do you have to pay in order to get spectacular video capture quality?

[uglijimus]

I have been watching some of my favorite channels on Youtube and there's one thing that they all have in common: Great video capture quality. I would like to do some tutorials myself, but I doubt I can get my videos on YT to appear like the ones I'm watching. I have no problem paying for some video capture software, I am just wondering if it is possible to get a quality where it is hard to tell the difference between realtime and a captured video with freeware.

I have tried out Active presenter and ispring cam which are both nice, but not spectacular. I mean, both of these programs produce really high quality video, but once you then put them into a video editor which undergoes encoding (quality loss) and then it gets put on YT (more encoding), my videos don't look professional, where as the quality of the suscribers' videos I am watching on YT is equivalent to my captured video from Active Presenter or i spring cam 1st generation(!!!)

any suggestions?

[davexnet]

What do you mean by capture? Form what ? Old VHS?

Give a link(s) to some of these great videos your talking about

[theewizard]

I would like to do some tutorials myself, but I doubt I can get my videos on YT to appear like the ones I'm watching.

he wants to create tutorials on his PC
the problem so far is not the captures,
it is the editing software
edit the source, use a lossless source if possible, if not then use an editor that is smart render frame accurate
output the edited version in the same high resolution high bitrate, mts / mp4 etc.. as the source
bascilly you want to 'COPY' the video minus the cuts, you do not want to recode
this is what you upload to youtube
do NOT down convert the resolution , bitrate, or file format
don't turn h264 mp4 into dvix
you did not tell us what the recorded output format was or the video info
or what the edited version format info either

[Cornucopia]

Asked and answered: dedicated equipment for playback & record/capture, and lossless encoding until the final distribution stage.

Scott

[uglijimus]

I found out two of the subscribers I watch use screenflow but I don't have a Mac.

Here are some other examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRZlan3V5Rg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbqsBXivNds#t=05m49s

Yes, I am just capturing what is on my computer screen. I even thought about going to some of that video capture software for gaming to get something smoother.

@theewizard,

do you have any sugggestions for software? lossless codecs, smart render fram accurate etc?

[theewizard]

my screen captures are done with videoReplay
my edits are usually done with videoredo for frame accurate smart rendering basic editing, it lacks features for adding a special transitions or effects

Lagraith is often mentioned on this forum as a lossless codec for capture or editing, i have not used it

the source is converted to lagraith then edited, then converted to the final format
others here have more experience with that process

[JVRaines]

I have used Fraps a few times. Its native FPS1 codec is lossless.

[uglijimus]

My results:

I tried Virtual dub but couldn't get it to work with my video card (?). Camstudio wouldn't even start because my virus protector kept attacking it. Finally I got great results with OBS. I haven't got it to work with a lossless codec yet, but got really good quality, almost indistinguishable from the what it looks like in real time. thanks guys!