To get started you are going to need something to record. I recommend Dxtory due to the fact that it can record with different codecs which can file sizes without losing quality and you can separate out different sound channels if you set it up right.
You can use FRAPS if you want, it is the easiest and most widely used program but it is also a giant hog in resources and uses up a lot of space as it doesnt record compressed video, everything is uncompressed so file sizes usually end up being 4gb for about 1-2 min long videos.
So for the purpose of this guide I'm going to show you how to set up Dxtory with the best settings I've found so far. It involves getting Dxtory, downloading a codec and then simply just following the pictures that I will provide below.
So first go get Dxtory from here http://exkode.com/dxtory-downloads-en.html and download the latest STABLE version. You can go for the LATEST version but sometimes it doesnt play well. I've had problems in the past where it wouldnt let me record WoW unless I was using the 32bit version and it was a bitch downgrade afterwards.
Next you will need to get hold of the x264 codec from here. This will let you record your footage in the current standard h.264 which will allow you to record (if set up right) with good quality and small file sizes.
Right so when you have all that downloaded you might need to restart your computer, (I might be wrong about this, it was a long time ago when I did it, but usually its a good practice to restart your computer if you are installing codecs anyway) if not just run Dxtory if it isn't already running and you should get the screen below.
From here first of all you will need to setup where you are going to record your video to. I suggest recording to another hard drive than the games you are playing for optimal recording from what I have read up on and tried in the past is to try to record to a hard drive that is RAID. I'm not going to go into the technicals (cause I'm not sure of them myself) about it but it has faster read/write speeds so its better to record to it.
So this part is easy all you need to do is navigate to the tab above, it looks like a blue folder/half opened laptop. Press the button with the green plus on it. Select on there the folder/drive you are going to record into.
When that appears in the list below this you need to make sure that there is a tick in the check box next to the folder path and then press the meter button on the left side of the listing. This will benchmark your drive, if you are going to be recording to a single drive it will usually benchmark the drive around 70-75 MB/sec if it is raided it will usually go to between 90-120 MB/sec which is why I said earlier to try and record to a RAID drive if possible.
Right when that is done you need to press the tab next to the last one that looks like a keyboard. This one is easy so I wont provide a screenshot for it. it's just the keybinds tab. Select a key you want to use to record, I personally use NUMMULT which is the asterisk key on the numpad but you can use anything you want just make sure you dont use a key that you would normally use in-game as it you will be constantly starting and stopping your recordings =P.
The next tab along after the keybinds is the video tab, this is where you need to do all your recording setting up.
First thing you will need to do is select the x264vfw codec, it is usually the last one on the screen. This will need to be configured but I will get to that after this part.
Frame rate, set this to 30, if you are recording for YouTube don't bother putting it above 30. YouTube will only show your video at 30fps regardless if you recorded it at 60fps. Also recording in 60fps requires a bit of a beefy computer, I personally cant record wow at 60fps even though I get 150fps in game.
You want File Output checked but don't need DirectShow Output checked, only check this if you are wanting to mess around with live streaming. I can get into that later if anyone wants some info on it. File Formate stays as AVI no need to change that, and the rest of the settings can stay as default there isnt any other reason to change them unless you are wanting to play at say 1080p and record in 720p (doing this will ruin your quality a little bit, but again never done it so I cant fully comment).
Now for setting up the codec. Next to the codec drop down there is a pointy pen looking icon, you need to press that and get something similar to below.
They have really dumbed this down, there used to be about 5 different tabs with all sorts of non-sense that I knew nothing about but this one is way better and easier to set up. I'm not going to go through all the settings here mainly because even though they have dumbed it down and cut lots out I still have no real idea what any of this does. I would just copy what I have in the above screenshot and you should get decent quality with small file sizes.
Next is sound, fairly simple, as you can see in the above screenshot there are buttons near the top that say 1, 2, 3. These are all sound channels which Dxtory will record. The more you have the higher the file size but the easier it is to edit a video.
Unless you have more than 1 sound card or a USB headset you will only need to really set up 2 channels. I have 3 because the first one is my sounds, its everything I hear from my headset. The second one is my mic, that is record separate so it isn't overlaid onto the game sounds and I can edit out parts say if I randomly sneeze or swear (which isn't allowed on YouTube if you aren't a partner and have a mature rating) and the 3rd one is recording the output form the headphone jack on my mic so TS is separated from any game sounds that would normally be picked up on my headset.
For the codecs for all this, I just stick with PCM (which records in .wav format) using 44100 hz, 16 bit, Stereo. My hearing is terrible so I cant really tell the difference between them. What ever you do though don't try to record in .mp3, you will find that it will record okay but the video and sounds will not match or have a really weird delay. I've tried loads of ways to to fix this, as you might see on the screenshot I have 2 mp3 codecs and a LAME MP3 codec, but unfortunately I haven't found a way to make it work so I've just stuck with PCM as it has never let me down so far.
That is pretty much it, on the next tab that looks like a processor change your processing Threads near the bottom to 4 if you are using an i7 or 8 core chip otherwise leave it alone and you are done setting it all up.
Run a game and you will see the frame rate in the top left corner of the screen (unless you moved it) press the hotkey you setup and it will turn orange, a second number will appear and that is the frame rate in which you are recording. If it doesnt display a number and says something like INIT and wont turn off, then something is wrong, get me on TS and I'll try and walk through where the problem is.
When you are recorded your footage, there is one thing you will need to do before you edit. If you play a video you have recorded you will find out that it will only have the game sounds, you cant hear your mic or any other sound channels you have recorded. What you need to do is right click the video file and press Extract Audio Stream this will then proceed to extract the audio channels which you set up. for me I get 3 separate files, one the game audio, the mic audio and the TS3 audio. You will need these if you want to use them in your editing.
Thanks for reading and let me know if there is anything you are unsure on or dont understand, I have a bad habit of writing crap that doesn't make sense
