FRAPS and editing WoW videos

[Dvorjak]

So I have the retail version of FRAPS. I take a 1 minute ingame video and it ends up being 2gb in size. I hear tell of people using Windows Movie Maker, but it doesn't read .avi format even with the codecs installed...I researched it and a lot of people are having this problem with the new Windows 7 Essentials.

So...what editing software should I use? I tried Divx Author, but the output looked horrendous.

[Deleted]

Try this thread.

Persephone's Guide to Making Raid Videos

It contains info about how to make WoW videos with FRAPS.

[Fuzzykins]

1.) Delete and Uninstall ALL DivX folders.
2.) http://www.free-codecs.com/K_Lite_Co...k_download.htm
3.) Download the "FULL" pack from there.
4.) Install.
5.) Enjoy the problem being fixed.

[Dvorjak]

I already installed klite mega codec, it didn't work

[Fixati0n]

I use Camtasia Studio. Can be Rendered out at most formats and at any resolution you specify. Just drop and drag the FRAPs footage into it, drop it on the timeline, play around if necessary, hit Produce, specify some render details and voila, you're 10gb, 6 minute footage is now about 200mb.

[Dvorjak]

Persephone recommends using Xvid as the codec to compress the video. Is there a better codec that will give me a better image? Xvid seems to wash out the contrast.

[ispano]

Something h264 based is probably the best you're going to get for a given size.

[Dvorjak]

I'm a total noob at this, can you give a specific codec?

[ispano]

Well that's the thing, to "properly" encode with XviD or x264, or any decent codec, you have to learn a little about encoding in general. With all codecs for example, the smaller you try to make the video, the worse it will look. The settings for the encoder itself can have an impact on the quality as well.

Alot of people just use windows movie maker for ease of use. Are you able to open the raw fraps videos with a player of any kind?

[mikeunderwood79]

I had a same problem like you. Fraps takes a lot of resources when recording,
and as it doesn't compress the video it records (there is no time for that) it eats HDD space as well.

Try Bandicam recorder. Bandicam compress the recording video when recording, and uses much lower CPU/GPU/RAM usage than Fraps. So you don't have to use Windows Movie Maker for converting.

[ispano]

Actually it would be a tradeoff. Compressing the video on the fly would use the CPU more, whilst lessening the impact on the drive.

[vesseblah]

and as it doesn't compress the video it records (there is no time for that) it eats HDD space as well.

Try Bandicam recorder. Bandicam compress the recording video when recording, and uses much lower CPU/GPU/RAM usage than Fraps. So you don't have to use Windows Movie Maker for converting.

Few misunderstandings there...

1) Fraps does compress the video, it's shrinked to about 1/6 of the original, but because Fraps uses lossless compression it's still gonna produce huge files. On the upside nothing of the quality will be lost.

2) Lossy compression that many other capture tools use will produce smaller files, yes, but the cost is much lower quality of the videos and the videos will be harder to edit later if you wan to add texts for example.

[ispano]

Few misunderstandings there...

1) Fraps does compress the video, it's shrinked to about 1/6 of the original, but because Fraps uses lossless compression it's still gonna produce huge files. On the upside nothing of the quality will be lost.

2) Lossy compression that many other capture tools use will produce smaller files, yes, but the cost is much lower quality of the videos and the videos will be harder to edit later if you wan to add texts for example.

One thing to note is that FRAPS can do lossy or lossless, the lossy being minimal, and if you're just re-encoding it for something like youtube, more than likely the difference in quality will never be noticed. It will also reduce your fps a bit more than the lossy method.

http://www.tankspot.com/showthread.p...ess-Experiment

[Dvorjak]

So is Bandicam the recommended way to record video in WoW if your computer can't handle FRAPS?

[vesseblah]

Try MSI Afterburner, the latest beta. It can record video too.

[bowchikabow]

I currently use retail GameCam, regardless of which codex I use for recording (both wmv and divX) the recorded content looks great UNTIL I put it in movie maker.. things like music, text etc.. when I save it, it automatically compresses to terrible picture. I save it to the largest size possible (I record at 1680x1050 which is my monitor resolution, but the best that MM saves to is 800x600. If I try to record at 800x600, the video save STILL looks equally terrible. I refuse to spend hundreds of dollars on software just to do basic editing/music adding for game vids.

Will MSI afterburner help with this? The only other option that has been suggested to me is to look for a pirate copy of Sony Vegas.. but I am not big on that kind of DLing.

[vesseblah]

the recorded content looks great UNTIL I put it in movie maker.. things like music, text etc.. when I save it, it automatically compresses to terrible picture. I save it to the largest size possible (I record at 1680x1050 which is my monitor resolution, but the best that MM saves to is 800x600.

Make sure you use the current Windows Live Movie Maker instead of the old shit, and always set the output to FullHD 1080P and save local copy of the file, do not use any kind of "save for web" or "export to youtube" settings. You'll get 10x better quality by doing highest possible quality video first at home, and then let youtube mangle it.

[inyu]

I've been using VirtualDub for a very long time, however I can't install latest versions of FRAPS cause it's giving me an error when opening the avi file saved from FRAPS. With older versions of fraps it runs fine (i'm using xvid codec with compression at 2.5). Is anyone having issues with fRAPS 3.2 ?

[bowchikabow]

Make sure you use the current Windows Live Movie Maker instead of the old shit, and always set the output to FullHD 1080P and save local copy of the file, do not use any kind of "save for web" or "export to youtube" settings. You'll get 10x better quality by doing highest possible quality video first at home, and then let youtube mangle it.

I guess I should have included that I don't have Win7. Still on Xp32 ( I live cheap, still saving for 7 haha) and live says I need 7 to use it. Also, I never used the "save to web" feature. The second I saved the video (which is also when it compresses the video) I can see the difference before I even upload it. In fact, most times there is a slight improvement to the vid quality when I upload it to youtube.

[vesseblah]

Old XP version of WMM does not support HD export, so the quality will be shit regardless. You need some better program then.