TF2 Recording help?

[EarthBoundGiygas]

Hi there, I just recorded TF2 youtube, using FRAPS. This is a first time kind of thing. SO I was just wondering if other people who have more experience with this can tell me how the quality is with my specs.


Specs

Processing: Dual Core 3.00 GHz

Memory 5.5 GB

ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics: 2812MB

64 bit windows 7

I would believe that is the most important spec wise that is.

 

[Aura Guardian]

Seems a bit dark

 

[EarthBoundGiygas]

Double post. My bad.

 

[Danceofmasks]

The most important spec wise is always your video card.

Where FRAPS is concerned, however, since it makes lots of giant 4GB files, your hard drive(s) set up makes a huge difference.

 

[EarthBoundGiygas]

Seems a bit dark

Really? .... huh anything that you could suggest?

The most important spec wise is always your video card.

Where FRAPS is concerned, however, since it makes lots of giant 4GB files, your hard drive(s) set up makes a huge difference.

Ok, would you like me to get you my graphics card info? Really? Why would my hard drive setup have to do with anything?

 

[Aura Guardian]

Seems a bit dark

Really? .... huh anything that you could suggest?

Read what he said.

The most important spec wise is always your video card.

Where FRAPS is concerned, however, since it makes lots of giant 4GB files, your hard drive(s) set up makes a huge difference.

 

[EarthBoundGiygas]

Seems a bit dark

Really? .... huh anything that you could suggest?

Read what he said.

The most important spec wise is always your video card.

Where FRAPS is concerned, however, since it makes lots of giant 4GB files, your hard drive(s) set up makes a huge difference.

Sure they are large files, but what I don't get is why that would make a difference in the quality of the video.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Sure they are large files, but what I don't get is why that would make a difference in the quality of the video.

The amount of data per second that FRAPS moves is the issue here.
If at any point your drive can't keep up, the video is going to suffer, because it just can't save all the data it needs to fast enough.
The result could be anything from framerate drops to half second freezes.

Often, this can be fixed by something as simple as keeping more space free, and running a defrag.
Personally, since I record terabytes of footage at a time, I have dedicated FRAPS drives.

 

[Aura Guardian]

Seems a bit dark

Really? .... huh anything that you could suggest?

Read what he said.

The most important spec wise is always your video card.

Where FRAPS is concerned, however, since it makes lots of giant 4GB files, your hard drive(s) set up makes a huge difference.

Sure they are large files, but what I don't get is why that would make a difference in the quality of the video.

FRAPS doesn't compress the files. I think that might have something to do with the quality.

 

[EarthBoundGiygas]

Seems a bit dark

Really? .... huh anything that you could suggest?

Read what he said.

The most important spec wise is always your video card.

Where FRAPS is concerned, however, since it makes lots of giant 4GB files, your hard drive(s) set up makes a huge difference.

Sure they are large files, but what I don't get is why that would make a difference in the quality of the video.

FRAPS doesn't compress the files. I think that might have something to do with the quality.

Alright, but if it didn't compress the files, shouldn't it be of higher quality? It would be pure raw footage. Also, I updated my specs section.

Sure they are large files, but what I don't get is why that would make a difference in the quality of the video.

The amount of data per second that FRAPS moves is the issue here.
If at any point your drive can't keep up, the video is going to suffer, because it just can't save all the data it needs to fast enough.
The result could be anything from framerate drops to half second freezes.

Often, this can be fixed by something as simple as keeping more space free, and running a defrag.
Personally, since I record terabytes of footage at a time, I have dedicated FRAPS drives.

Geez man, Terrabytes of footage? That sure is alot. Ok, that makes a bit more sense now, my drive really isn't all that full, but i still see like a little bit of a chop or two in the video at a point. Do you think it is like a memory issue or a specs issue?

 

[Danceofmasks]

Alright, but if it didn't compress the files, shouldn't it be of higher quality? It would be pure raw footage. Also, I updated my specs section.

Well, sure.
If your setup is moving the data fast enough (>60 frames per second), then the uncompressed video will have the highest "quality."

The giant uncompressed files may not be watchable, though.
'cos programs used for playback might just not be able to cope with that much data.

If you're intent on uploading videos to youtube, there's the additional problem of moving huge files over the internet.

Personally, I compress the videos myself using Mediacoder (rather than using the half-baked compression that comes with video editing programs).
It's quite low level, meaning you need to know what a whole bunch of numbers means in order to get it running properly ... but it's free and has x264 (the open source encoder for the H.264 codec, which delivers awesome quality per bitrate).

 

[EarthBoundGiygas]

Alright, but if it didn't compress the files, shouldn't it be of higher quality? It would be pure raw footage. Also, I updated my specs section.

Well, sure.
If your setup is moving the data fast enough (>60 frames per second), then the uncompressed video will have the highest "quality."

The giant uncompressed files may not be watchable, though.
'cos programs used for playback might just not be able to cope with that much data.

If you're intent on uploading videos to youtube, there's the additional problem of moving huge files over the internet.

Personally, I compress the videos myself using Mediacoder (rather than using the half-baked compression that comes with video editing programs).
It's quite low level, meaning you need to know what a whole bunch of numbers means in order to get it running properly ... but it's free and has x264 (the open source encoder for the H.264 codec, which delivers awesome quality per bitrate).

Uhuh, if i were to give you some info would you be able to tell me if my setup would work best or not?

What do you mean by plugging in a whole bunch of number means? x264? How good quality is that? (not that i really understand what it is.)

 

[Danceofmasks]

What do you mean by plugging in a whole bunch of number means? x264? How good quality is that? (not that i really understand what it is.)

Wiki helps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC

Ok, maybe tl;dr
You can't deliver uncompressed video. The files are just way too big.
Compression always loses data, but H.264 is a format that's great at retaining quality in small file sizes.

 

[EarthBoundGiygas]

What do you mean by plugging in a whole bunch of number means? x264? How good quality is that? (not that i really understand what it is.)

Wiki helps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC

Ok, maybe tl;dr
You can't deliver uncompressed video. The files are just way too big.
Compression always loses data, but H.264 is a format that's great at retaining quality in small file sizes.

Ooooooh, so it really is like MPEG-4?

Yeah I kind of figured the whole uncompressed things can't be delivered as of now. Alright thanks! I would just like some other people's opinions on the quality of the video.