The Best PC Screen Recorder

ZoomZike

ZoomZike

YTtalk Sonic
OK! I'm gonna let you guys know what's the absolute "BEST" PC screen recorder.

First, some insight; when I was gonna make my first LP, I decided it would be a PC game (Sonic Generations), and I knew I had to get a high quality PC screen recorder for free.

Here's a list of the things I tried:

Camtasia
Fraps
PlayClaw
DXtory
MSI Afterburner

Let me take a while guess and say that you probably haven't heard of: PlayClaw, and MSI Afterburner. Ok, now these were the main five that I wanted to choose from. Four of them didn't live up to the standard I was hoping for, these ones, were the first four.

Yep, the one that I see almost NO ONE post about won, MSI Afterburner. The only recording software that even came close was DXtory, then PlayClaw, then Fraps, then Camtasia.

Just, just allow me to sell you on this. First off, I use MSI Afterburner to record my Sonic Generations LP. So if you want to see how well this thing can record, then just check out one of the videos of that LP for about, twenty seconds, since I don't want to be marked as advertising.

Let's start off with downsides, just to show how much they don't matter in comparison to the upsides. The file sizes are HUGE. Every minute of recording is about 800-950 megabytes, and it records in AVI File Format. This file format won't work in editing softwares like Sony Vegas Pro 11, so you're gonna either need to convert the AVI into a different file format (NOT RECOMMENDED) Or install a player or some other encoder device for Sony Vegas to use so it can read AVI files (RECOMMENDED). Once you either convert the file or render it, the file size will go down, trust me.

There are an ENORMOUS amount of settings to do, I'll list the ones that matter: It can go full 1080p quality, it can go up to 100 FPS, choose your compression threads, make it so the recording dot in the top left corner goes away (this way you don't have to crop the video due to large annoying things being in the corners!) You can even adjust things I haven't even heard of: Memory Clock, Core Clock, Power Limit, Core Voltage, Fan Speed; although it's not really recommended.

What's the best part you may ask? IT'S FREAKING FREE!!!

I see my LPing friends on Skype so frustrated with Fraps because it froze up, or everything got out of sync, and that maybe Camtasia failed to record a chunk of frames, or some other recording device just failed on them. I'm like, "Dude...don't pay money for Fraps, just get this," I link it, they loved it.

Please! Oh god please just try it, just look up, "MSI Afterburner" and try it, you won't be disappointed. It gives very high, crisp quality and the frames record perfectly, I have no clue how in this world, this dimension, this universe, that nearly no one knows of this amazing PC Recording Device.

Just thought I had to get this out there :D
 
MSI Afterburner is good yes but if you tweak the settings of Dxtory it is a lot better. Dxtory can record at 120fps if you set it to. You just have to know how to use it.

And btw, MSI Afterburner's settings such as Core Clock and that is for tweaking parts of your PC, like your CPU and what not. As that what its supposed to be measuring. :P

MSI Afterburner is probably the best free screen capture you can get though. But I'm sorry, Dxtory outclasses it if you have it set up correctly. (Which many people don't)[DOUBLEPOST=1366568126,1366568084][/DOUBLEPOST]This makes me feel like wanting to do a Dxtory Settings tutorial now.
 
Ah, wish I saw this a bit sooner. just got Dxtory because I'm sick of fraps not being able to recognize games...[DOUBLEPOST=1366568259,1366568208][/DOUBLEPOST]
Dananuh said:
MSI Afterburner is good yes but if you tweak the settings of Dxtory it is a lot better. Dxtory can record at 120fps if you set it to. You just have to know how to use it.

And btw, MSI Afterburner's settings such as Core Clock and that is for tweaking parts of your PC, like your CPU and what not. As that what its supposed to be measuring. :p

MSI Afterburner is probably the best free screen capture you can get though. But I'm sorry, Dxtory outclasses it if you have it set up correctly. (Which many people don't)[DOUBLEPOST=1366568126,1366568084][/DOUBLEPOST]This makes me feel like wanting to do a Dxtory Settings tutorial now.
Click to expand...

