Capturing with FRAPS

[Kevinh]

I’m interested in that FRAPS program but I have a few questions. I know they have a website, but there doesn’t appear to be a forum where you can ask questions, so maybe someone here knows the answers.

I would like to capture some video. I understand the captures can be quite large. I know that this would depend on a lot of factors, so there probably isn’t a good way to answer this, but how large would a 10 minute clip be for example. Would it be too large to be even useable? And once I have this clip, would I be able to take it into Nero Vision and transcode it into a DVD? I know I read that after you make the clip, that you need to encode it so that it will be smaller. If I’m going to convert it to DVD, do I have to do that step or would that step be unnecessary?

I also read that FRAPS uses its own codec. Does that mean that there won’t be any audio if I don’t play the AVI it creates back using the FRAPS program? So that would mean that I would have to use some other program to encode it, if it were true.

I also read on the internet at another site when trying to find out more about this program that some people have had problems getting the full version to run if they had previously installed the demo. They had to go into the registry and delete some setting every time they wanted to run the full version. That’s sounds crazy, but I wanted to ask before I bought the program.

As another option, what about those TV cards for pcs. If I got one of them, would I be able to play a clip using windows media player, or realtime or nero or any of the other players and output it to my television or vcr? Or will that not work. I hate to spend the money and then find out that that isn’t possible.

Thanks in advance for any insight you may offer.

[Qjimbo]

You sound like you haven't even tried the program :P There's a demo version avaliable, which can give you an idea of the filesizes even if there's a limit on the length of the recording (take a 30 second clip and multiply the filesize by 20 to find the length of a 10minute one). The codec is a custom one, but it's DirectShow so anything that can read AVIs should work. I don't know about audio though, but I assume thats the same deal.

The other option you mention is viable, I've plugged the TV output from my graphics card into the input of my TV tuner, though I can only capture it because it has a hardware encoder, a software encoder would struggle to work whilst running alongside a game. Though you could get a cheap software tv card and put it in another computer.

EDIT: Oh I see what you mean about the clip thing now. Yes you should be able to do that, with ATI video cards I'm sure you can as long as it has tv out. In the options there's a "theater mode" which takes whatever video mediaplayer (or any multimedia player) is showing and sends that to the tv out instead of the whole screen.

[Kevinh]

Actually, I did try the software a couple of times. I didn't understand the 30 second thing. I thought that it meant that it would record for 30 seconds and then stop. What it seems to be doing is making a 30 second file and then starting another one, etc. It also had a large 30 up in the left corner of the video as well. I guess that's the watermark?

[Hard Core Rikki]

The watermark is actually a web link picture, saved embedded on your video stream (unremovable).

The 30 ? I suppose that's just the max duration (in seconds) of video recordings you can make. Enough to test. If you want to make recordings of, like, a Counterstrike party, you should consider getting the full version. As a gamer, I sure am very satisfied with it.

For TV output: and if you have an Nvidia GPU, in the options, go to Nview Display Settings, and select the Clone mode or Dualview, depending on what you want.

[Kevinh]

Thanks. I bought the program. I didn't have any problem installing the full version like some people on another site I found said they had. I just uninstalled the demo and installed the full version.

Now will I need that TMPGC program? I see that have a bundle you can buy. I would like to find out more about what the programs are used for. Does the authoring program allow you to create your own menus and/or edit existing ones? (I need to add 5 more characters and I don't know what else to ask.) Thanks.

[jggimi]

Moving to Newbie forum, as it is a more appropriate place than Analog Capture.

[CWR03]

Actually, I did try the software a couple of times. I didn't understand the 30 second thing. I thought that it meant that it would record for 30 seconds and then stop. What it seems to be doing is making a 30 second file and then starting another one, etc. It also had a large 30 up in the left corner of the video as well. I guess that's the watermark?
The "30" in the corner is the framerate, used for benchmarking in games. It will not appear on the captured video. The only watermark added is with the trial version, which is the Fraps website.

I didn't have any problem installing the full version like some people on another site I found said they had. I just uninstalled the demo and installed the full version.
Most people that have problems with that will use the latest trial version, then download a bootleg of an older version which won't work.

As far as the codec, it's just uncompressed AVI, probably the most universal of all. There's no reason why it should ever be unusable due to size, unless it's simply too big for your hard drive. As far as an expected output size, it's entirely dependent on the source video dimensions (it captures the same size unless you override that) and the capture framerate.