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Best way to record VJ sets? HELP

Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 23:29
by the_psychologist
Hi

Now that I'm fairly developed in my VJing, I need to record my sets. I would love to be able to grab 30fps MOVs or AVIs (hopefully a steady 30fps). The dream is to be able to capture at least 60 minutes with no interruptions in the recording.

I have a Phenom II x4 CPU, 8GB 1333 RAM, and an Nvidia GTX 460 w/ 2GB RAM. CPU usage hovers around 30% while I'm VJing. My comps are @ 720p. Codecs are either PicVideo MJPEG and/or DXV.

Here's what I have tried:

FRAPS - Creates a video with audio included, which is better than Resolume's separate audio/video tracks. I am able to capture my projector feed 100% when I record the desktop or VLC. I record to a SATA II SSD. When I try to record Resolume output using the exact same method, FRAPS seems to have trouble with starting/stopping and sometimes freezes. Some nights I can get lucky and record several clips from 1 to 3 minutes long. One interesting note is that FRAPS auto divides the recording into 4.5GB segments, which is not ideal.

Resolume record feature - Now this is weird. I press record, the button shows "recording", then it quits after 43 seconds. I never get more than 43 seconds recorded! Worse yet, the button never refreshes from the "recording" status, so I can't record a second clip until I have restarted the app. Quality is very nice, but this feature is almost worthless with this duration limitation. I'm using the latest Avenue, purchased during the big sale.

Has anyone managed to record 60 minute or longer clips of their sets (including audio from the DJ)? It seems like I may have to buy another piece of gear that will capture the A/V stream, but I don't know how this would work. Or maybe a stronger CPU could brute force screen capture of the stream?

Please help. It feels like I have lost so much good material by not being able to record properly.

Thanks

Re: Best way to record VJ sets? HELP

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:32
by Tschoepler
Hi,

The problem with limited recordings has been discussed before on this forum. Try the search.

Re: Best way to record VJ sets? HELP

Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 02:13
by the_psychologist
I found a short thread that revealed the max recording length in Resolume to be 2GB. Bummer!

Wish I could find a solution to recording long sets in HD.

Re: Best way to record VJ sets? HELP

Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2011 14:05
by SystemD

Re: Best way to record VJ sets? HELP

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 19:07
by vjsjarcie
I just tried to record with Camstudio which is freeware.
I was able to record windowed output as well as second screen output including sound.
Although I had to do a work around for the sound which also you can find on the internet.
Didn't try a full hour, just had time for a few minutes.
Maybe your system can handle the extra stress, my old lappie wasn't quite fast enough. :(
Hopefuly this is something you can use.

Re: Best way to record VJ sets? HELP

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 08:01
by Tschoepler
Appz like CamStudio or VirtualDub utilize the CPU to record and for some reason this interferes with Windows Aero. When Aero is switched off those tools perform way better. On the downside Avenue starts to render badly when Aero is switched off. So for now the only high-performance-quality solution @localhost is to use FRAPS with a powerful GPU.