A few questions (for steve/os staff)

[p2xgamers]

Hey,

I have a few questions for the staff or steve...whoever takes pics and videos of games before posting -

1. I'm assuming you use a capture card to take screen shots? If so, is there a good priced capture card that you could recommend to me? Or what is the kind you have?
2. What do you use to capture videos? The same thing or what?
3. To cut down the size of the video's and/or take out parts, do you use a video editor? If so, which one?

I'd really love to start taking screen shots and videos of my games to share with friends and post on my site, so this would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[Steve_OS]

Re: A few questions (for steve/os staff)

1. My debug Xbox came w/ some capture software. It only works on debugs.

2. I use a Pinnacle capture card for movie clips and use the software it comes with.

3. To cut down the size, etc. I use the same Pinnacle software, it's called Studio.

[Steve_OS]

Re: A few questions (for steve/os staff)

1. My debug Xbox came w/ some capture software. It only works on debugs.

2. I use a Pinnacle capture card for movie clips and use the software it comes with.

3. To cut down the size, etc. I use the same Pinnacle software, it's called Studio.

[p2xgamers]

Re: A few questions (for steve/os staff)

1. My debug Xbox came w/ some capture software. It only works on debugs.

2. I use a Pinnacle capture card for movie clips and use the software it comes with.

3. To cut down the size, etc. I use the same Pinnacle software, it's called Studio.

Ok, thanks.

[p2xgamers]

Re: A few questions (for steve/os staff)

1. My debug Xbox came w/ some capture software. It only works on debugs.

2. I use a Pinnacle capture card for movie clips and use the software it comes with.

3. To cut down the size, etc. I use the same Pinnacle software, it's called Studio.

Ok, thanks.

[Stormlor]

Re: A few questions (for steve/os staff)

You guys need any help on editing? My hobby is editing and animation (also my job). I use After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Logic and a ton of other expensive software (yes I buy software.)

I'm also looking into buying a breakout box within the next month so I can capture movies from my XBOX or PS2 and then edit them down in FCP.

BTW Steve I've been wondering why are all the movie files WMV or MPG files? You do know Mac's can't read those right? I'm on a Mac mainly (only use my PC to play games like World of Warcraft -- Ah I can't wait for that :P). Every time I DL a movie I have to convert the MPG or WMV files into QuickTime using some converter software that I have on my mac. Then I have re-save them as Quicktime at Higher Resoultion (Software only converts MPGs and WMVs into 320x240). Sometimes Quicktimes can be bigger then WMV and MPGs but to please everybody (including our Linux and Unix fans) we should do something like that. Not all of us are using shisty Micro$oft Winblows.

[Stormlor]

Re: A few questions (for steve/os staff)

You guys need any help on editing? My hobby is editing and animation (also my job). I use After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Logic and a ton of other expensive software (yes I buy software.)

I'm also looking into buying a breakout box within the next month so I can capture movies from my XBOX or PS2 and then edit them down in FCP.

BTW Steve I've been wondering why are all the movie files WMV or MPG files? You do know Mac's can't read those right? I'm on a Mac mainly (only use my PC to play games like World of Warcraft -- Ah I can't wait for that :P). Every time I DL a movie I have to convert the MPG or WMV files into QuickTime using some converter software that I have on my mac. Then I have re-save them as Quicktime at Higher Resoultion (Software only converts MPGs and WMVs into 320x240). Sometimes Quicktimes can be bigger then WMV and MPGs but to please everybody (including our Linux and Unix fans) we should do something like that. Not all of us are using shisty Micro$oft Winblows.

[Steve_OS]

Re: A few questions (for steve/os staff)

LOL, I didn't know that. Interesting....

Well, the only reason I used .wmv is because they are the smallest in size. I can get 4 minute clips at around 15 to 20 MB. That's pretty good IMO. Not sure how to capture in QuickTime format, I would guess I'd have to buy the full version, but it seems QT movies are rather large.

[Steve_OS]

Re: A few questions (for steve/os staff)

LOL, I didn't know that. Interesting....

Well, the only reason I used .wmv is because they are the smallest in size. I can get 4 minute clips at around 15 to 20 MB. That's pretty good IMO. Not sure how to capture in QuickTime format, I would guess I'd have to buy the full version, but it seems QT movies are rather large.

[Stormlor]

Re: A few questions (for steve/os staff)

LOL, I didn't know that. Interesting....

Well, the only reason I used .wmv is because they are the smallest in size. I can get 4 minute clips at around 15 to 20 MB. That's pretty good IMO. Not sure how to capture in QuickTime format, I would guess I'd have to buy the full version, but it seems QT movies are rather large.

