Ryzza5's Recording Setup

[Ryzza5]

Ok so it's really simple... except it isn't

 

 

[headline]Basic PS4 Recording Setup[/headline]

PS4 connects via HDMI to an Elgato GameCapture HD60 device. (I have an older GameCapture HD device that records up to 30FPS if anyone is interested in MEL). From the device another HDMI cable goes to a PC monitor and USB takes the feed to a PC on the same desk, which records the main video clip. That's all you need for basic console recordings. There are other capture cards out there by the likes of Aver Media as well. Search YouTube for more details on using these devices.

 

 

 

[headline]Adding Voice Chat to the Mix[/headline]

The PS3 could send audio out to HDMI and Optical outputs simultaneously. The PS4 cannot. If you connect a headset to your console or gamepad you can hear gameplay and chat with others, but your recording via HDMI will be silent.

 

Run the official 'Remote Play' application on your PC. Using the wired network connection it will mirror the audio and video output of the PS4.

 

 

You can now hear the game via your PC speakers but you can't record it yet. You essentially want to get a cable looping your headphone jack to your microphone jack in order to record this audio.

 

What you actually want is a 'virtual audio cable', so download Voicemeeter Banana (aka Pro).

 

This creates 2 virtual Playback and Recording devices in your Sound properties. Confusingly, it calls the Playback channels 'Inputs' and the Recording channels 'Outputs'. In my opinion it should be the other way around. Instead think of these as an inputs into the Voicemeeter application.

 

Set the main playback and recording VIAO devices as default in Windows. I use the auxiliary ones for PC voice chat: Skype, TeamSpeak, Discord, etc (this is irrelevant for consoles - you will not be able to record PS4 voice chat).

 

Voicemeeter is also a very powerful virtual sound mixer.

Yellow box (left): These channels are manually mapped to real recording devices (microphones)

A1, A2, A3: These channels are manually mapped to physical playback devices (speakers) up top (Hardware Out)

 

Orange (center): The 2 new virtual Playback devices (inputs). You only need the first one.

B1, B2: The 2 new virtual Recording devices

 

Control the flow of audio by turning these A1-B2 buttons on/off for various channels. I want my main PC audio be sent out almost everywhere simultaneously so it has the most channels enabled.

 

 

RemotePlay audio hits Voicemeeter as 'PC Audio', which is redirected an A_ channel (your real speakers, which is only required for normal PC use, not recording PS4), and sent to B1, which is your 'virtual audio cable loop' to be recorded in Elgato. For that reason you'll want to prevent other Windows programs from making noises if you can help it as these will end up in your recording.

 

 

[headline]In sync[/headline]

Because of the two different audio sources, the audio lags behind the video. Download and run Avidemux. Load your video. Watch the video until you find a part where it becomes obvious the audio is out of sync, for example hitting a kerb (or another driver).

 

Tick shift audio and enter a positive or negative value depending if the audio is ahead or lagging behind. It's usually -300ms for me. Change from AVI to MP4v2 if that's the source video and hit save. It takes a few seconds only as there is no conversion happening.

 

 

 

[headline]PC gaming and recording[/headline]

I take a HDMI cable out of my PC into the Elgato and into a monitor afterwards. Although I've not benchmarked it, I'm pretty sure it means better performance (FPS) when recording compared to using OBS Studio or MSI Afterburner to record, since the external device does the heavy lifting. Press 'Pause' in the Elgato software after hitting record for further performance gains. I also record to F:\, with games installed on C:\ if newer (SSD) or D:\

 

Since it also records everything coming out of HDMI, no need to worry about game compatibility. If the game crashes to desktop it will record that too. The device sits on my desk for somewhat simple cable swapping with the PS4. I can also record my voice and/or others via Skype, etc to a separate MP3 file for later editing into the video. Image below shows the 'flow' of my microphone audio (orange) and PC audio.

 

 

 

[headline]Recording Skype[/headline]

 

 

 

A separate audio file requires video editing to merge it, but also enables choosing which parts of the MP3 are included or silenced, along with getting the volume mix just right.

 

 

 

[headline]Another neat trick[/headline]

Got 2 PC's near each other but only one set of speakers? Use the VBAN function to send all audio from one PC over LAN to the other then out of it's speakers with practically zero lag. My gaming PC has no speakers connected, it goes over LAN to my office PC on the same desk (yep a console and 2 PC's all cosy together).

 

 

 

[headline]Alternative Pit Crew Chief on PS4[/headline]

I setup Project CARS on PS4 and PC to work with UDP 1 data broadcasting over the local network. I purchased the Android version of the Crew Chief app recently so that I could use this for PS4 league races.

You may want to go into its' settings and disable swear words.

 

I run this app on an Android tablet and connect a physical audio cable (the horror) from the tablet out to the USB transmitter for my Logitech G933 headset.

 

 

Now I can hear when another player is alongside when about to aim for the apex, but my Elgato recording can't. The solution is surprisingly simple. Just run the free PC edition of Crew Chief on the same PC along with PS RemotePlay. Adjust the audio levels so nothing is too loud or quiet, and job done. Both will receive the USB data and generate spoken messages. Technically the video may record different crew chief messages from the PC app compared to what you hear live from the Android app - but who's going to know?

 

 

 

[headline]The result[/headline]

Recent PS4 recording feature Crew Chief audio with some light editing in Sony Vegas to reduce from 60+ minutes to around 30 minutes:

 

PC gameplay with Skype recording:

 

 

Hopefully someone finds this useful or inspiring. It took over an hour to write-up.

[Eudemon]

Wow that's madness! It's like a mini studio within a studio there Ry. Taking this well seriously and that is such a brilliant write-up with all the products shown, settings explained and tips and tricks you have picked up along the way. The final result seems to show the insanity is worth it though... or is it? :lol:

[Ryzza5]

It's all 'set and forget' once up and running. Of course if I ever had to set it up it again I'm sure the 'forget' part would make things difficult. :umm:

 

 

If PS4 could output to HDMI and Optical at the same time I wouldn't have to do all this but I still recommend Voicemeeter in general for anyone wanting to take PC gameplay recording to the next level. It's also good to know what it can do now in case it's the solution to a future problem. I've been using Voicemeeter for over a year now and have wanted to write something up and record a video about it months ago.

 

 

If you just want the virtual audio cables without the mixer app: VB-Audio Virtual Apps