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Thread: Desktop / Game capture recommendations

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    Senior Member AGTDenton's Avatar
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    Desktop / Game capture recommendations

    Hi Guys,

    Interested in what you might recommend for a couple of screen capturing projects I'm going to start.
    One being gaming and the other being desktop based tutorials.

    Gaming:

    For a while DXTory seemed to be the way to go for game capture, but they've not produced any updates since 2017 and a number of forum posts report problems with newer versions of Windows 10. Not to mention almost all of the 2020/21 support posts have gone unanswered.
    Two main attractions to DXTory for me was the ability to support multiple audio sources, and create individual audio tracks of those sources making editing more flexible, and secondly the lack of system resources the application would use.

    I believe multiple audio tracks is not possible with either the built in Windows or Nvidia capture?

    I did once come across a piece of software that could create an audio track per application you had running, so you could pick discord.exe, the game as well as traditional hardware audio sources, but cannot find it again or anything else with that ability, based on reading user manuals or blurb on the website.

    OBS might be the alternate? How is it for system resources?
    Is hardware capturing worth it today, Avermedia & Elgato seem to have quite a selection of parts now.


    Desktop Recording:

    I've spotted Action (https://mirillis.com/en/products/action.html) seems to be a pretty good all round bit of kit and looks fairly easy to learn.
    Similarly TechSmiths Camtasia seems to have evolved into a very good application aimed at tutorial creation.

    It's been a very long time since I did any tutorial type things and always used basic free software which was limiting.

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    Re: Desktop / Game capture recommendations

    I'll be watching this thread with interest too. Action! certainly looks interesting. I'll be particularly interested in any user experiences, 'cos I kinda went straight to OBS as apparently what almost eveybody uses.

    I remember Avermedia from years ago but havent used one of their products for about 20 years. I do have an Elgato capture card and yeah, I think it's great, but it's not in this area. If I was looking for hardware (and might be soon) I would start there. Typically not cheap, but then, quality stufff rarely is.
    A lesson learned from PeterB about dignity in adversity, so Peter, In Memorium, "Onwards and Upwards".

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    Super Moderator Jonj1611's Avatar
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    Re: Desktop / Game capture recommendations

    I bought Action years ago, haven't used it in a while but was certainly straight forward to use and worked without issue and didn't seem to bog the computer down which at the time with a dual core was most helpful!
    Jon

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    Re: Desktop / Game capture recommendations

    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen999 View Post
    I'll be watching this thread with interest too. Action! certainly looks interesting. I'll be particularly interested in any user experiences, 'cos I kinda went straight to OBS as apparently what almost eveybody uses.

    I remember Avermedia from years ago but havent used one of their products for about 20 years. I do have an Elgato capture card and yeah, I think it's great, but it's not in this area. If I was looking for hardware (and might be soon) I would start there. Typically not cheap, but then, quality stufff rarely is.
    This is about the best and most recent review I could find of Action. Sadly for the Audio feature he doesn't go into it in enough detail, but I can sort of tell its limited.
    As you have experience of OBS, you'll be able to compare it in greater detail than me.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bUMgqHt_CA

    I'll have a deeper read of Elgato & Avermedia, one plus point I've noticed for Avermedia is the use of their software, which does look quite advanced. However, from what I can tell their RECentral software can only be accessed with hardware purchase, which is really annoying for finding out anything about it or giving it a demo as their hardware pretty much starts at >£200.

    What PC spec are you using with OBS?

    I'm considering a 3700X with a 3060Ti (If the price drops next week as expected).


    Quote Originally Posted by Jonj1611 View Post
    I bought Action years ago, haven't used it in a while but was certainly straight forward to use and worked without issue and didn't seem to bog the computer down which at the time with a dual core was most helpful!
    That's good to hear, for the sake of £20 I will probably end up getting it, considering it's a Lifetime license a future version may end up bringing in the features I want.

    OBS while I'm sure technically great, looks like it has a steeper learning curve. Comparing the screenshots I do feel more comfortable to get going with Action.
    Last edited by AGTDenton; 22-08-2021 at 02:15 AM.

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    Re: Desktop / Game capture recommendations

    Quote Originally Posted by AGTDenton View Post
    ...
    .
    As you have experience of OBS, you'll be able to compare it in greater detail than me.
    ....
    Hmmm. I think I need to rephrase. When I said I went "straight for OBS", the long-form version of that is .... found out what a few people use, including a YouTuber friend of mine (which was OBS) so watched a few tutorials, then downloaded it, ready for use on the system I'm cuurrently spec'ing up, and parts-hunting for, but don't yet have.

