I need advice on hardware-based in-game video recording

[raykor]

I want to record high quality video from a PC game to a hard drive. The most popular solution is to use software such as Fraps. However, software-based recording methods like Fraps, are very CPU and RAM intensive. I want a higher quality, hardware-based solution that does not impact the performance of the PC which is running the game.

High-end graphics cards have dual DVI outputs (for dual monitor support) and they also have a TV/S-Video output. One of the DVI ports will naturally be taken up by the monitor. Is it possible to record in-game video to the hard drive by using a video capture card to connect directly to either the 2nd DVI port or the S-Video port of the graphics card? If so, would this significantly reduce the performance penalty of recording while also playing? Or should I use some sort of external video capture card + external hard drive combo? Or is the ideal solution to use a 2nd PC to record?

Thanks.

[olyteddy]

I capture streaming video using my Hauppauge PVR USB2 to my laptop but that card is an external encoder. It would take quite a bit of processor power to encode video and play a game at the same time. If you didn't compress the vid, odds are the hard disk would bottleneck the project. That said, might I suggest using a DVD recorder?

[raykor]

Interesting. I was under the belief that Digital Video Recorders were all linked to one of the various subscription services with monthly fees (such as TiVo). Apparently there are a few models which come with tuners, record to internal hard drives, and are not associated with any fee-based service.

I don't watch all that much TV but I do occasionally need to record a show or game and for that I still use my 12 year old VCR player. These new stand-alone DVR recorders are pretty cheap and would be a nice upgrade to my aging VCR!

But can this same device connect directly to either the DVI or S-Video port on my computer's graphics card?

Thanks again.

[olyteddy]

Most, if not all have S-Video inputs. I was referring to DVD recording (use a re-writeable disk and then you can re-use it...) Getting the video from a DVR might be difficult. See the list over there <--- in the side bar for more info.

[SHS]

S-Video port of the graphics card

Yes but you need set it up so that your in clone mod which output over the S/Video and if you sound card has a line ouput you need to patch the audio output to audio input and enable it so that the PVR 150 can rec the sound or have to use a spk output and Y cable so you can used a WinTV PVR-150 or next option a HVR 1600 which both do hardware encoder in realtime with out any CPU usage.