Screen Capture Software

[StrangeQuarkGaming]

So for some of my videos, I'll need screen capture software but I'm not quiet sure which one I should get. I was wondering what software everyone uses and what your opinions are of it. It'll be for gaming videos if that's relevant

 

[MrGuyAwesome]

So I've used Fraps, Snagit, Jing and Camtasia

Cut the next bit short I'd recommend Fraps

Fraps Pros - less framerate loss - show's framerate - easy to use, press record and go - easy to work with
Fraps Cons - huge filesize but should be no problem unless you aren't working with much space

Snagit Pros - None it's so bad - Free
Snagit Cons - Very bad to work with - doesn't work properly half the time

Jing Pros - Very easy to work with, free, controllable recording window
Jing Cons - Crashes a lot, hard to work with filesize

Camtasia Pros - comes with own editing software, controllable recording window, easy to use, press record and go
Camtasia Cons - largest loss of framerate out of all these, need to render (can take a very long time on longer videos) to use a third party editor

 

[StrangeQuarkGaming]

So I've used Fraps, Snagit, Jing and Camtasia

Cut the next bit short I'd recommend Fraps

Fraps Pros - less framerate loss - show's framerate - easy to use, press record and go - easy to work with
Fraps Cons - huge filesize but should be no problem unless you aren't working with much space

Snagit Pros - None it's so bad - Free
Snagit Cons - Very bad to work with - doesn't work properly half the time

Jing Pros - Very easy to work with, free, controllable recording window
Jing Cons - Crashes a lot, hard to work with filesize

Camtasia Pros - comes with own editing software, controllable recording window, easy to use, press record and go
Camtasia Cons - largest loss of framerate out of all these, need to render (can take a very long time on longer videos) to use a third party editor

I've heard a lot of good things about Fraps, but does it only work with specific programs? If that's true, it could be problematic. Thanks for the advice though

 

[MrGuyAwesome]

I've heard a lot of good things about Fraps, but does it only work with specific programs? If that's true, it could be problematic. Thanks for the advice though

So I think it only works with application based PC games, but can't record the browser or anything like that, however YouTube tells me differently haha

 

[dragriff]

It kinda depends on your PC as well.

Fraps is generally good, but it does generate huge files, so you need a good amount of disk space if you wanna record a lot of footage. It also kills the performance of the game by a number of frames, if your machine isn't up to par.

Then there's OBS (Open Broadcaster Software), which I, personally, switched over to because I find it somewhat better. If you set the settings right, you can get pretty good quality footage out of it, although it also has its own flaws which I've experienced, such as..
-It only seems to work if the game is in Windowed mode or, at least, in Windowed Borderless. Otherwise it does not seem to record properly. I considered recording my entire monitor as a workaround to that, but I would assume it would put more strain on the PC, so I have not tested it yet, even if my PC might be good enough.
-Also, unless I restart recording every hour or so, the recorded file seems to go corrupt, meaning that it crashes VLC when I try to play it back. The only editing software that I have that accepts it is Blender, so I have to work with that if I forget to restart the recording.
Those are some minor issues with it, but otherwise it works quite well.

Also, there's Dxtory. I've heard good things about it, but I have not tried it myself yet.

 

[ForMyLove]

If you have an Nvidia graphics card, they have released a free download for a beta version of their Shadowplay which is awesome. It captures anything on screen very simple to use, same graphics as what you see on screen, no lag while I was playing world of warcraft. Free and easy to use and causes no lag, what else do you need eh?

 

[StrangeQuarkGaming]

Thanks for the advice everyone! Fraps sounds like it'll do the job best, so I'll probably go with that

 

[The_Voice_Within]

I started as a live streamer so i used OBS (open broadcaster software) When i moved to youtube i learned that i could record also! i love obs it doesn't use a lot of CPU plus with a few videos (or if you know how to use xsplit) it's really easy to use and great quality. And the thing that pushes it over the edge for me, it's free

 

[maddog448]

Just go with fraps, I use that when it comes to my PC video capture and it works quite well with out many problems. One of the few problems that I do have with fraps is that when you begin using it right after you download it the file sizes can be a little bit on the big side. You could always try to change the settings but I havent found much difference. Another option is to run the file through a compressor to try get it down in size, or just live with it. But I will say one thing fraps files are not the best for a fast work flow just due to their size.

 

[CommMatt]

Skipping all other comments (so much reading... lol)

LoiLo Game Recorder is what I use, and I adore it. I feel like it's not coded neatly (the shortcut keys sometimes glitch and won't work) but it's still the best free recorder I've found.

As for SCREEN recording (not games) then I suggest using "Recorder" if you're on Windows 7. I know I have it (I've used it!) and it's fairly well, besides being a pain while rendering (Had to re-record a 20 min video because it failed to render -_- )

LoiLo can also record other than games (roughly) if it's set to Windowed mode.

Hope I helped!