Recording video from your Xbox 360.

[Eudemon]

Alright so you want to know how to record your sessions from your Xbox 360 (X360) so that you can then edit them and upload them to a site or something like youtube. Well it’s easy to do but it can be tedious, there are various ways too but they can be costly, quality is another factor you need to consider also but that’s another story.

 

Ok then let’s get to the means of and what you’ll need to record, as I said there’s a few methods and I’ll mention and describe these as best I can but it’s not going to be completely indepth but it will be enough to give you a good idea of what to do and what you’ll need to do it.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

1) Capture Card

 

This is the favoured means of many and is probably one the easiest and least costly to get setup and working quickly. There are many cards on the market and they range from the cheap to the utter mental for professionals. A capture card works by taking an input of a video source and an audio source and then using software to decode that and and a codec to record and ‘capture’ the video source to a file. Bare in mind these are usually heavy on filesize and will range anywhere from 200-500Mb a minute when capturing.

 

Now the most popular makes of card are probably Hauppauge and ATI’s All-in-Wonder Video cards. They all essentially do the same thing, the only thing I would recommend is to make sure to get one with an S-Video input or if you’re not too worried about quality then the basic ones with ‘RCA’ or ‘Composite’ will do you fine. Composite is your basic Red & White for audio (sometimes Black for North America) and Yellow for video cable inputs and S-Video is video only, so note that if you wish to record audio and video with an S-Video input then you will need a separate cable with a ‘splitter’ (2 audio outputs into 1 audio input) at the end in order to catch some good quality ‘Stereo’ sound. Now with your standard X360’s you get a ‘Composite’ cable anyway so you could plug your X360 directly into your Capture Card and start Recording but then you would need to use your PC monitor as the TV. You could always use any ‘outputs’ on your TV to take the signal from your TV into the Capture Card but that would require another cable which of course adds to the cost, more than likely a SCART to Composite (Europe).

 

S-Video, right this is a fun one as in Europe we use SCART and RGB SCART whereas in North America I believe they are mainly S-Video only. I bet you’re now thinking “SCART and RGB SCART, huh?” Well believe it or not, there is quite a bit of difference, you see a normal SCART is better than Composite but not as good as RGB SCART or S-Video. RGB SCART is how it sounds it splits the 3 RGB colours give the best picture. RGB SCART is comparable to S-Video but S-Video does still have the edge but unless you were doing HQ video for DVD or the like there isn’t really any noticeable difference.

 

So basically what you need is:

 

* Capture Card

* Composite/SCART/SCART RGB X360 cable

* Software such as that supplied with card or others like DScaler

* Codec pack for good conversion, ie; DivX, XviD, WMV, MP3 etc

 

Diablo’s Capture Setup

 

To give you an idea of how I capture from my Xbox 360, here is a rundown of what I have an do:

 

To start with I have a Hauppauge HVR-1100 Capture Card (this is about 18 months old now) which is installed into my PC (obviously) and then I have my X360 connected via an RGB SCART (aka Advanced SCART) to what is called an RGB Converter which will take the RGB signal and convert it so that the audio and video signals are separated and then sent down S-Video and Red and White audio outputs into the Capture Card. I then use a software called DScaler to do the actual capture in Uncompressed format which results in 500Mb a minute video but in very good quality which is essential when you are going to convert it as the better you start with the better the final compressed result will be.

 

My setup is somewhat complicated as in order to play on my TV and Record on the PC I have to use an RGB Buffer which takes the X360 RGB SCART and then outputs that signal with no loss of quality to 2 outputs which is then connected into my TV and the RGB Converter. These cost about £60 though so if you can stand playing on your PC monitor and doing the recording then you don’t really need this. Also note the software supplied with your card may give you a delay when recording making it hard to capture well, this is why I use DScaler as there is no delay when capturing and you can use it in fullscreen or windowed mode also.

 

2) DVD-Recorder

 

As it says on the tin, connect your X360 to the DVD-R, put a disc in and press Record. Easy, Simple and very effective, then just put the disc in your PC, edit the video then compress and voila! Completed!

 

3) Camcorder

 

Possibly easier or equal to the DVD-R method, point a camcorder at your TV, even an HD one and press Record. Make sure you get the angle right though otherwise you could end up with an ugly black line through your recording.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

So there you go, it took it’s time but I finally got it on here for you, any questions please don’t hesitate to ask but remember I’m no AV guru so I might not be able to answer all your questions.

 

Hope it helps though! :D :p

[Mb]

Post it, i want to know :D

[Pherelas]

I was looking into this to get decent footage from xbox, can't find a decent thing telling you how.

[Mb]

Day is almost over! :p

[Eudemon]

5 mins ....oops 4 mins to go. Cut it kinda close eh? ;)

[khevolution]

might give the DVD recorder method a go, sometime this week,

 

cheers for that diablo!

[Pherelas]

nice, i've tryed the dvd recording method before but you lose HD'ness which is a pain. Is there such a thing as a HD RGB Buffer and capture card?

 

Anyway great read, very intressting, might have to get a capture card If I can keep the TV playing in HD.

[Eudemon]

nice, i've tryed the dvd recording method before but you lose HD'ness which is a pain. Is there such a thing as a HD RGB Buffer and capture card?

