WoW Video Quality

[Frumpy Frumpy Frak]

As of late I have attempted to record several videos in WoW but by the end of the editing process the video quality is shitty as hell.

I am recording my videos with Fraps (version 2.9.4), this of course leaves me with a video file that is several GB large (but is of a good quality). This is when I put the video into VirtualDub and compress it (I've tried both the ffdshow video codec and the Xvid MPEG-4 options so far), this is when the footage gets all fuzzy and ugly but the files are now only 200 or so mb.

I decide to use it anyway because it is still of a decent quality, I import it into Corel Video studio, edit it and save it as both an AVI and an MPEG (both are terrible quality and are almost 2gb)

Does anyone know of any better software or methods I could use to keep my videos pretty while keeping it under 2gb (so I can upload it to Youtube).

[Naesen]

well TBH the only thing i can say is several GB? my fraps throws up about 5gb/minute and still comes out quite blurry, i wonder what tankspot etc use because it is obviously not fraps...

[Unionoob]

at first check at what resulution you are recording. Is it full screen or Half Screen.. with Half screen if you open video on full screen it looks pretty blurry, and if you record video on full but when you open you scrach screen to smaller it is smaller then resulution you recorded will look lamer either.. overall quality of fraps is exelent.

[Frumpy Frumpy Frak]

The video's resolution is 1264 x 710 and I'm recording full screen.

[Ninfetaz]

You can try Xfire if Fraps is not working for you.
I have worked with both, and had good results with both of them.
Usually I have to record in half screen because my computer gets too laggy when I do it full screen.
I made this video in Half-Screen Xfire and the quality is not that bad even if Full Screen, so you might wanna give Xfire a try.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYI9DMzr1qU

[Frumpy Frumpy Frak]

Pretty good, what did you edit the music in with?

[Ninfetaz]

Hmm that one I edited with Sony Vegas Pro 9.0.
However if you just wanna add some music into your video , with no "master" intro/edit, even Windows Movie Maker can do that.

[Frumpy Frumpy Frak]

Well switching from Corel to Windows Movie Maker has improved the quality slightly (WMM is good at something? Dear God!) Nowhere near as clear as the above video or the uncompressed/unedited file though.

[Deleted]

I use fraps and the video comes out quite decent. As an editor I use Sony Vegas, I too had issues with the image being blurry, but it happened when I used an older version of fraps. I use 2.9.9 now and everything seems ok. I recommand Sony Vegas as an editor, it is very easy to use (I never used it or any other editor until 2 weeks ago) unless you want extremey fancy stuff, and even then you can still poke around and find everything you need. I record on 1440x900 and render the video on the same resolution, it uploads as HD on youtube and it looks reasonable, with small file size as well.

Last video I made with it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30Yr8aXDa-g

The quality still feels a bit lower than what I have in game, but overall I think it's quite decent.

Edit: I don't record while playing full screen, I play windowed maximized. Lots of people told me this reduces quality, but it didn't.

[Deleted]

If you get Vegas (which you should, good program), just chuck the .avi from Fraps into it and when you are finished with the vid use .h264 codec

[Kaleid]

Fraps has always given me perfect quality. My native resolution is 1440x900 and I record full screen. Fraps does very minor compression while recording.
I use Camtasia to compress my videos to use on YouTube.

Fraps quality is perfect for me. Here is a link of my YouTube video recorded with Fraps: http://www.youtube.com/user/OddeyeTV

[Frumpy Frumpy Frak]

Vegas costs money doesn't it?

*Pulls out a piece of lint from his empty pockets*

[Deleted]

*cough* err well... there are ways *hides*

[foolproofalibi]

Wegame is pretty sweet for WoW videos. Try that if you haven't found anything that butters your bread.

[Frumpy Frumpy Frak]

Ok, I put a small section of the video through WMM and this is what I got http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNdHcfE7bNg

:S

[Ninfetaz]

lol, get the trial version of Sony Vegas PRO 9.0 from the website. You'll have 15 days of fun and you will see the difference in the quality.
Then there are some other ways to get the program without acctually buying it you know... maybe ask a friend? :XX

[Vook]

Don't use Windows Movie Maker. It sucks ass.

Just get Vegas through...ahem...'methods'...and use that instead. It's MUCH better than WMM.

As for recording with FRAPS, Try to record in 1280x720, if you can. That's pretty much the standard size for HD videos. Either that or 1920x1080. 1280x720 will give you much better framerate, though. For FRAPS, make sure you're capping FPS at 30. (there's an option for it)

For Sony Vegas, you pretty much just set the output dimensions to 1280x720, and Quality to "Best". It'll turn that 7GB of FRAPS videos into ~200MB.

For uploading, I'd advise to use Own3d.tv, not YouTube. I uploaded the same video to both, and it looked SO much better on Own3d.tv.

This is what it should look like, if you follow those instructions. (Make sure to mouse over the window and click the HD button!)

But for Own3d.tv, make sure you add an extra picture or some text for a couple seconds after the video. The auto-cutoff on Own3d.tv is horrendous.

[Ozzy Osbourne]

Well whenever I edit, I use Sony Vegas Pro 9, and it has built in compression if you choose the correct settings. The size, and quality should be good. I recommend downloading Sony vegas

[Frumpy Frumpy Frak]

Thanks for all your help everyone, I've managed to turn that earlier video into this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2GMKEJ_6S8 (and it's only 200mb)

Vegas did the trick.

[Deleted]

I used Sony Vegas and Fraps for one of my recent movies, and it looks pretty fine to me.