video. The final product is ready to go at that point. It will be saved and uploaded when ready.
   

]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=707 Wed, 27 May 2015 08:50:51 -0500 Jason]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=707
It's called BizHawk or EmuHawk depending on the window you've got open and it emulates... well pretty much everything as far as I can tell. I mean, just look at all the file types it's associated with here...


  emu.png (Size: 20.59 KB / Downloads: 22)

So far I've used it to test a couple different NES and SNES games and it's done the job just fine.

It's written in C+ (if I remember correctly), plays in a window but can go full screen, had a massive amount of options for controllers and hot keys that needed very little setup on my part, fraps grabs it no problem, it has two different built in recording options (normal movie file like avi/mp4 and standard emulator video), it can resize the video you're recording (oh how I wish I could have done that with ZSNES) and it's just been really solid. I don't know what else to tell you other than you need to try it.

Let's break it down a bit more though...

Pros

• It just works. So far everything I've thrown at it works and works well. It even played ActRaiser 2 which no other SNES emulator I've tried has managed to really do.
  
• It's lightweight. For an emulator that does so much you'd expect it to take a lot of resources to do it. I mean we're using software to mimic hardware and that's no easy task, but the program doesn't have a huge processor footprint and played everything fine with no slowdown*.
  
• Sound a graphics emulate fine. Again going back to ActRaiser 2, it was kinda fancy at the time. Had a lot of layers and mode7 stuff and there was nothing the emulator failed to do.
  
• Easy to customize controller and hotkey options. I like playing console games with my SNES controllers, it was a snap to setup.
  
• More options than you can shake a stick at in the Config menu. Normal things like sound, display and paths... but also firmware, cores for GB, NES and N64 modes. A whole "Toolbox" option that gives your virtual pads and macros. Lots of stuff here.
  

Cons

• Maybe it's just me but I had a hard time getting the thing to run in full screen the way I wanted it to. I'll have to tweek the options a bit more but they seem to be pretty limited when it comes to what I can and can't do to fill the screen up. This requires more research.
  
• Having such a variety of consoles to emulate I think there should be different "loadouts" for controller options. As an example, I like to use the L & R buttons and save/load state buttons on NES games. To do that here I actually have to go back and redefine the buttons everytime I load an NES/SNES game. Not a big issue but kinda annoying.
  
• Resizing the video as you record it is great with a built in recorder but that is where the processing power gets eaten up. Games become hardly playable if you want to resize it from the basic 256 x 244 size to even a 640 X 480. Not something you'd want to do for action games to be sure. However the resize does look REALLY nice when you do work with it. Again, this could be just me not being familiar enough with the settings to make it work the way it should.
  
• Almost too many options. Many that I'd never even think to use.
  
• Cheap Support not for the casual cheater. Maybe ZSNES spoiled me with it's cheat search method but the same method here is a bit weird. Also using a PAR code requires you to know what the address is and what the value are and input them on different lines. Not really too hard as the value's always gonna be the last two digits... but it does go away from the industry standard.
  

If there's any interest in this at all I'll put a video together and show a little bit of what it can do and all that. As of yet I haven't tried any of the disc image emulation but I'm almost positive that's going to be PS1 kinda stuff.]]>
It's called BizHawk or EmuHawk depending on the window you've got open and it emulates... well pretty much everything as far as I can tell. I mean, just look at all the file types it's associated with here...


  emu.png (Size: 20.59 KB / Downloads: 22)

So far I've used it to test a couple different NES and SNES games and it's done the job just fine.

It's written in C+ (if I remember correctly), plays in a window but can go full screen, had a massive amount of options for controllers and hot keys that needed very little setup on my part, fraps grabs it no problem, it has two different built in recording options (normal movie file like avi/mp4 and standard emulator video), it can resize the video you're recording (oh how I wish I could have done that with ZSNES) and it's just been really solid. I don't know what else to tell you other than you need to try it.

Let's break it down a bit more though...

