How to Make FLV videos of UO for Youtube (For $0!)
Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 12:19 pm
My investigation into this topic (and this post) was prompted by
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=34698
which you should DEFINITELY check out so you know the context of what I post in this guide:
Thought I'd post an update on what I've found out regarding the best combination FREE screen recording / editing software that I've found. There's a lot of crap out there, and I've tried it... and it tastes TERRIBLE... but here's what I learned (aside from "don't eat crap"):
As I've previously described, BB FlashBack Express--which you can get at:
http://download.cnet.com/BB-FlashBack-E ... 65043.html
appears to be the best free screen recording software that I found (I've only messed with CamStudio briefly, and was not impressed--the SWF output seems totally bugged out (it seems to do fine with AVI, but when I've uploaded AVI video to Youtube, it seems to make smaller text much more difficult to read in comparison to FLV's I've uploaded)--although anybody who has seen good results in using CamStudio with the end result being quality youtube videos INCLUDING small text, let me know). All of the other free screen recording software I've tried was either inoperational, did not support FLV output, did not give you much control over how you want the video (fps, etc), or totally screwed up the video colors and stuff. Again, if you use this software, be sure to go and change to MPEG if you are recording a game like UO as described in a previous reply I made to the original thread (above), otherwise it will not work well at all (NOTE that this is, IN FACT, a feature, because the default recording mode is a lossless "GDI mode" for recording "normal applications" where there is little motion. This means it replicates exactly what you see on your screen... which is feasible (even with small file size) if things aren't changing very much... however, you try to do that with a moving game like UO, and it will be pretty terrible--so switch over to MPEG mode, where it compresses the images such that you lose some quality, but the file size is still reasonable and your processor can handle the recording process without tons of overhead).
The only "editing" you can do of your video with BB FlashBack Express (the free version, that is) is deciding which frames you export to FLV (i.e. trimming the beginning or end).
I've tried several free video editing programs, in an attempt to find a direct FLV editor (honestly, I was only looking for cutting out frames, joining different FLV clips together, and possibly adding a different sound track). Almost all of those that I found either added watermarks, didn't work with FLV's, or appeared (on the surface) to be EXACTLY what I was looking for... except the output FLV's sound seemed like it was put through a digital blender or the FLV itself was corrupted in some way (although the video was in tact for a couple of these programs)...
The only one that I've found that appears to work for all of those tasks is Moyea FLV Editor Lite
http://download.cnet.com/Moyea-FLV-Edit ... 12717.html
The user reviews made it sound pretty bad, but the bad reviews seem quite unfounded after having tried it--maybe it was a different version they were reviewing? The fact that you can add mp3 audio files is pretty cool. It's a little difficult to cut the clip up and drag peices around, but it... well.. it actually works, so that's a big plus.
In summary, BB Flashback Express in combination with Moyea FLV Editor Lite (and Audacity--a free open source sound editing program--if you want to do some real audio editing) seems like your best choice for 100% free screen capture and simple editing. If I were really serious with making video tutorials and what-not, I might just go for the $199 BB Flashback Professional edition, since it seems to combine all three of these programs into one... For now, however, I'm going to use these three free programs combined.
Hope this is helpful to everybody interested in this type of thing.
I want to see some great UOSA youtube videos!
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=34698
which you should DEFINITELY check out so you know the context of what I post in this guide:
Thought I'd post an update on what I've found out regarding the best combination FREE screen recording / editing software that I've found. There's a lot of crap out there, and I've tried it... and it tastes TERRIBLE... but here's what I learned (aside from "don't eat crap"):
As I've previously described, BB FlashBack Express--which you can get at:
http://download.cnet.com/BB-FlashBack-E ... 65043.html
appears to be the best free screen recording software that I found (I've only messed with CamStudio briefly, and was not impressed--the SWF output seems totally bugged out (it seems to do fine with AVI, but when I've uploaded AVI video to Youtube, it seems to make smaller text much more difficult to read in comparison to FLV's I've uploaded)--although anybody who has seen good results in using CamStudio with the end result being quality youtube videos INCLUDING small text, let me know). All of the other free screen recording software I've tried was either inoperational, did not support FLV output, did not give you much control over how you want the video (fps, etc), or totally screwed up the video colors and stuff. Again, if you use this software, be sure to go and change to MPEG if you are recording a game like UO as described in a previous reply I made to the original thread (above), otherwise it will not work well at all (NOTE that this is, IN FACT, a feature, because the default recording mode is a lossless "GDI mode" for recording "normal applications" where there is little motion. This means it replicates exactly what you see on your screen... which is feasible (even with small file size) if things aren't changing very much... however, you try to do that with a moving game like UO, and it will be pretty terrible--so switch over to MPEG mode, where it compresses the images such that you lose some quality, but the file size is still reasonable and your processor can handle the recording process without tons of overhead).
The only "editing" you can do of your video with BB FlashBack Express (the free version, that is) is deciding which frames you export to FLV (i.e. trimming the beginning or end).
I've tried several free video editing programs, in an attempt to find a direct FLV editor (honestly, I was only looking for cutting out frames, joining different FLV clips together, and possibly adding a different sound track). Almost all of those that I found either added watermarks, didn't work with FLV's, or appeared (on the surface) to be EXACTLY what I was looking for... except the output FLV's sound seemed like it was put through a digital blender or the FLV itself was corrupted in some way (although the video was in tact for a couple of these programs)...
The only one that I've found that appears to work for all of those tasks is Moyea FLV Editor Lite
http://download.cnet.com/Moyea-FLV-Edit ... 12717.html
The user reviews made it sound pretty bad, but the bad reviews seem quite unfounded after having tried it--maybe it was a different version they were reviewing? The fact that you can add mp3 audio files is pretty cool. It's a little difficult to cut the clip up and drag peices around, but it... well.. it actually works, so that's a big plus.
In summary, BB Flashback Express in combination with Moyea FLV Editor Lite (and Audacity--a free open source sound editing program--if you want to do some real audio editing) seems like your best choice for 100% free screen capture and simple editing. If I were really serious with making video tutorials and what-not, I might just go for the $199 BB Flashback Professional edition, since it seems to combine all three of these programs into one... For now, however, I'm going to use these three free programs combined.
Hope this is helpful to everybody interested in this type of thing.
I want to see some great UOSA youtube videos!