Replay Video Capture – recording hints - 103

Better ways to record movie videos

Two video parameters are most important when trying to get the best recording of a streaming movie: the frame rate (fps) and the bitrate (kbps). A high frame rate makes a smooth motion video, a high bitrate makes a clear, sharp video. For your recorded video you can choose whatever bitrate gives you the best quality however the desired frame rate may not always be achievable. A lot depends on your system performance characteristics, primarily CPU type, speed, and memory. (see https://wmrecorderpro.com/user_guide_rvc10.htm#recording_guides for some tested frame rates with Replay Video Capture).

Below are a few simple rules you can follow to increase the recording frame rate and quality of your recording.

Rule# 1 – Avoid marking the entire screen when recording HD movie videos (1920x1080)

Mark only the video area not the entire screen as shown in the image below. Here the movie video is shown as is broadcasted before being resized to full screen. In this particular example, by marking only the video area we reduced the recording image size by 20% and consequently, CPU work by 20%. This means we can now record 30 fps (frames per second) instead of 24 fps which makes a big difference when playing back the recording.

Rule# 2 – Resize 1080 video size to 720

There is no reason to record a 720 video on a full screen (1080 or 768). Try to resize the movie video to 720. The 720 videos can be recorded at 60p (120i ) fps or higher using MPEG-2 or H264 on almost all new laptops and desktops computers.

Open Settings, click Video Capture Options. In the dialog that opens check Resize output video (1280x720) then click Set Markers. A 1280x720 semitransparent marking window opens.

Try to move and resize the movie video window (browser window) to fit the 720 marked area of the screen as shown below

Examples

We recorded a broadcasted movie playing on a 1080 screen following Rule# 1 and Rule# 2. Play the videos below full screen to see how it looks (the computer used is a DELL Vostro 15 laptop, i7, 4core, recording format Quick Sync). There is almost no visible difference from the original.

Movie clip recorded with 20% size reduction at 60fps
Movie clip recorded with 720 resize at 85 fps

Rule# 3 – Use the Background mode

See https://wmrecorderpro.com/user_guide_rvc10.htm#record_bck

Rule# 4 – Use Quick Sync or NVENC video format

See https://wmrecorderpro.com/user_guide_rvc10.htm#quick_sync

Rule# 5 – Don’t run other apps when recording

Rule# 6 – Observe CPU loading before and during recording

See https://wmrecorderpro.com/user_guide_rvc10.htm#cpu_mon