There are Component buffers but note you would need a Capture Card that has a Component input plus if you want HD then it can cost a fair amount to get an HD compatible card. There are a few that will take a 720p signal and convert it to a 480p giving a fairly HQ capture. However if you want to do like the Gaming sites do and capture 720p HD video then you are going into the £100's and even into the £1000's. The ideal HD Capture Card imo would be one that can take a VGA input (ie the same connection your monitor uses into the PC) as high-resolutions are not a problem but these start at about £1000 still.

 

One thing to keep an eye on is HD DVD-Recorders that support Component or HDMI inputs. These are still expensive but are coming down in price every quarter and would imo be the easiest and best quality for recording your X360. Maybe for TDU2 perhaps?

[Pherelas]

There are Component buffers but note you would need a Capture Card that has a Component input plus if you want HD then it can cost a fair amount to get an HD compatible card. There are a few that will take a 720p signal and convert it to a 480p giving a fairly HQ capture. However if you want to do like the Gaming sites do and capture 720p HD video then you are going into the £100's and even into the £1000's. The ideal HD Capture Card imo would be one that can take a VGA input (ie the same connection your monitor uses into the PC) as high-resolutions are not a problem but these start at about £1000 still.

 

One thing to keep an eye on is HD DVD-Recorders that support Component or HDMI inputs. These are still expensive but are coming down in price every quarter and would imo be the easiest and best quality for recording your X360. Maybe for TDU2 perhaps?

 

Thanks. Don't have that kind of money and I don't want to lose HD which i've just spent all my money on getting just to record really.

[Nipper]

One quick question about the Capture Card one, My HD - TV has a PC Moniter input (so it can be used as a PC monitor as well as TV)

 

Would that make any differences to anything? (I am not at all in touch with technology lol)

[Mb]

Well obviously the first 2 methods aint going to work, as i don't have my PC next to my 360 and i don't have a DVD Recorder, yet :)

[Eudemon]

Nope, that's only an input, plus most TV's can't output any kind of video signal when in VGA mode.

[Nipper]

Thanks Diablo.

 

Well written guide, how can I tell? Well, you put it in such a way that even I could understand it lol.

 

Also, What programs and Capture Cards do you recommend? And what compressor?

 

Thanks

[Iced_Bullet]

Thank you Diablo, I've used my DVD recorder before for "other purposes", however I never put recording from my PS2 and the DVD recorder together :p Thanks. I think I'll use re-writable ones so I don't waste streams of discs ;)

 

+rep which I can do, so ... enjoy ;)

[Mb]

Yes i think of using the DVD thing aswell.

Still have to get a DVD recorder lol... :p

[Iced_Bullet]

I will also use the record to DVD trick for my computer :p As I'm sure it will give a much better picture, unlike Fraps, as it always plays up :mad:

 

So Diablo, thanks for not only alerting the 360 group of how to record, but thanks on behalf of the PSN and PC groups too :D

 

 

 

 

 

E: I've recorded onto a DVD+RW and I don't know how to copy the files from the DVD to the computer.

 

I have DVD+RW / DVD+R / DVD-R Discs if I've used the wrong type of Disc that helps.

 

The DVD-Recorder also allows me the option to finalise the disc meaning I can view the DVDs on a DVD player. For the DVD+RW I don't have to do this to still be able to view the footage.

 

Help needed ;) - Thanks.

[Eudemon]

Iced what is the file(s) that the DVD is showing? Is it MPEG or a bunch of VOB files? If you could even just attach a screenshot of the disc contents that would be even better. :)

[Iced_Bullet]

The screen shot shows the folders within the Disc, and also the files in the individual folders. this si for an un-finalized DVD+RW

 

Would you ike to see a screen shot of a finalized DVD+RW

 

Or screen shots of finalized DVD-R / DVD+R?

[Eudemon]

Right it's recording an actual DVD with the seperate Audio and Video folders with the VOB files and such which takes a little bit more work and some digging around. It may be a lot easier though as I have heard that some DVD-R's have the option of changing the recorded format to MPEG. If not there is a program called DVD2Avi that will convert the DVD files to an AVI file that you can load into VirtualDub and use whatever codecs you have to compress or use Sony Vegas to edit and then compress.

 

By the way I recommend you download the K-Lite Codec Pack, great bunch of codecs but can be confusing to use.

 

[+] It appears DVD2Avi has now gone FREEWARE!

[Iced_Bullet]

How do I actually work this damn thing .... ?

 

Which file(s) do i open. the screen shot shows the only files which are the right type on the DVD+RW

 

If I open 1 or both, the preview plays back too fast and when I save avi, it saves with 0 kb file sizes :S

[Eudemon]

I haven't had the need to use that software but all you should need to do is open the VOB file and then the program should convert that to the AVI file required. I'll have a quick look around again.

[The Queen]

Didn't realise the capture card thing was as difficult as you make it out to be :(. I guess i will have to wait until i can afford a dvd recorder.

[Iced_Bullet]

I've got it to work a bit better with the codec, but it plays back quite fast ... well the preview plays back fast than it should. I still cant seem to work the export to avi thing either.

[Eudemon]

Here's a tutorial I found: http://www.dvdhelp.us/index.html?html/tutdvd2avi.html~mainFrame

[Iced_Bullet]

Right, I've done what the tutorial says, but it doesn't cover the encoding part .... Hmmm this is turning out to be very complicated :mad: