Part of the fun of playing a video game on a PC is sharing in-game photos with friends. Until FRAPS came along, the process was quite complicated. With FRAPS, capturing a photo while playing a game is as easy as a keystroke. FRAPS isn’t new, it’s been around for a few years but you may not have heard of it. Here are some shots from Far Cry, an older game but still one of the favorites around this office:
One of the ghost ‘copters that can’t be destroyed but never attacks.
We like to collect vehicles and boats. These are all one owner vehicles…
Download FRAPS here: FRAPS and install it. Directions are easy to follow, just make sure you start FRAPS before you start the game. You can choose to have the frame rate shown on your game screen, the original purpose of FRAPS, and then choose to record stills or videos. We’ve found FRAPS to be foolproof, simple and a great tool to test out your computer and/or new video card.
TIP: FRAPS saves stills as BMP files, rather large file size. If you’re going to post or share images, open each one up in Irfanview and change them over to JPGs. File size in the JPG format, because it is a compression or ‘lossy’ system, is much smaller.
The problem: my digital camera records video in the MP4 format. Because of that, I can’t split the audio from the video in most video editing programs. I use Windows Live Movie Maker most of the time and this free program doesn’t offer splitting audio from video anyway. The video is in high definition and looks great but today I had to shoot a scene where only the audio could be used.
The solution: This is a multi-step process. Here’s how I edited the whole thing to create a movie using only the audio from the original shoot.
1. Edit the video (sound and all) in Windows Live Movie Maker, removing all the extra sections. Make sure you remove everything you don’t need. WLMM will edit MP4s but it outputs the file as a WMV file, which isn’t a problem.
2. Take the completed WMV file and convert it to a WMA audio file in Format Factory. Format Factory is available here: http://www.formatoz.com/ (you can use any converter you want, obviously, but I like Format Factory.)
3. Open WLMM again and put in the visuals that you want to use, could be video or photographs. Try to make sure it is the same length as the audio track you have created in the previous step. I used a series of photos to create the video portion.
4. Add the ‘music’ (the WMA file that you created with Format Factory) that you created in step 2. It could be music or spoken word, doesn’t matter. Your timeline will have to be adjusted to make the audio match the photos/video but that’s easy.
5. Save your video as normal and WLMM will put the two together in the final WMV that it creates.
That’s it! It took me a few hours to figure this out but now I know how to do it. So do you!
2. Hook it up to your VCR as described in the instructions and then to your computer using the supplied USB cable.
3. Follow the instructions to install the capture software.
TIP: Guard the program shortcut with your life! Once you install the software, it’s very hard to find the shortcut if you move it. I’m a geek and found it hard to find. Warning!
4. Start the capture software. You’ll see a screen like this:
This is the menu that you DON'T want to see.
What’s wrong with this image? The green line across the bottom, that’s what. Down on the lower left is an X. If you see this kind of screen, hit the X and reopen the program. Maybe this is just on my computer but I have to restart the program in order to get rid of the green lines on the bottom.
Your screen should look like this:
This is what you should see before you start playing a tape.
Once you can see this screen, you’re ready to go.
5. Pop a tape into your VCR (could be Beta or VHS or camcorder, it doesn’t matter what you use as a source). Start to play it and you’ll see this kind of screen:
The video on the screen with no scan lines on the bottom.
6. Once you can see this kind of image in the window, you’re all set. Use the VCR to control the tape, then record the bits and pieces that you want to save using the One Touch controls. The red button records what’s in the window, including sound if you have the cables set up correctly, and the black button (which turns red after you start recording) stops the capture.
7. In the Settings menu, shown here:
Here's where you adjust the settings.
This is showing the Record tab where you can set the file type (I use DVD for small file size) and save the files in a folder on my desktop. Set your preferences according to your tastes.
8. Once you have the tapes sorted and have saved the files that you want, rename them to keep track of them and then you can archive them to DVDs, etc. I prefer to change the files to either FLV or DIVX in order to keep the files as small as possible. If the video if very important, leave it was a DVD file and write it to a disc.
That’s it! Simple and cheap, without the pain of having to have a TV monitor cluttering up your desk or work area. Not only does this method capture fine quality video (depending on the source, of course), it eliminates the need for a video monitor. Alternatively, you can feed your TV output into this unit and watch and record live TV on your computer.
Thanks for reading! If you have questions or comments, write them below or follow me on Twitter: @_BrianMahoney
There are times when we’d like to capture a video that is on our computer screen, whether it is from a webcam or a streaming video site such as Netlflix. Until I found CamStudio , I was stuck with doing individual screen captures with Irfanview. Here’s a short course on how to use CamStudio.
1. Download and install CamStudio. It’s free and available here: http://camstudio.org/
2. Head over to your Start button and find CamStudio. When you find it, the menu looks like this:
For recording, choose Camstudio-Recorder
3. Choose Camstudio-Recorder. The program will start in a few seconds and you’ll be faced with this menu:
The red button records, the blue button stops the recording.
4. The main menu gives you all the controls you need to use CamStudio. Red for record, blue for stop and so on. Under Region you’ll see this:
I use Region and then drag out my choice in the video window.
5. Choose what area you want to record. If you choose ‘Region’ and click the red record button, you will have to click on the video window of your choice and then drag a rectangle/square shape of what you want to save. This is great for webcam windows but not for Netflix. For Netflix you would choose Select Screen. If you always use CamStudio for a certain size window, set it up in Fixed Region. If you have two monitors and want to record both, choose All Screens.
6. When you click the red button the recording box will flash, showing you that CamStudio is working. When you’re done, click the blue button. Depending on what you’ve chosen in your Options, CamStudio will then render your video and save it.
7. You have a pretty complete set of options in CamStudio. I’m not going to get into all of them here but I’ll give you some tips.
Tip 1: I save all of my captures as ‘avi’ files. The SWF format didn’t work. These saved avi files can be saved to your desktop or a folder in CamStudio. I STRONGLY recommend that you set up a folder on your desktop. The CamStudio folder is very hard to find. I’m an expert computer user and I had a hard time finding the actual files. CamStudio uses a shortcut system and keeps the actual avi files in a separate folder.
Tip 2: If you use dual monitors, play around with the settings. CamStudio works fine with dual monitors but I found that I had to play with the video options as well as which monitor recorded from in order to make it work. It seemed that CamStudio worked best on my main screen (number 1 in Windows screen selection menu). Give it a shot and see what you can sort out. Write it down so you’ll remember what you did.
Tip 3: Choose the option for having CamStudio name the saved file for you and don’t choose to let CamStudio play the video as soon as it has saved it. If you are in the middle of recording something, you don’t want to be bothered with naming or watching the file. Just record what you want now and watch the video later.
That’s it for now. CamStudio is free and works extremely well. There are ample options to choose from so play with them and work out what’s best for you. For free software, it’s a pretty sweet setup.
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter: @_BrianMahoney
a little bit of hi-tech, a little bit of common sense and a lot of fun
