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[Sappho]

I've been making YouTube videos for a while and I'm getting frustrated with my software. I need to find something better, but I can't seem to find anything that will give me what I'm looking for.

I tried Fraps for a while, but it turns out that it only works on programs it identifies as games. That excludes a LOT of things. It also only records in Quicktime format, which creates MASSIVE files. We're talking 20+ Gb for a video clip. I don't have that kind of space on my system.

So I switched to Open Broadcaster Software. Works like a charm, will record anything I tell it to -- but ONLY records to .mp4/.flv formats, which are extremely low-quality. The file size is small, which is nice and all, but I'm at the point where I need decent quality. My own mother is asking me why my videos look so blurry. I used to keep it low due to file size (and upload time) considerations, but now I have access to a super fast connection at work, so I can make high-quality large video files without worry.

After a bit of searching, I found a lot of recommendations for Camtasia. I downloaded the demo and gave it a try. Turns out you can only record system audio (rather critical) if you use their proprietary video format, which can only be worked with in their editor software. I use Adobe Premiere CS5, which I've spent a long time learning how to use well, and they can go fuck themselves if they expect me to use theirs. When I tried opening their editor, hoping I could just convert the files to another format that Premiere can open, I got an error message saying that I didn't have the correct version of the Microsoft .Net framework (they didn't even specify which one I needed). I looked up the requirements and it seems they need 4.0 -- which I *already have installed*. Ragequit. (Note: This software costs THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS.)

Can anyone recommend a better program? There must be SOME program that will allow me to record in reasonably good quality without requiring 20+ Gb of hard drive space, which will record anything I tell it to and not only the ones it wants to. I don't know why it's so hard to find something... Please, help me, guys!

[TheFish]

I use DxTory http://exkode.com/dxtory-features-en.html and Lagarith Lossless Video Codec http://lags.leetcode.net/codec.html file sizes can be a little large depending on the game but I average about 1GB per 1 minute of recording at 720p without any loss in quality, and negligible performance impact. It's pretty cheap too at $35/£25. The best feature which really decided me to switch from FRAPS is the ability to record game audio and commentary in separate streams for easy editing :-) the only drawback is it can't record your desktop (which sucks if you're doing DF and want to record Therapist for example)

[miauw62]

Apparently OBS (Open Broadcasting Software) can also be used for recording videos. And streaming, if you want to. It's free and open source, what else do you want?

[Sappho]

Apparently OBS (Open Broadcasting Software) can also be used for recording videos. And streaming, if you want to. It's free and open source, what else do you want?

As I described in my first post, I am already using OBS, and it's great except that it only records in .mp4/.flv, and the videos are extremely low quality (since it's designed for streaming). I need something higher quality than that, though not quite as high as high-def Quicktime.

DxTory sounds okay, but the file sizes are way too big. I'm recording several hours at a time and generally don't have more than about 20 GB of space free at once.

I tried a few others today. Action! worked well, but it records in a strange codec which can't be played by some video players. So far it's my top choice, but it's annoying to not be able to view the videos outside of Premiere to quick-check them before editing. I also tried D3DGear, but it doesn't seem to have any option to record a single program. It just captures the whole desktop, which would mean a *lot* of extra work in editing afterwards.

I'm actually quite surprised that there doesn't seem to be the kind of capture program I'm looking for. OBS is almost perfect! It would be perfect, if only the quality wasn't so awful. I mean, it's really very bad. Blurry video, errors and artifacts all over the place. And paradoxically, trying to increase the video settings actually decreases the final quality, presumably because it can't keep up with the game at that quality (a problem I never had with Fraps, so I know it's not my system).

Are there any other suggestions? Thanks for the efforts to help so far, they are much appreciated.