Pros

• It just works. So far everything I've thrown at it works and works well. It even played ActRaiser 2 which no other SNES emulator I've tried has managed to really do.
  
• It's lightweight. For an emulator that does so much you'd expect it to take a lot of resources to do it. I mean we're using software to mimic hardware and that's no easy task, but the program doesn't have a huge processor footprint and played everything fine with no slowdown*.
  
• Sound a graphics emulate fine. Again going back to ActRaiser 2, it was kinda fancy at the time. Had a lot of layers and mode7 stuff and there was nothing the emulator failed to do.
  
• Easy to customize controller and hotkey options. I like playing console games with my SNES controllers, it was a snap to setup.
  
• More options than you can shake a stick at in the Config menu. Normal things like sound, display and paths... but also firmware, cores for GB, NES and N64 modes. A whole "Toolbox" option that gives your virtual pads and macros. Lots of stuff here.
  

Cons

• Maybe it's just me but I had a hard time getting the thing to run in full screen the way I wanted it to. I'll have to tweek the options a bit more but they seem to be pretty limited when it comes to what I can and can't do to fill the screen up. This requires more research.
  
• Having such a variety of consoles to emulate I think there should be different "loadouts" for controller options. As an example, I like to use the L & R buttons and save/load state buttons on NES games. To do that here I actually have to go back and redefine the buttons everytime I load an NES/SNES game. Not a big issue but kinda annoying.
  
• Resizing the video as you record it is great with a built in recorder but that is where the processing power gets eaten up. Games become hardly playable if you want to resize it from the basic 256 x 244 size to even a 640 X 480. Not something you'd want to do for action games to be sure. However the resize does look REALLY nice when you do work with it. Again, this could be just me not being familiar enough with the settings to make it work the way it should.
  
• Almost too many options. Many that I'd never even think to use.
  
• Cheap Support not for the casual cheater. Maybe ZSNES spoiled me with it's cheat search method but the same method here is a bit weird. Also using a PAR code requires you to know what the address is and what the value are and input them on different lines. Not really too hard as the value's always gonna be the last two digits... but it does go away from the industry standard.
  

If there's any interest in this at all I'll put a video together and show a little bit of what it can do and all that. As of yet I haven't tried any of the disc image emulation but I'm almost positive that's going to be PS1 kinda stuff.]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=702 Thu, 14 May 2015 18:52:08 -0500 Jason]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=702



So is it going to be as bad as all that? Maybe. Hard to say. It could be possible that there's still going to be a division of Konami that will focus on console stuff... that would be fine I suppose.

Normally I agree with most all that James here has to say in this videos but I gotta say, especially after our conversation about crowd funding, I really don't like the idea of the publishers coming directly to people to get the money to make the game. You can see more of my reasoning for this at the page there in that link but I will say if a company (Konami, Capcom, whoever) does go to crowd funding to get the money for a game... makes waaaaaaaay more than the goal is set for and then still demands full retail for the game (and probably a digital copy only if we're being honest with ourselves), I will walk away from that publisher faster than I did SquareEnix.

If you need $6 million to make a game (big time title here), and raise $30 million and still want people to pay $50+ for your game and not give them a physical copy of it... then I'm sorry... you're doing business right but the gaming business wrong and I cannot and will not support that.]]>



So is it going to be as bad as all that? Maybe. Hard to say. It could be possible that there's still going to be a division of Konami that will focus on console stuff... that would be fine I suppose.

Normally I agree with most all that James here has to say in this videos but I gotta say, especially after our conversation about crowd funding, I really don't like the idea of the publishers coming directly to people to get the money to make the game. You can see more of my reasoning for this at the page there in that link but I will say if a company (Konami, Capcom, whoever) does go to crowd funding to get the money for a game... makes waaaaaaaay more than the goal is set for and then still demands full retail for the game (and probably a digital copy only if we're being honest with ourselves), I will walk away from that publisher faster than I did SquareEnix.

