I want to start a career in Let's Playing LOL!

After watching people do Let's Play videos on Youtube, I kinda got in the mood to try my hand at it myself. Problem is, I don't know how :(I tried what how to videos told me by using video capturing software like Camtasia or Hypercam to do so, but I can't figure out what to do. I record my gameplay then as I end it & as the capture program finishes the recording I get a video file that I seem to can not view with any video player like MPC (Media Player Classic).Same goes with emulators that have a built in "Record a movie" option like SNES9X or VBA. I would get an AVI file that doesn't have video output at all.Somebody told me that I need a capture card for this, do I really need one? Also, somebody said I need to do some video editing to make the video work. In this regard can anybody give me a tutorial for dummies on how to do this?

capture card is for capturing from external sources, so no.

Replying to #2

Thanks at least that's one less thing to worry about.

Loonylion · #2capture card is for capturing from external sources, so no.

Useful for doing Let's Plays from your TV or something.

you need a fast hard disk to capture video (either U320 SCSI or SATAII). You might be able to get away with using a PATA100 disk providing it is on a dedicated channel and is not used for anything else. You don't a 15k rpm drive but it must be at least 7,200RPM, 5,400RPM drives have too much rotational latency.Realistically it should be at least 500GB as video uses a lot of space very quickly. SSDs are not suitable due to low capacity and relatively poor write speeds.you need a fairly beefy processor (more so if you are planning on editing the video), and if you are planning to edit then you need a second fast hard disk to output to (you can render to the source disk but its not recommended) Both disks must be separate to the one containing your OS and pagefile. For editing the rule is capture at the lowest possible compression level.Both video disks must be kept defragmented.

Woah! :oThat's a lot of gear to consider then? I do have a 7,200rpm SATA Hard disk, but you say it's preferable to have two woah!I'm not going to make a very elaborate video like what firewizard23 ( http://www.youtube.com/user/Firewizard23#p/a ) does where he splices footage of himself on webcam reacting to stuff that happens in the games he plays, or like the ones freezinginferno ( http://www.youtube.com/user/FreezingInfernos#p/a) does where he makes animations for his videos. I'm just thinking of making simple gameplay videos with or without commentary.

the complexity of the video has more effect on the amount of CPU/ram required than disk. video inherently involves high datarates and thus the need for two separate disks. My video editing station has 5 hard disks (technically 4, since two are mirrored and thus only appear as one disk to the operating system). 1 (actually 2 mirrored) for the operating system and programs, one for scratch data and pagefile, one for source video and one for rendered (=output) video.

Hey, as for CamStudio Not making playable videos, I convert them to a standard avi with format factory: http://format-factory.en.softonic.com/ ( I KNOW it seems a little suspicious, avoid the ask toolbar in installation and It's the BEST converter ever made free. Shit, it rips CDs and DVDs too.)I use Cam to record my flash animations while running from SWF, this actually reduces tearing as opposed to conversion, so this is how I know.And what you can do after that, pretty much, is splice your clips together in pretty much anyt standard videdit program (Movie Maker,Sonyt Vegas, Adobe Premiere) and narrate the play.

watch this it should tell you what to do http://www.youtube.com/user/TheShockSuspect?blend=2&ob=1#p/u/3/rk0gwlUJpy0

@personuser: That's it! I don't know what to do with that SWF file that videocapturing software creates after the recording!And uh, yeah I don't have any clue in using things like Windows Movie Maker as well.@solarblurryzx: Thanks, I'll look into it.EDIT:@solarblurryzx: The video link you gave is for recording DS game play. I'm not going for that as I'm pretty much of a retro gamer using emulators.

Remember, mass inflecting of your voice is "GOOD!"
HCBailly.

Cahos Rahne Veloza · #10@personuser: That's it! I don't know what to do with that SWF file that videocapturing software creates after the recording!And uh, yeah I don't have any clue in using things like Windows Movie Maker as well.

O-kay.Step 1: insert microphone into computer.Step 2: Open MovieMakerStep 3: Import Video.Step 4: Step 5: Record your voice talking about the game and yourselfStep 6: Add titlesStep 7: When adding titles, so not use the standard colors/fades and DO NOT use times new roman, it looks amateur and crap. Get a font that looks like one from the game (e.g. for a mario game use chlorinap aka mario world font)Step 8: Export movieStep 9: UploadStep 10:???Step 11: Profit.

don't use swf format, it sucks. use a standard video format.

@personuser: Thanks, that's what I was actually looking for :)But I'll skip on the "profit" bit LOL!@loony: sadly some emulators with movie recording features do use SWF as the video format.EDIT: Reply to TheKholdOne's post below:Thanks, I'll try that recorder out as well.

Get Hypercam 2. It's free now and it works very well for most computers and emulators. Just don't record anything at a higher resolution and framerate than your computer can handle. Then you get sound/video desync.