About Videos…

My process of recording the live footage of game play is heavily guided by Matt Burris. Though, I’ve chosen my own methods in converting the videos I recorded.

First things first. You’ll definitely need a high end system to be able to play the Games I play. And if it’s good enough, you’ll not feel slowness when you record videos while playing. Even I thought about the game play getting affected while recording live footage. But after I saw how it worked, it was awesome and incredibly superb. But, rest assured that if your system is not good enough, your game play will surely be affected.

To test your System configuration for latest games and the kind of experience you can expect, I suggest 3DMark ‘06 (or 3DMark Vantage if it’s released by the time you read this) to test your Graphics Card capabilities. If you’re not sure, you can go for the free online version of their test engine named ORB and test your machine without having to install anything.

My system is not an high end one, but closer enough to give me the edge on latest games. Here is the configuration of my system:

  • Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Ultimate x64 Edition
  • Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Core Processor @ 2.40 GHz, 8 MB L2 Cache, 1066 MHz FSB – More Info
  • Intel® Original Classic Desktop Board DG33FB – More Info
  • 4 GB DDR2 RAM
  • NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, 512 MB – More Info
  • AOC 22″ Widescreen TFT Monitor with native resolution of 1680×1050 – More Info
  • 500 GB SATA II Master Hard Disk and two 320 GB SATA II Hard Disks for storing stuff
  • Logitech Gaming Mouse and Keyboard combo
  • Creative Inspire M5300 5.1 Speaker System – More Info
  • Creative SoundBlaster® Audigy Value 5.1,6.1,7.1 dedicated Sound Card – More Info
  • Samsung DVD Writer
  • ATX Gaming Dual Fan Cabinet

Secondly, you’ll need software to record, capture and convert the videos and screen shots that I show here in my Blog.

For recording video and taking screen shots (or even benchmarking how much frames per second you’re getting), the best software is Fraps (recommended by my friend Matt Burris). This software is excellent in it’s own right. It supports video recording, screen shots capturing and benchmarking all while not affecting your game play. The movies recorded by Fraps is outstanding in quality that it takes huge space in your hard drive. 5 minutes of recording in 1680×1050 resolution in my PC gave me 3.2 GB of size. So, please make sure you have enough space to record videos. The videos are recorded in AVI format. The software is available as limited free version as well as full paid version for just US$37.00 (as on writing this).

For converting the recorded videos to web playable FLV format, my friend Matt Burris recommends a costly but awesome Flix Pro. But fortunately, the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium I bought long ago to fulfill all my design needs also includes a Flash Video Encoder which is superb in quality. But the problem is, it takes longer times in encoding the videos. I’ve never tried Flix Pro though as I don’t want to shed out US$249.00 (as on writing this) for the same. But by searching in internet, I was able to find an alternative to Flash Video Encoder and Flix Pro. This one is ultra fast in conversion (If you deselected Preview option). Also, it supports wide variety of video formats to convert to (not just FLV). It’s an ultimate tool and cheap (US$35.00 as on writing this) too. The software is, Wondershare Video Converter Platinum 3.2. But, please don’t take my word for it. I didn’t used much softwares to compare. I only choose this from TopTenReviews and comparing others, it solved my purpose effectively. There are free tools also available if you want to just convert to FLV format. I didn’t used much varieties. So, it’s up to you to choose any software you may please that gives you the excellent edge over performance and quality.

While converting the AVI to FLV, you should see the configurations carefully. Usually the main configurations were Bitrate, Framerate,  Resolutions and Audio Bitrate. I recommend using Flash Video Encoder. Though it’s very slower than Wondershare Video Converter, it produces good quality (file size is higher than Wondershare of course). While configuring, you should always balance performance versus quality. I on the other hand compromise much on performance if the quality is good. I also try to reduce the size of the file maximum possible while keeping the quality high. The settings I use for my clips in this Blog is as follows:

  • Video Codec: On2 VP6 (Compatible from Flash Player 8 onwards. Older ones should use Sorenson Spark)
  • Data Rate (Bitrate): 1500 kbps (this is higher one, if you want reduced size, please set lower ones.)
  • Keyframe placement: every 2 seconds
  • Frame Rate (Frames per Second): 30 fps
  • Audio Bitrate: 128 kbps
  • Resolution: 720×450 (iPod compatible widescreen high resolution)

If you are looking for effective alternatives to Wondershare, Adobe Flash/Media Encoder and On2 Flix Pro, I recommend the following suite of softwares to help you on the road.

  • Ultra Video Converter
  • Ultra Video Splitter
  • Ultra Video Joiner

All of the above softwares are available from their manufacturer website: Aone Software

That’s all, you’ll be ready to roll. For displaying FLV videos in your site, I recommend Jeroen Wjering’s FLV Media Player. It’s free and superb cool. I’m using a customized version of this Media Player along with VideoBox with custom flash video display settings.

For displaying the screenshots, I’m using SlimBox. It’s the ultimate lightweight LightBox 2 clone based on Moo Tools JavaScript Framework. As VideoBox uses SlimBox code and Moo Tools code, it’s difficult for both to reside on the same page. Though VideoBox displays pictures also, it’s annoyingly bitter and SlimBox does excellent work. I’ve customized the JavaScript code to make sure both can run side by side. The SlimBox code uses latest Moo Tools and LightBox 2 code hence, giving excellent work. On the other hand, VideoBox is little bit old code so sometimes the video animation and display might be choppy. But I have to live with it. If you want high performance video play, please use Jeroen Wjering’s FLV Media Player I’ve mentioned above as it is without any extra fittings. There is a wizard available in his website which will give you the HTML code to be put in your pages for any FLV file you uploaded. However, I would recommend that keep a local copy of his MediaPlayer in your Server instead of referencing from his website (that’s what the Wizard does by default). Just upload the required files in your Server, use the Wizard to generate HTML code and replace the mediaplayer.swf file’s path to your own server path.

Let me know your comments/suggestions to mail AT sripauljoseph DOT com.

Thanks again for visiting my blog…