If you need $6 million to make a game (big time title here), and raise $30 million and still want people to pay $50+ for your game and not give them a physical copy of it... then I'm sorry... you're doing business right but the gaming business wrong and I cannot and will not support that.]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=486 Thu, 13 Mar 2014 14:36:15 -0500 Jason]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=486 )]]> )]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=462 Sat, 25 Jan 2014 10:03:09 -0600 Jason]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=462

• ZSNES Recording Tools
  
• Admist - Minecraft Map Tool
  
• FM Screen Capture Codec
  
• Lagarith Lossless Codec
  
• Chrono Symphonic Album
  

]]>

• ZSNES Recording Tools
  
• Admist - Minecraft Map Tool
  
• FM Screen Capture Codec
  
• Lagarith Lossless Codec
  
• Chrono Symphonic Album
  

]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=442 Sat, 09 Nov 2013 21:55:16 -0600 Jason]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=442
First when it comes to recording you need to know a few things ahead of time.

1. What am I recording? Is it screen capture from a PC game, an emulator or some other "on screen" source. Or, are you going to capture from a console via capture device.

2. Am I doing live or post commentary. If you're going live commentary, do you want it to be recorded along with your video or separately for editing reasons.

Now that you've addressed those questions... we can get started.

I can't teach you how to capture from every bit of software but I can teach you how to capture from the stuff that I myself use.

First for emulation... I use ZSNES, VirtuaNES, KFusion and VirtualBoy for my standard emulators. I also use DesMuMe for my Nintendo DS stuff.

Most all of these are ready to be captured with programs like Fraps or BandiCam. Both of those programs have their pros and cons and we'll discuss those in another topic here in this section.

Either of these programs can record emulators in full screen mode without too much trouble. Though BandiCam has a little more luck with programs that don't run full screen.

If neither of those two programs are what you want to use, or full screen just isn't your thing... software such as HyperCam, Debut, Camtasia and CamStudio. Each of these again have their pros and cons and they'll be discussed elsewhere.

These programs generally will work better for certain PC games that won't run full screen, DOSBox, certain Steam games and other such things.

If you're going to be capturing video from a console, you'll need some sort of device to capture your audio with. That can be a USB device like an EasyCap or a Dazzle or an internal device like a Hauppauge or ATI card. Internal cards usually have better response time as an IDE device is more suited to high speed data transfer than USB devices are. With newer USB technology though I can't say for sure that currently that will always be the case. USB 3.0 is still pretty new and I'm not sure of what it's able to do.

Once you've got your hardware of choice determined and setup, it's time to look at software for that. Some pieces come with their own software, Coreal... Ulead... Pinnacle... Sony Vegas... and then of course there are other options available to you via the good ol' internet. Debut can work with console capture as can VideoPad which is another piece of software from NCH Software. Microsoft Expression Encoder, Windows Media Encoder, VirtualDub and more are all available to you to use.

Not all software is compatible with all hardware though so it may be worth your time to do a little research about your options before you go and purchase some hardware.

After you've figured out what you're recording for video, it's time to look at the audio option.

The first thing you'll need, obviously, is a microphone. Your options include headsets, desktop and clip on mics. After you've figured out what you'd like to use there, your next option is USB or analog. Each have their own pros and cons as we've seen so far with everything else.

USB mics, generally, have a more clear sound than analog mics, but they can't usually be used with software that records video, however a lot of newer versions of software are gaining that functionality... assuming though your software won't means you'll need to use a second program to capture your commentary. GoldWave, Audacity, RecordPad... there are a lot of options here as well. Which ever you go with will work just fine, but you may need to do some editing... in that case RecordPad won't do the job... more on that in another post. Also note that using a second program for recording you audio will take some processor power away from your video capture. That's just the nature of the beast.

Analog mics will always be available to be captured from with basic software. The downside there is that they are generally more noisy, not quite as crisp. However they don't sound "cold" as most digital forms do. This is more an issue with audiophiles like myself than your average user and viewer.

