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I'd like to capture game footage to my computer, but before I even start looking for the means to do it, I really need to know if I even need a remotely powerful machine to do it?
I have literally no idea what the task actually entails in terms of equipment or software, and was hoping those of you who do this sort of thing could give me your preferred methods of doing it.
To be clear, are you looking to record something on your computer, or do you want to record something from your TV and then put it on the computer? If it's the former, the most commonly used software is a free program called FRAPS. I don't think you need a super-powered machine to work with it. It just records what's on your computer screen.
If it's the other way, some people just record their gameplay to a DVD and then rip that to their computer. That might be the simplest way to do it, but there could be other solutions. I'm just going off the top of my head here.
FRAPS brings me down to single-digit FPS if I use it. I want to record console footage, but then I want to be able to commentate as well (yeah, I'm another asshole wanting to do let's plays) so I guess I'll just have to experiment with ways to sync while using the DVD-recording route.
Again, unless someone else suggests a better method.
Curious, can you give me some specs for your PC? It might just be in need of some upgrades. But since I haven't tried using FRAPS yet, I don't know that even my relatively new computer could handle it.
If you want to record high res (1280x720 or more) video of the games you play on your PC, you'll probably want at least a quad core i5 at around 3 GHz, or a dedicated video encoding card, whatever those are called. You'll also want a fast and big hard disk, because fraps videos have very little compression done to them during capture. For example, 20 seconds of 1920x1080 30 fps video takes 900 MB before post-capture compression. You can compress this later, of course, but while it's being recorded, it'll be this big.
Alternatively, if using fraps, you can make fraps record using fewer frames than the game runs at, as well as halving the resolution during capture. This will make videos a lot smaller.
If you want to record console games, you'll either have to emulate it (if it's a Wii/PS2 game or from an older console than those), or get a video capture card that has the inputs that your game system supports.
-edit-
I also just did a test for my ps2 emulator. Persona 4 runs at full speed while capturing 800x600 at 30fps, that's on a 3.2GHz core 2 quad. 22 seconds took 400 MB.
The lower the resolution, the easier will it also be for your PC to encode the videos with powerful compression in real time. If you want to stream things in real time on like twitch.tv, you should probably settle with a vertical resolution of less than 480, just to ensure that you can upload it in real time.
About how big are the size files for the standard 1080i footage for 1 hour long gameplay? I'll need to see if I should invest in another hard drive.