Well sometimes yes and sometimes no. Qucktime does enable streaming which is fantastic :P Plus if you take a Quicktime movie into Flash MX 2004, the file size will be a lot smaller. Compressing the video also helps alot if you plan on putting it online.

I had a 600 MB Planetside Video that I made, compressed it using Compressor, made sure Internet Streaming was checked, and put it into Flash MX 2004, then in Flash shrunk the video to 640x480 instead of TV layout of 720x440. Knocked the size down of the file to about 150 MB. This can always be differnet depending how you are capturing. If your using a TV/Capture card your going to get the worst quality, but if you capture using a breakout box like formac DV Studio (www.formac.com) then you will get great quality instead of a huge amount of pixels (when I view WMV's on my PC with a 19" monitor with 1280x1024 at full screen, pretty much all you see is pixels)

Steve do you have any control over the pages you have on the site? What I mean is can you change the way the table scrutute is done? I've done this on some sites and it works great:

Make a table with 4 columns. In the first put the name of the movie, second WMV file, third with a .MOV file, and 4th the date of when it was uploaded. Because of this it shows more orgainzation over your videos. Also if someone wants to DL the WMV file they can, and if they want the better (IMO) version download the Quicktime. Quicktime works on all Macs, PCs, Linux, and Unix machines.

If you need some help let me know, I've been working in this industry since 1996.

[Stormlor]

Re: A few questions (for steve/os staff)

LOL, I didn't know that. Interesting....

Well, the only reason I used .wmv is because they are the smallest in size. I can get 4 minute clips at around 15 to 20 MB. That's pretty good IMO. Not sure how to capture in QuickTime format, I would guess I'd have to buy the full version, but it seems QT movies are rather large.

Well sometimes yes and sometimes no. Qucktime does enable streaming which is fantastic :P Plus if you take a Quicktime movie into Flash MX 2004, the file size will be a lot smaller. Compressing the video also helps alot if you plan on putting it online.

I had a 600 MB Planetside Video that I made, compressed it using Compressor, made sure Internet Streaming was checked, and put it into Flash MX 2004, then in Flash shrunk the video to 640x480 instead of TV layout of 720x440. Knocked the size down of the file to about 150 MB. This can always be differnet depending how you are capturing. If your using a TV/Capture card your going to get the worst quality, but if you capture using a breakout box like formac DV Studio (www.formac.com) then you will get great quality instead of a huge amount of pixels (when I view WMV's on my PC with a 19" monitor with 1280x1024 at full screen, pretty much all you see is pixels)

Steve do you have any control over the pages you have on the site? What I mean is can you change the way the table scrutute is done? I've done this on some sites and it works great:

Make a table with 4 columns. In the first put the name of the movie, second WMV file, third with a .MOV file, and 4th the date of when it was uploaded. Because of this it shows more orgainzation over your videos. Also if someone wants to DL the WMV file they can, and if they want the better (IMO) version download the Quicktime. Quicktime works on all Macs, PCs, Linux, and Unix machines.

If you need some help let me know, I've been working in this industry since 1996.

[Steve_OS]

Re: A few questions (for steve/os staff)

Do they have a formac for pc?? I don't have a Mac. I have a tv/card in my system for capturing video, but I'd love to get better quality. I can't really save multiple files for different versions of software, because we only have 800 MB on the server. Which is why I delete movie clips pretty frequently.

[Steve_OS]

Re: A few questions (for steve/os staff)

Do they have a formac for pc?? I don't have a Mac. I have a tv/card in my system for capturing video, but I'd love to get better quality. I can't really save multiple files for different versions of software, because we only have 800 MB on the server. Which is why I delete movie clips pretty frequently.

[Stormlor]

Re: A few questions (for steve/os staff)

ForMac is only avilable for Mac's but there are products like it for the PC. You said you use Pinnalce Studio as your editing software. See if you can get Premiere or Avid Express that will allow you to save it into different formats. I have 500 on my server, I also delete them frequently but I can put in maybe anywhere from 50-80 clips in Quicktime, and WMV format for each.

[Stormlor]

Re: A few questions (for steve/os staff)

ForMac is only avilable for Mac's but there are products like it for the PC. You said you use Pinnalce Studio as your editing software. See if you can get Premiere or Avid Express that will allow you to save it into different formats. I have 500 on my server, I also delete them frequently but I can put in maybe anywhere from 50-80 clips in Quicktime, and WMV format for each.