Once you've settled on a microphone, it's time to decide if you want to do live commentary or post commentary or some combination of the two. I generally will do live commentary for a few reasons. I feel my reactions are sometimes good enough to capture live and it's less work for me to do in post processing. However live commentary also means I can't edit that commentary unless I want to use a secondary program to record my commentary. Of course doing it this way will require me to combine the video and commentary with another program later like Movie Maker or any generic editing software.

Post commentary has a few benefits over live commentary... for one you can go back and redo anything you happen to screw up. It's also easier to do co-commentary in some instances. Streaming a capture between two people can work well, but depending on your internet connection it can be a bit tricky sometimes. Post commentary also means that you're going to HAVE to combine your video and audio with another program later... bringing your software count up to at least 3 programs at this point. One to record video, one to record audio and one to combine the sources and potentially a fourth piece as well to encode that final file into a format you want.

In the long run... when it comes to how to record... it's all down to personal preference. What works for me may not work for you. But, for the sake of information, my software and its uses is as follows...

Fraps for emulation capture. It works, it does the job pretty darn well. The files are usually fairly big in size but that's because the video is lossless quality.

Goldwave for audio editing. When I have to do some post commentary I'll record it and edit it with Goldwave. It's not free but I've been using it for so long I just can't make myself use anything else.

VideoPad for compiling audio and video. When I do post co-commentary (like Castlevania Dawn Of Sorrow), I use VideoPad to combine the video and two different audio sources into a single complete video. It's not the best software around, but it's lightweight and gets the job done really well.

Windows Live Movie Maker. This is what I like to use if I have any light editing to do. Say cutting out random battles in an RPG. I'll put in the splits, delete the clip and add some transitions. It's old school but it gets the job done. Also, I will sometimes use this if I have a single commentary track to add to a video. It depends on what else I need to do with it.

Microsoft Expression Encoder. This is the Omega to my LPing Alpha. Any and all videos I put together go through here at the very end of the process. This program let's me crop, add audio, video or graphical overlays, combine multiple clips, resize, deinterlace and create thumbnails for video start screens. It's not super great for find editing as there are no transition effects or anything, but that's what I use other software for.

If I were to record an episode of some SNES emulation with live commentary, the process would go as follows

ZSNES captured with Fraps > Movie Maker if any editing needs done > Expression Encoder for the final file.

If it's a console game an live commentary it goes as follows...

Console is captured via ATV WonderTV 550 with VirtualDub, commentary is recorded with GoldWave > video an audio are combined in Windows Movie Maker OR Microsoft Expression Encoder depending on editing > Expression Encoder for the final product.

One I've got enough to backup on a DVD, I do so where it then goes into a case till it's ready to be uploaded.

Hopefully this has been an alright starts quite on the very basics of setting up recoding for a Let's Play.

If there are any questions or reviews on software or methods mentioned here, please leave them below.]]>
First when it comes to recording you need to know a few things ahead of time.

1. What am I recording? Is it screen capture from a PC game, an emulator or some other "on screen" source. Or, are you going to capture from a console via capture device.

2. Am I doing live or post commentary. If you're going live commentary, do you want it to be recorded along with your video or separately for editing reasons.

Now that you've addressed those questions... we can get started.

I can't teach you how to capture from every bit of software but I can teach you how to capture from the stuff that I myself use.

First for emulation... I use ZSNES, VirtuaNES, KFusion and VirtualBoy for my standard emulators. I also use DesMuMe for my Nintendo DS stuff.

Most all of these are ready to be captured with programs like Fraps or BandiCam. Both of those programs have their pros and cons and we'll discuss those in another topic here in this section.

Either of these programs can record emulators in full screen mode without too much trouble. Though BandiCam has a little more luck with programs that don't run full screen.

If neither of those two programs are what you want to use, or full screen just isn't your thing... software such as HyperCam, Debut, Camtasia and CamStudio. Each of these again have their pros and cons and they'll be discussed elsewhere.

