Need to capture some video game footage: what product should I use?

I am not adverse to spending money on this, but neither do I need some three hundred dollar professional quality software.  I just want to be able to capture video footage on my Windows 8 machine and get it in a form suitable for YT.  Opinions?

17 thoughts on “Need to capture some video game footage: what product should I use?”

    1. Second the recommendation, although I haven’t used it for a few years, assuming it’s a PC game. If it’s console, I use a component recorder from Hauppage, it was a couple of hundred bucks a few years ago, there are probably cheaper ones now.

      1. Looks like it, which I didn’t remember. It’s entirely probable I bought the full version, since it’s not very expensive.

      2. I forgot that. I’ve only used it for very short captures, and it’s been a while.

    3. FRAPS’s free demo version has a limit on how long a recording can be, but the full version is only $37.

  2. I think Jing (also free) will do video capture too, although I’ve only ever used it for screenshots.

  4. I use xsplit. it has a free version, though that has a cap on quality and uses an unusual codec that isn’t recognized by a lot of editing software, so you’d need to convert the file with another program. the commercial version costs about $60 (I believe for a 1 yr license) and has more available options (quality and otherwise).

    the only editing software I have available atm however is windows live movie maker, and I still have problems being able to save the files so they can be uploaded to youtube, so the only youtube videos I’ve actually put up are things I’ve streamed to twitch, rather than local recordings. pretty sure this is a limitation of movie maker though, not a problem with xsplit

    1. addendum: the free version of xsplit has no limit on length afaik. the quality limit I think is 480p for the free version, but not 100% sure on that.

      1. the paid versions also use a more common codec, so the chances you’d have to convert the file should be less (again, I’m not 100% sure on this, as I’ve only tried using windows movie maker, and I think the issues I’m having there are more with the size of the videos I’ve tried to make, rather than the codec – when I tried with the free version, the sound didn’t come through, whereas that has not been an issue with the licensed version, it just hasn’t wanted to save or load the large files, so I think movie maker just isn’t strong enough)

        I believe there is also an intermediate version between the commercial and free versions

  5. Am I going to have to add another Let’s Play subscription?
    .
    Don’t tell me — Agrarian Skies. Everyone’s doing Agrarian Skies.

  7. Most of the Twitch streamers that I watch either use OBS (Open Broadcast Software) or Xsplit. I can not tell you which is better though as each ‘caster seems to have different reasons for using each. Most often that reason is “The other one doesn’t work on my setup.”

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