Good vid capturing program for filmviewer besides FRAPS?

[Treize69]

I have the latest version of FRAPS, been using it for years (used it to make all my old vids), but for whatever reason it doesn't work for crap anymore- as soon as I hit 'record' with it, my FR drops to sub-15 and the film is so shaky as to be completely unusable (I've tried recording at slower film speed to compensate, no dice). It's bad enough when I record in-game, but using filmviewer (where I really need it) is completely hopeless. I've done everything I can think of to fix the problem, but I think its time to throw it on the dust heap and find a new capturing program.

So, does anyone else use anything similar that they can recommend? I have good video editing software, but I'm at wits end trying to find a way to get film to edit!

[jimson]

No personal experience, but have heard good things about "Guncam"
http://www.growlersoftware.com/

[Treize69]

Have that, it only records guncam-style. I use it occasionally, but its not right for what I need.

[Krusty]

Have you tried older versions of FRAPS? Latest version has an FPS lock. Used to (before) record frames as your system produced them, now it'll lock in "X" FPS regardless of actual system output. Try toggling that on or off. I'd imagine it might bog down an otherwise slower system.

Or, just find an older installation file and run that, if you had success with them in the past.

[Treize69]

Tried that Krusty, started out with it unlocked at 60FPS and tried tweaking from there. Got pretty much the same results no matter what.

[Krusty]

You're trying to record 60 fps?? Dude, no wonder.

That will probably kill most systems out there.

Remember, you're not just "rendering" 60 fps... you're rendering 60fps, analyzing each and every frame, adding said frame into a file, and compressing said file. It's not just a video function, it's using a heckuva lot of CPU, RAM, heck, the entire system to do that.

What's the result if you drop to half screen size and (let's make an example) 15 fps?

[Treize69]

You're trying to record 60 fps?? Dude, no wonder.

That will probably kill most systems out there.

Remember, you're not just "rendering" 60 fps... you're rendering 60fps, analyzing each and every frame, adding said frame into a file, and compressing said file. It's not just a video function, it's using a heckuva lot of CPU, RAM, heck, the entire system to do that.

What's the result if you drop to half screen size and (let's make an example) 15 fps?

I said I started there then worked down. Right now its at the lowest setting possible, sound turned off, lowest resloution. Last attempt at recording- 13FPS.

[Krusty]

Okay. You're right. I wsn't sure how far "down" you went.

Something's not right. Can you list your system specs (without posting an entire DXdiag printout)?

CPU
GPU
RAM/type/speed
motherboard (if known)
Desktop resolution/vidcardsettings (i.e. FSAA, aniso, supersampling)
What you have running at desktop idle (how many processes)

I haven't noticed THAT bad a hit with the latest levels, and my card is pretty budget-level. I can still get 20fps at high res with details turned up capturing at 30fps or so. That's a lot for me! I think maybe it's specific to you, at this point, and maybe somebody can offer a suggestions -- somebody more in-the-know than myself.


EDIT: This is all related to the intial question, but to avoid a hi-jack, the answer is "no" I don't know of any others. I did a bit of looking before folks suggested FRAPs, because I did not like the 30sec limit and the "tag" on the unregistered version. I never really found anything satisfactory for games recording.

[Treize69]

I'm going to try tinkering with Growler (as recommended above) to see if I can get FRAPS type results. If I can't I'll get back to tinkering with FRAPS, if I can I'll just stick with that for a while. I've been using Growler so long as a guncam that I forgot completely that you can edit the settings to use it as an actual video recorder. 

[Fulmar]

I found a bug, at least with my computer, a while back where my FPS in game would be fine but in the Film Viewer (even not on record with Fraps) my FPS was noticeably lagged.  By fluke chance I discovered when I was using the Film Viewer if I had Windows Media Player open it solved my issues.  I think Skuzzy posted it was an issue with DirectShow.  That was on XP 32bit, haven't recorded anything since I moved to 7.

[Treize69]

Hmm, I'll have to try that Fulmar. Thanks. 

[Krusty]

Even Skuzzy or Pyro made a mention of the WMP workaround once, way back. I can't say it ever really helped my particular setups, but I tried it a few times way back. Definitely the easiest workaround you ever saw! 

[ImADot]

Cool, I'll have to remember to try that.

When I built my latest PC, I registered FRAPS to get the full version.  Every time I tried to record it would jerk and stutter all over - very disappointing since my FPS never drops below 55 in-game.  I locked the FPS to 30 for all recordings.  Finally figured it was because I was running a RAID5 array as my only hard drive.  Dropped a single drive in the 'puter outside of the RAID just for recording, and recordings have been smooth ever since.

[Treize69]

Still no luck, Growler does the exact same thing. I think for some reason its my filmviewer that does it (and I tried the windows media player idea too).

Think I'm just screwed until I can manage to get a new computer sometime in the distant future. 

[Kermit de frog]

Still no luck, Growler does the exact same thing. I think for some reason its my filmviewer that does it (and I tried the windows media player idea too).

Think I'm just screwed until I can manage to get a new computer sometime in the distant future. 

Fraps works fine for me if recording live from the game, but the planes stutter when recording from the film viewer.  This problem of planes stuttering in the Film viewer has been around since at least Nov 2007.  Ever since they tried to make the plane movements smoother.  Before the movements were smooth, the planes were jerky, but didn't stutter.

The work around is to record live from the game.  You'll get superb results, but you are very limited in the camera shots and a myriad of new challenges.