These programs generally will work better for certain PC games that won't run full screen, DOSBox, certain Steam games and other such things.

If you're going to be capturing video from a console, you'll need some sort of device to capture your audio with. That can be a USB device like an EasyCap or a Dazzle or an internal device like a Hauppauge or ATI card. Internal cards usually have better response time as an IDE device is more suited to high speed data transfer than USB devices are. With newer USB technology though I can't say for sure that currently that will always be the case. USB 3.0 is still pretty new and I'm not sure of what it's able to do.

Once you've got your hardware of choice determined and setup, it's time to look at software for that. Some pieces come with their own software, Coreal... Ulead... Pinnacle... Sony Vegas... and then of course there are other options available to you via the good ol' internet. Debut can work with console capture as can VideoPad which is another piece of software from NCH Software. Microsoft Expression Encoder, Windows Media Encoder, VirtualDub and more are all available to you to use.

Not all software is compatible with all hardware though so it may be worth your time to do a little research about your options before you go and purchase some hardware.

After you've figured out what you're recording for video, it's time to look at the audio option.

The first thing you'll need, obviously, is a microphone. Your options include headsets, desktop and clip on mics. After you've figured out what you'd like to use there, your next option is USB or analog. Each have their own pros and cons as we've seen so far with everything else.

USB mics, generally, have a more clear sound than analog mics, but they can't usually be used with software that records video, however a lot of newer versions of software are gaining that functionality... assuming though your software won't means you'll need to use a second program to capture your commentary. GoldWave, Audacity, RecordPad... there are a lot of options here as well. Which ever you go with will work just fine, but you may need to do some editing... in that case RecordPad won't do the job... more on that in another post. Also note that using a second program for recording you audio will take some processor power away from your video capture. That's just the nature of the beast.

Analog mics will always be available to be captured from with basic software. The downside there is that they are generally more noisy, not quite as crisp. However they don't sound "cold" as most digital forms do. This is more an issue with audiophiles like myself than your average user and viewer.

Once you've settled on a microphone, it's time to decide if you want to do live commentary or post commentary or some combination of the two. I generally will do live commentary for a few reasons. I feel my reactions are sometimes good enough to capture live and it's less work for me to do in post processing. However live commentary also means I can't edit that commentary unless I want to use a secondary program to record my commentary. Of course doing it this way will require me to combine the video and commentary with another program later like Movie Maker or any generic editing software.

Post commentary has a few benefits over live commentary... for one you can go back and redo anything you happen to screw up. It's also easier to do co-commentary in some instances. Streaming a capture between two people can work well, but depending on your internet connection it can be a bit tricky sometimes. Post commentary also means that you're going to HAVE to combine your video and audio with another program later... bringing your software count up to at least 3 programs at this point. One to record video, one to record audio and one to combine the sources and potentially a fourth piece as well to encode that final file into a format you want.

In the long run... when it comes to how to record... it's all down to personal preference. What works for me may not work for you. But, for the sake of information, my software and its uses is as follows...

Fraps for emulation capture. It works, it does the job pretty darn well. The files are usually fairly big in size but that's because the video is lossless quality.

Goldwave for audio editing. When I have to do some post commentary I'll record it and edit it with Goldwave. It's not free but I've been using it for so long I just can't make myself use anything else.

VideoPad for compiling audio and video. When I do post co-commentary (like Castlevania Dawn Of Sorrow), I use VideoPad to combine the video and two different audio sources into a single complete video. It's not the best software around, but it's lightweight and gets the job done really well.

Windows Live Movie Maker. This is what I like to use if I have any light editing to do. Say cutting out random battles in an RPG. I'll put in the splits, delete the clip and add some transitions. It's old school but it gets the job done. Also, I will sometimes use this if I have a single commentary track to add to a video. It depends on what else I need to do with it.

