Video recording program

[Crispy Dave]

Im going to start a Vlog with my Nifty new Camera and I am trying to find a good Video recording program. I want it to record Video and Audio. I really need it to be free as well.

[Jimorian]

What kind of camera, because you might mean editing rather than recording software, since the camera already records your audio and video. You just have to import it to the computer then play around until you get it the way you want.

For converting between video/audio formats, a good program is SUPER C found at http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

Hmm, you might look at this page to see what's available
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_editing_software

I use MAGIX Movie Edit Pro, which cost $90, but then I'm editing for actual TV broadcast. Some of the freeware will be more than enough for VLogging or YouTube stuff.

When I search on video recording software, I only find screencapture or DVR stuff.

[Crispy Dave]

What kind of camera, because you might mean editing rather than recording software, since the camera already records your audio and video. You just have to import it to the computer then play around until you get it the way you want.

For converting between video/audio formats, a good program is SUPER C found at http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

Hmm, you might look at this page to see what's available
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_editing_software

I use MAGIX Movie Edit Pro, which cost $90, but then I'm editing for actual TV broadcast. Some of the freeware will be more than enough for VLogging or YouTube stuff.

When I search on video recording software, I only find screencapture or DVR stuff.

its for a webcam. Windows movie maker Only takes video not audio and Uploading directly to youtube/facebook looks like crap.

[Jack Squat]

I don't know how well Debut (http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html) works, but it looks like it's free, so it's worth a shot.

[Crispy Dave]

I don't know how well Debut (http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html) works, but it looks like it's free, so it's worth a shot.

the quality on that is worse then recording form facebook.

[Jack Squat]

What webcam is it? Do you have the latest drivers? Your quality problems may be with the camera. (this is really only taken from me actually watching videos people put up on Facebook, and a lot of them aren't too bad).

I'm surprised that Windows Movie Maker doesn't catch your sound.

I'll have to dig out my camera and try that debut when I get back from work late tonight, but the whole point of it is to try and attract you to actually buy their other stuff, so I can't see them having horrible video quality.

[Crispy Dave]

What webcam is it? Do you have the latest drivers? Your quality problems may be with the camera. (this is really only taken from me actually watching videos people put up on Facebook, and a lot of them aren't too bad).

I'm surprised that Windows Movie Maker doesn't catch your sound.

I'll have to dig out my camera and try that debut when I get back from work late tonight, but the whole point of it is to try and attract you to actually buy their other stuff, so I can't see them having horrible video quality.

IDK its not the greatest camera but a friend of mine has the same time and its plug and play. His quality is alot better then what I am getting.

[Jack Squat]

IDK its not the greatest camera but a friend of mine has the same time and its plug and play. His quality is alot better then what I am getting.

Then wouldn't it be best to ask your friend what he's using?

Just a thought.

[Crispy Dave]

Then wouldn't it be best to ask your friend what he's using?

Just a thought.

he "payed" for his program. I don't want to "pay" for mine

[Jimorian]

I don't have a webcam, so I can't try anything with that debut program, but it looks like it will do what you want. Sounds like you have it installed, so let's see if we can squeeze some quality out of it.

For quality, there are 2 major factors: lighting and frame rate.

First let's tackle frame rate. Either in the webcam software or in Debut should be a setting to adjust how many frames per second it shoots/inputs at (I see that Debut lets you adjust output frame rate, but if you don't have all those frames in the first place, this doesn't really help). You want at least 25, 30 is better. Either of these settings will be perfectly smooth in a way that's natural to view it at.

For YouTube or Myspace, the resolution is 360 pixels vertical, and either 480 horizontal for standard screen, or 640 for wide screen. If you shoot in the resolution the site uses for playback (I don't know what FaceBook uses) then you won't suffer any loss from resizing conversion.

Now lighting. You pretty much can't have too much light. If the picture is grainy it's most likely because the camera is trying to force enough picture to see things, so it sometimes has to guess what color a pixel should be. It's usually wrong. Even my $900 HD camcorder will have this problem if I don't give it enough light.

You want the whole room lit up so that the background doesn't get murky and grainy, so at least 2 all-room lights. You want at least 2 more lights shining on your face, one on each side so that you don't have bright on one side, shadow on the other. Shooting in the daylight with indirect light coming into the window PLUS all these lights is best.

One thing that may be happening is that if it's too dark, the camera software may be slowing down the shutter speed so that it can get more light per frame, but that means you get a choppy picture.

That's about all I can help with without knowing the specific brand of webcam and the software it may be using as a driver. But these general rules will apply across the board no matter what equipment and program you use.