Need help with capture settings/program

[PantherophisG]

I purchased a VC500 and have been trying to use it to capture video gameplay footage. The software that came with the capture device (obviously) doesn't capture video in very good quality. I currently have it set to capture the "DVD" option (the options are DVD, VCD, SVCD, MPEG4, AVI, WMV, WMA, and MP3) to capture 29.97 fps at 720x480. However, the video quality is embarrassing to put even on youtube.

First- I'm making sure that the capture settings are proper (or as appropriate as possible with the hardware I'm using)
Second- I'm looking for a program that will capture the best quality I can.

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[sanlyn]

Comments I've seen about the Diamond Multimedia VC500's pic quality are less than enthusasitic. Some comments seemed a bit enraged. You might try capping to uncompressed or lossless huffyuv AVI and tweaking the results.

A few seconds of a sample capture might help get better answers.

[PantherophisG]

I guess I need to get a new capture device then. I can't choose which codec to use while recording with this One Touch software. I'll just look for a (hopefully) better capture device that will hopefully come bundled with some better software.

Thanks anyway.

[sanlyn]

It's not unusual to have to look around and research a bit when first getting into video capture. Sadly, today's choices are more limited than in the past but there's still some good stuff around. Try the capture cards section here in videohelp.

I believe game play is best captured as direct DV or as losslessly compressed huffyuv AVI. But many go directly to other formats. The problem with lossy compression is that it's difficult to clean up for DVD, but cleanup from game play sources often isn't needed as it might be for, say, VHS or camcorder tapes.