Microsoft Expression Encoder. This is the Omega to my LPing Alpha. Any and all videos I put together go through here at the very end of the process. This program let's me crop, add audio, video or graphical overlays, combine multiple clips, resize, deinterlace and create thumbnails for video start screens. It's not super great for find editing as there are no transition effects or anything, but that's what I use other software for.

If I were to record an episode of some SNES emulation with live commentary, the process would go as follows

ZSNES captured with Fraps > Movie Maker if any editing needs done > Expression Encoder for the final file.

If it's a console game an live commentary it goes as follows...

Console is captured via ATV WonderTV 550 with VirtualDub, commentary is recorded with GoldWave > video an audio are combined in Windows Movie Maker OR Microsoft Expression Encoder depending on editing > Expression Encoder for the final product.

One I've got enough to backup on a DVD, I do so where it then goes into a case till it's ready to be uploaded.

Hopefully this has been an alright starts quite on the very basics of setting up recoding for a Let's Play.

If there are any questions or reviews on software or methods mentioned here, please leave them below.]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=213 Fri, 04 Oct 2013 09:41:50 -0500 Jason]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=213
Lately, YouTube's been a launch site for unfunny people to get shows on Comedy Central... where they remain unfunny but now how a budget.

We've also all had some bad times with YouTube, and most of them have popped up after the Google buy out. Sometimes it's things that change in the layout, or the way subscriptions work or things like that.

What you can be sure of is that no one that uses the site is made away of this stuff until it actually happens... when it does we're left scratching out heads wondering what we did wrong to make the site work in such a drastically different way.

Here is where you can share your stories about The GoogleTubes.]]>
Lately, YouTube's been a launch site for unfunny people to get shows on Comedy Central... where they remain unfunny but now how a budget.

We've also all had some bad times with YouTube, and most of them have popped up after the Google buy out. Sometimes it's things that change in the layout, or the way subscriptions work or things like that.

What you can be sure of is that no one that uses the site is made away of this stuff until it actually happens... when it does we're left scratching out heads wondering what we did wrong to make the site work in such a drastically different way.

Here is where you can share your stories about The GoogleTubes.]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=132 Sun, 22 Sep 2013 10:26:39 -0500 Jason]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=132
First... one of my most used bits of software.

Debut Video Capture Software

Download Here

So Debut... what's the deal?

Debut is one of the first pieces of recording software I used for both desktop and console capture. It's not a fancy bit of software in any terms of the word, and it doesn't allow for any editing but it's pretty solid.

There are two versions of the software, Premium and Free and they both do 99% of the same thing. Premium will allow you to record to multiple video formats ( avi, wmv, asf, mpg, 3gp, mp4, mov, flv, dv, and mkv) while the Free version only allows for avi and wmv.

That in an of itself may not be very impressive for the Free version. What's impressive though is that when you chose to use the avi container for your video you can access dozens of different encoders to pack your video into the nifty little avi box. Any avi encoder that exists on your PC is accessible (though not all will work with Debut like the FRAPS coded) is available.

Also, with your choice of avi encoders, you've got a similar situation with your audio encoders as well. Anything from basic lossless wav style audio or compressed on the fly to MP3 is available to you.

Oh yeah, when your Premium trial runs out you can simply downgrade to the free version by going through the Add/Remove programs method in your control panel and selecting the "Downgrade" option. Simple.

Now, let's break this down a bit.

The Good

Free is always a nice price to spend for working software, and Debut is good working free software. The variety of different encoders (for avi format) is nice to have so you can experiment with different options for your own system. I like using the FM Screen Capture codec for my stuff. It's Fraps like... but not Fraps.

Anyway, a slew of options for recording specific windows, an entire desktop (even multiple monitors at once!) and specific rectangles is a handy feature to have.

You can add captions and watermarks while recording and apply some color and video effects as well. You can set a schedule for automatic recording (if you're using this for surveillance stuff... yeah it'll do that too) and even have it automatically stop and start a new recording based on a user defined time limit.

