Since many people here record sessions, I was wondering about the pros and cons of various recorders available. My laptop came with a 1Tb drive, even though I’d rather have an SSD, so I have 700Gb free. In any case, I figure it could be helpful to record matches and glitches as they arise. A few different ones have been mentioned, but it’s all scattered and incomplete. Suggestions?
I myself use BandiCam. You can change the video recording quality, audio quality, export file type, save the audio into a separate file.
I use fraps when it decides it actually wants to function. Overall not that great but it does the job.
Bandicam > MSI Afterburner > > > Fraps
Bandicam is the superior product but free version is locked to 10 minutes recording time and a watermark that perfectly blocks SCon’s score counter. You can work around the 10 minute limit by pausing the video during boring periods in a match (like when respawning or camping) when the game looks like it’ll go the full 12 minutes. But nothing you can do about the watermark,
Afterburner is superb for a free app. It is buggy although not as much as Fraps and the compression is noticeably inferior to Bandicam so you’ll have to trade either quality or filesize but with 1TB on tap it shouldn’t matter.
Using either will still require you to reencode your vids so again filesize shouldn’t be an issue. Both Bandicam and Afterburner are buggy when it comes to recording my own mic input but I think its’ hardware not too sure. Bandicam managed to screw up my mic while Afterburner has a problem with volume but you might have better luck in that department.
I recommend trying both of them out.
I use OBS http://obsproject.com/ free, open source and high quality record, you just need to play with the settings for a while. For “casual” recording, simply use Xfire or TS’s Overwolf.
Bandicam. Seeing as I can record whatever length I want to, I’m ok with it. Plus, the video hogs a LOT less space than Fraps, so meh…
Besides… Videos speak for themselves. 1080p @ 60fps. Lowest I ever got was, iirc… 38 fps on Far Cry 3.
Quicktime does the trick with next to no effort. Not sure if it works for Windows; haven’t had a Windows computer for years.
Afterburner is superb for a free app. It is buggy although not as much as Fraps and the compression is noticeably inferior to Bandicam so you’ll have to trade either quality or filesize but with 1TB on tap it shouldn’t matter.
Using either will still require you to reencode your vids so again filesize shouldn’t be an issue. Both Bandicam and Afterburner are buggy when it comes to recording my own mic input but I think its’ hardware not too sure. Bandicam managed to screw up my mic while Afterburner has a problem with volume but you might have better luck in that department.
Not quite. Afterburner allows you to use any video codec installed to your system with any possible compression rate. Click on Settings -> Video capture -> Video format to configure, guess you never found that. 
Just note that the higher the compression the more CPU power is needed (in any recording software) so if FPS is an issue for you but HDD space/speed isn’t it’s typically better to record with little compression and to re-encode later.
Dunno about the mic volume issue, never had that. Try setting your two audio sources manually maybe if you didn’t already?
Dunno about the mic volume issue, never had that. Try setting your two audio sources manually maybe if you didn’t already?
I had this issue on Bandicam. I could record every output imaginable but I couldn’t record my own microphone. I’ve still to test my latest solution to that, but it MIGHT work…
My version of Afterburner wont allow me to select installed codec although I see the button, it’s greyed out and cannot be clicked on. Can only select from the pre-installed ones.
Uncompressed
RTV1
MJPG
VFW
Biggest advantage to Afterburner over Bandicam is the ability to record raw avi which is a must for peeps who dabble with video editing. VFW is an old codec so old in-fact that my win7 hasn’t got it set up properly. Never encountered RTV1 before this and Googling didn’t help give more info on it other than random peeps saying it’s a better choice over all the others IF your editing software supports the codec. For people who need to record raw videos though, Bandicam is not an option since it can’t do it.
Bandicam makes up for that by offering a wider array of current and mainstream codecs to choose from by default on top of being able to select codecs installed on my comp. Latest version also offers the kickass Nvidia H.264 avi which I’ve been using since the update. Regardless, bottleneck is still down to your editing software *and* most annoyingly, YouTube.
I did a comparo vid to check Bandicam vs Afterburner on Motion JP since that’s the only common ground between the two.
Was surprised to find that Afterburner does a perfect job at recording in MJPG when you leave it at default compression ie. 100 Quality but somehow messes things up if you change the slider down even at 99. Bandicam and all the other free video capture apps I’ve tried for some reason apply one kind of filter or another on the final vid so you get issues like definition loss or incorrect brightness, zooming etc when using MJPG. Which is why I never use it. But Afterburner’s did it clean and probably the best choice between the available codecs.
Source:
-
Afterburner = 3.6 GB - 4:28 minutes 114 Mbps
Bandicam = 3.2 GB - 4:27 minutes 102 Mbps
Trimmed and re-encoded to youtube friendly specs:
-
Afterburner = 45 MB - 1:50 minutes 3,446 kbps
Bandicam = 47 MB - 1:48 minutes 3,455 kbps
720p MP4 on YouTube
Afterburner = 22.9 MB - 1,766 kbps
Bandicam = 22.8 MB - 1,773 kbps
The difference in quality is subdued when I finally uploaded them onto YouTube but you can still spot them. Explosions and tiny objects lose definition for one and Foreground blending into Background even more noticeable on the YouTube MP4s.
Screenshot below for illustration. Afterburner is the one above, Bandicam below.
A - Tiny objects disappearing in Bandicam (pic below)
B - definition loss on the flames in Bandicam (pic below)
C - less stars on Bandicam (pic below)
D - Afterburner suffers color bleeding with Red
-
yus i got bored.
Let’s be honest, unless you’re posting these vids on your own site, using your own media player, it doesn’t really matter which one you get, because youtube/vimeo/etc will just xxxx it up so badly, they’ll be unrecognisable. I see the videos I post on youtube and compare them with the source video and the difference is just abysmal…
If you’re using these source videos on your own site with your own media player, then it DOES make sense to go for the best possible recorder.
I think i’m gonna play some SoaSE myself too xd
because youtube/vimeo/etc will just xxxx it up so badly, they’ll be unrecognisable. I see the videos I post on youtube and compare them with the source video and the difference is just abysmal…
yus… but I do keep source vids on epic games I may have had so 
but if you’re the type that purge everything once you upload to youtube then yea, video editor matters more than the capture software.
I think i’m gonna play some SoaSE myself too
farking delayed patches !!! argghhhhh …
yus… but I do keep source vids on epic games I may have had so
but if you’re the type that purge everything once you upload to youtube then yea, video editor matters more than the capture software.
Nah, I held on to every piece I recorded, so far, unless they had bad audio tracks.
My version of Afterburner wont allow me to select installed codec although I see the button, it’s greyed out and cannot be clicked on. Can only select from the pre-installed ones.
Uncompressed
RTV1
MJPG
VFW
Biggest advantage to Afterburner over Bandicam is the ability to record raw avi which is a must for peeps who dabble with video editing. VFW is an old codec so old in-fact that my win7 hasn’t got it set up properly.
Nub, VfW is not a codec, it’s a codec format/framework. It means video for windows. Select it and the button will be greyed out no more, allowing you to select VfW compatible codecs.
sigh * thank you !
Nvidia avi no watermark woohoo
So which should I use?
i need a better alternative to fraps…something that does NOT lag my games even more!
I’m looking for this bit of info as well 
Bandicam with Mixcraft 6. I’m still running tests to see if the audio is captured well, mind you.