Tech
Recording Console Gameplay
Lately I’ve taken an interest in trying to record some of my gameplay for future reference/bragging rights/etc. After doing some research on the idea a bit, I found a couple different ways to record your console gameplay while playing on your main TV.
There were three main ways I found to do this:
- Dazzle DVC 100
- Hauppauge HD PVR
- Blackmagic Intensity Pro - Video Input Adapter
The Dazzle is the cheapest way to go, and easiest. You still get pretty good quality videos, especially if you edit and render them with Sony Vegas Pro. It’s just a matter of buying the device, getting some male to male RCA cables (and Y splitters if your TV has no monitor out option), and you’re ready to record. The Hauppauge is actually a Personal Video Recorder, that uses component connections for a “HD” capture quality. It’s pretty much the same set up as the Dazzle, just with better quality, and a higher price tag. Finally, the Blackmagic Intensity Pro is the only real way to record HD quality. It’s actually an adapter you install in your computer that lets you hook up an HDMI cable to it so you can record in full HD. Of course, it’s the most expensive, and you’d also need some really long HDMI cables to make it work (also really expensive) unless you plan on playing your console off your PC monitor all the time.
I went ahead and bought the Dazzle DVC 100. Instead of just going the composite cables route, I wanted to go with S-Video, so I needed to buy a Video Distribution Amplifier (VDA). The total cost was about $200 for the Dazzle, 2 S-Video Cables, a PS3 S-Video Cable, and the VDA. The Hauppauge costs $200 on its own, so I don’t think my set up is a sunk cost (since I eventually plan on upgrading in the far future).
Here’s my latest test. I’ve been trying a lot of different settings and I think this is where I’m gonna stay, it looks pretty good for only being S-Video imo.