The ability to capture from just about anything is great... capture cards like a Dazzle or EasyCap or Hauppauge or ATI Wonder TV... usb webcams... network cameras... desktops... you name it.

As for audio capture, you can (finally!) record from multiple sources including "Speakers"... that means no more having to mess around with Stereo Mix to capture commentary and program audio at the same time.

Selectable default file name options can be handy if you're doing a string of a specific game ... meaning you can set Debut to default your recordings as "Let's Play Super Mario Bros - %autonumber%" and bam... you're done.

Customizeable hotkeys to start and stop recording as well as zooming in or out, taking snapshots and a "Follow Mouse Cursor" button are great for doing tutorials.

Not only all of that, but it comes built in with options to record in formats compatible with iPod, PSP, iPhone, Xbox360 and Playstation 3, though I've never tried these and they may be Premium only options. There's even a "Game Capture" option that will, in a way, slow everything else down on your PC so the game will play and capture at the best rate Debut thinks it can do.

The Bad

With so much good to say about it, there's not a lot of bad... but there is bad.

The first thing is more of an annoyance than anything anymore. Recently they've added a pop-up "You much click to continue" box for the Free version that, basically, says your promise not to use the Free version for any commercial applications. Not a big deal, but it is there.

Second, the frame capture rate for certain desktop applications seems to be really low. Trying to record some footage from, of all things, DOSBox, resulted in an FPS of around 18-20 when the program is set to record at 30 FPS. I may not have the most beefy computer in the world but it's more then able to handle that stuff.

Next, and this issue may be related to my specific system, the program can take a very long time to switch between desktop and capture card mode... also when going into the options to tell Debut to grab from my capture card's s-video line it can hang for, at most, a minute. I don't recall having this happen with other softwares.

Finally, some of the containers (If you're using Premium... either the trial or the full thing) just don't seem to work well. I use other softwares to record to WMV from time to time with little or no issue... but Debut's WMV (even though it's the same encoder) just come out looking bad. So beware with that. Also remember the more you want to compress of the fly... the lower your performance will be.

The Last Word

So you were thinking that was going to be "The Ugly" did you? Well in some instances this could be "ugly" for the software, but not here.

Debut was the first working bit of program that I found that could actually record LP's for me all those many years ago. It worked with all my emulators really well and it gave me a good end product. That's more than I can say for a lot of other things I tried.

The lack of additional containers, while may be a problem for some, was never a problem for me. The box matters less to me than how the data is packed into it. I'll expand on that a bit more later.

These days I don't use Debut as much... other softwares are doing the job I want done better... but there are times when it just doesn't want to work and Debut is my first fall back.

There's nothing wrong with the program itself or the product it shoots out for you at the end... though there are some structural things that are a tad annoying (the pop-up and lagging when selecting an input method), but they're annoyances and not enough to turn me off from the software.

All in all, it's not as useful as it once was to me personally... but it's software I will always recommend to someone looking to capture video from their desktop. Capture cards I've got another suggestion... but we'll get to that later.

Overall: B+]]>
First... one of my most used bits of software.

Debut Video Capture Software

Download Here

So Debut... what's the deal?

Debut is one of the first pieces of recording software I used for both desktop and console capture. It's not a fancy bit of software in any terms of the word, and it doesn't allow for any editing but it's pretty solid.

There are two versions of the software, Premium and Free and they both do 99% of the same thing. Premium will allow you to record to multiple video formats ( avi, wmv, asf, mpg, 3gp, mp4, mov, flv, dv, and mkv) while the Free version only allows for avi and wmv.

That in an of itself may not be very impressive for the Free version. What's impressive though is that when you chose to use the avi container for your video you can access dozens of different encoders to pack your video into the nifty little avi box. Any avi encoder that exists on your PC is accessible (though not all will work with Debut like the FRAPS coded) is available.