    My read on OBS is that, yeah, it has a learning curve but not as much as screenshots make it look. But there's always a linkage between versatility in the software and at least an element of learning curve. It all depends on what you want to do. Put it this way, you don't get Photoshop to just crop your holiday snaps, and (with an exception or two) you don't go looking for free or cheap 'domestic' video tools to make a $100m Hollywood movie. (Yeah, that analogy might run into an issue over DaVinci Resolve, but the principle is sound).

    Anyway, my point is OBS might be overkill, or might be worth the learning curve depending on your needs .... and inclinations. I don't need it, but having spoken to friends and watched the tutorials, it appeals to me as, after a bit of unintuitive setup and jargon-learning, simple enough for simple tasks but powerful enough for anything I'm ever likely to want. I'd rather face off against the learning curve now than get used to something simpler now then maybe bump up hard into the limitations of something simpler and have to switch. I hadn't see Action!, though.

    Actual experience though, is, how should I put it .... limited? To none.

    The Elgato is a bit different, and for a different project. But that's an analogue capture card, for VHS, DVD via scart/S-video, etc. I tried various 'cheap' options, which varied from okay but with limitations making them useless to me, to out and out junk.
    A lesson learned from PeterB about dignity in adversity, so Peter, In Memorium, "Onwards and Upwards".

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    Re: Desktop / Game capture recommendations

    Action Review ....
    Quote Originally Posted by AGTDenton View Post
    ....
    As you have experience of OBS, you'll be able to compare it in greater detail than me.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bUMgqHt_CA
    Sorry, I had to give up on that. It was giving me a headache. It seemed to me to be a masterclass in how NOT to do a video tutorial or review. My advice to the maker would be :-

    First, evidently it was either totally unscripted, or he wasn't following it because his speech clearly followed his thought process and as a result, was garbled and jumped all over the place to clarify something he really should have already said, making it irritating to try and follow. Oh, and knock off the nervous "umm, er yeah ..." before getting back on point, all the time. And secondly, using the mouse to illustrate what you're talking about is one thing, but making it dance all over the screen like it has a termite infestation in it's underwear is entirely another. By all means turn on a mouse hightlighter (makes it easier to see) and point at what you're selecting or referring to, but don't wave the damn thing all over the screen like a demented Tasmanian Devil on amphetamines. It might feel to him like it's illustrating something, but to a viewer, they'll spend about half their concentration just trying to see where the mouse cursor is going in case it matters.

    No matter how good the tutorial/review otherwise is, those sorts of 101 errors make it unwatchable for me. YMMV, of course.



    Note: A video doesn't want to seem scripted, either, if it looses all energy by doing so. The art is to pretty carefully follow the structure of a script but making it seem/sound like natural flow.
    A lesson learned from PeterB about dignity in adversity, so Peter, In Memorium, "Onwards and Upwards".

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    Re: Desktop / Game capture recommendations

    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen999 View Post
    Action Review ....
    Sorry, I had to give up on that. It was giving me a headache. It seemed to me to be a masterclass in how NOT to do a video tutorial or review. My advice to the maker would be :-

    First, evidently it was either totally unscripted, or he wasn't following it because his speech clearly followed his thought process and as a result, was garbled and jumped all over the place to clarify something he really should have already said, making it irritating to try and follow. Oh, and knock off the nervous "umm, er yeah ..." before getting back on point, all the time. And secondly, using the mouse to illustrate what you're talking about is one thing, but making it dance all over the screen like it has a termite infestation in it's underwear is entirely another. By all means turn on a mouse hightlighter (makes it easier to see) and point at what you're selecting or referring to, but don't wave the damn thing all over the screen like a demented Tasmanian Devil on amphetamines. It might feel to him like it's illustrating something, but to a viewer, they'll spend about half their concentration just trying to see where the mouse cursor is going in case it matters.

    No matter how good the tutorial/review otherwise is, those sorts of 101 errors make it unwatchable for me. YMMV, of course.
    Sorry I should have emphasised it was the best of a very bad bunch. I mainly watched it for the visuals and not the commentary as he skipped over so much that would have been useful. Maybe my first tutorial video should be Action 4


    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen999 View Post
    Note: A video doesn't want to seem scripted, either, if it looses all energy by doing so. The art is to pretty carefully follow the structure of a script but making it seem/sound like natural flow.
    I will most likely fall down this trap but know exactly what you mean, most of the QuakeCon stuff I've watched is beyond cringeworthy! And the Windows 11 one where the guy almost breaks down in tears was another level.

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    Senior Member AGTDenton's Avatar
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    Re: Desktop / Game capture recommendations

    Just adding to the list of potential softwares, discovered XSplit
    Looks pretty impressive. Although it appears to be geared more towards live streaming, some of the upcoming applications they're developing look very interesting for desktop recording and it's an attractive price for a Lifetime subscription. Looks like they have a decent demo.

    https://www.xsplit.com/

    I'm still speccing up a PC so will be a couple of weeks before I can actually test anything.

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