You should, Dxtory is very intimidating for people who just start using it...
aka me. ^^
 
Dananuh said:
MSI Afterburner is good yes but if you tweak the settings of Dxtory it is a lot better. Dxtory can record at 120fps if you set it to. You just have to know how to use it.

And btw, MSI Afterburner's settings such as Core Clock and that is for tweaking parts of your PC, like your CPU and what not. As that what its supposed to be measuring. :p

MSI Afterburner is probably the best free screen capture you can get though. But I'm sorry, Dxtory outclasses it if you have it set up correctly. (Which many people don't)[DOUBLEPOST=1366568126,1366568084][/DOUBLEPOST]This makes me feel like wanting to do a Dxtory Settings tutorial now.
Click to expand...

I was looking for the best free one at that given time, so I wasn't looking for a one to purchase. And yeah, Dxtory should have the settings to their best when you first install it. I'm still gonna stick with MSI Afterburner though, I feel it's working really well so far :)
 
Personally I love fraps, been using it for a long long time! Yes it is a storage eating W**** BUT. if your uploading 1080p or 720p videos and actually want the best quality you can possibly get fraps is deffinately the way to go, its files are large but that's for a good reason it means that it retains more of its original quality of the game itself without sacrificing quality for a few extra GB's or MB's.

I wouldn't know about the others but I do love me some fraps! ;)

Also if you need help with fraps try updating it if its not recognising games, it almost always means that there was an update you don't have. as windows updates etc they change certain files etc and that effects fraps. whenever you have a windows update you should check their site for updates, I do and ive never had more then an hour when I cannot actually record a game with fraps (that includes web browser games)

As for freeze's etc that's not fraps, ive never experienced this. It will be their system or their game not having enough power to handle both fraps and the game which is sad, as for the files that's why I use Adobe premier elements :P hehe .avi is the best form of video format to edit with its a shame that vegas makes it so difficult but vegas isn't rly and never was designed for video game video editing, its for live footage from a camera not for fraps footage or desktop footage at all.
 
FleaIsStupid said:
Ah, wish I saw this a bit sooner. just got Dxtory because I'm sick of fraps not being able to recognize games...
Click to expand...

Nah, you shouldn't be. Dxtory is a lot better trust me, if you need help with settings I'll be happy to help. MSI Afterburner is more of a program which is supposed to test your computers performance power and gives you the ability to tweak settings to get maximum FPS.[DOUBLEPOST=1366568333,1366568295][/DOUBLEPOST]
ZoomZike said:
I was looking for the best free one at that given time, so I wasn't looking for a one to purchase. And yeah, Dxtory should have the settings to their best when you first install it xD
Click to expand...

Default settings are actually alright, but you need to modify codecs which Dxtory don't have. They cannot just offer it at default.
 
I like Dxtory because it doesn't take masses of space, also you can setup multiple audio channels for easy editing and re-scale videos to your chosen resolution without having to change game settings.
 
As a user of Dxtory and Sony Vegas I have to correct you on something (This is what I have expereinced with my computer ), Sony Vegas pro 11 and 12 are compatible with AVI files all the videos on our channel have been in that format and it works fine . Now on the large file size thing you can just use the raw cap option i believe with Dxtory to save file size or simply dont put every video in 1080p . 720p does a great job honestly for videos 1080p can make sony vegas take an extra hour longer than if you would have put the video in 720p . Also just lower the frame rate to 30fps on the capture with 720p settting you will save yourself a ton of memory .
 
I really like Camtasia studio, but i can't get the quality to appear very good :/ Do any of you know how I could improve the quality?
 
I don't record on a PC, but I've always heard you'll get the best bang for your buck out of FRAPS. A lot of highly acclaimed YouTuber's use it, and it seems well priced.
 
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