Also, with your choice of avi encoders, you've got a similar situation with your audio encoders as well. Anything from basic lossless wav style audio or compressed on the fly to MP3 is available to you.

Oh yeah, when your Premium trial runs out you can simply downgrade to the free version by going through the Add/Remove programs method in your control panel and selecting the "Downgrade" option. Simple.

Now, let's break this down a bit.

The Good

Free is always a nice price to spend for working software, and Debut is good working free software. The variety of different encoders (for avi format) is nice to have so you can experiment with different options for your own system. I like using the FM Screen Capture codec for my stuff. It's Fraps like... but not Fraps.

Anyway, a slew of options for recording specific windows, an entire desktop (even multiple monitors at once!) and specific rectangles is a handy feature to have.

You can add captions and watermarks while recording and apply some color and video effects as well. You can set a schedule for automatic recording (if you're using this for surveillance stuff... yeah it'll do that too) and even have it automatically stop and start a new recording based on a user defined time limit.

The ability to capture from just about anything is great... capture cards like a Dazzle or EasyCap or Hauppauge or ATI Wonder TV... usb webcams... network cameras... desktops... you name it.

As for audio capture, you can (finally!) record from multiple sources including "Speakers"... that means no more having to mess around with Stereo Mix to capture commentary and program audio at the same time.

Selectable default file name options can be handy if you're doing a string of a specific game ... meaning you can set Debut to default your recordings as "Let's Play Super Mario Bros - %autonumber%" and bam... you're done.

Customizeable hotkeys to start and stop recording as well as zooming in or out, taking snapshots and a "Follow Mouse Cursor" button are great for doing tutorials.

Not only all of that, but it comes built in with options to record in formats compatible with iPod, PSP, iPhone, Xbox360 and Playstation 3, though I've never tried these and they may be Premium only options. There's even a "Game Capture" option that will, in a way, slow everything else down on your PC so the game will play and capture at the best rate Debut thinks it can do.

The Bad

With so much good to say about it, there's not a lot of bad... but there is bad.

The first thing is more of an annoyance than anything anymore. Recently they've added a pop-up "You much click to continue" box for the Free version that, basically, says your promise not to use the Free version for any commercial applications. Not a big deal, but it is there.

Second, the frame capture rate for certain desktop applications seems to be really low. Trying to record some footage from, of all things, DOSBox, resulted in an FPS of around 18-20 when the program is set to record at 30 FPS. I may not have the most beefy computer in the world but it's more then able to handle that stuff.

Next, and this issue may be related to my specific system, the program can take a very long time to switch between desktop and capture card mode... also when going into the options to tell Debut to grab from my capture card's s-video line it can hang for, at most, a minute. I don't recall having this happen with other softwares.

Finally, some of the containers (If you're using Premium... either the trial or the full thing) just don't seem to work well. I use other softwares to record to WMV from time to time with little or no issue... but Debut's WMV (even though it's the same encoder) just come out looking bad. So beware with that. Also remember the more you want to compress of the fly... the lower your performance will be.

The Last Word

So you were thinking that was going to be "The Ugly" did you? Well in some instances this could be "ugly" for the software, but not here.

Debut was the first working bit of program that I found that could actually record LP's for me all those many years ago. It worked with all my emulators really well and it gave me a good end product. That's more than I can say for a lot of other things I tried.

The lack of additional containers, while may be a problem for some, was never a problem for me. The box matters less to me than how the data is packed into it. I'll expand on that a bit more later.

These days I don't use Debut as much... other softwares are doing the job I want done better... but there are times when it just doesn't want to work and Debut is my first fall back.

There's nothing wrong with the program itself or the product it shoots out for you at the end... though there are some structural things that are a tad annoying (the pop-up and lagging when selecting an input method), but they're annoyances and not enough to turn me off from the software.

All in all, it's not as useful as it once was to me personally... but it's software I will always recommend to someone looking to capture video from their desktop. Capture cards I've got another suggestion... but we'll get to that later.

Overall: B+]]>