What do you need to get this discount? Make screenshot where we can see that competitor tool is registered to your name or email and send it to support@sytexis.com. We’ll check the picture and send back to you special coupone which will give you 50% discount for Standard and Hardcore licenses of PlayClaw. Order PlayClaw license here.

How can you evaluate the performance of the codec? Very simple! The compression speed, the size of output data and the compression quality (picture after decoding).
These are the three main parameters that affect the user’s choice in some way . At least it should.

Let’s proceed. Just to reiterate – I look only at the level of video compression algorithms, and nothing more.

0. The most basic method with what are sometimes confused users – recording without compression.
The data is written in the exact form it is received from the video card.
This is a huge amount of data and therefore disk space, the highest image quality and minimum CPU load.
Unfortunately, even if you have a super fast hard drive (WD Velociraptor or SSD), the huge size of the frame just gobble up all the available space very quickly.
For example, for FullHD 30fps video will fill 1920 * 1080 * 3 * 30 = 178 MB per second, or 10 GB per minute!

Output size:
Codec speed:
Quality:

1. The most revered, almost god-like utility – Fraps. It simply has just a crowd of fans who answer the question “what to use to capture game video” with “fraps is the best – it is proven”.
By whom and how it was proven – I do not know. Let us analyze this.

According to the open source code of the video decoder FPS1 (from FFMPEG), Fraps has pretty a simple and fast codec that compresses with small losses and large output data size.
This codec is similar in principle to the Low compression mode used in PlayClaw.

What does this codec do (the main stages, without going into details)? Incoming RGB data (3 bytes per pixel) is converted to YUV420 color space (2 bytes per pixel). So there is a little loss of information with regard to colors – blocks of 4 pixels are coded together and the losses can be seen in places where there is a sharp contrast. For example, the red line of one pixel width on a white background – you can see blur.
In general, however, these losses are practically invisible because it is rare situation in games. Then, the transformed data is compressed using Huffman compression which is an efficient method of lossless data compression.

Compared with the method without compression, Fraps and PlayClaw give a good picture with fast compression but the file size is still large (but not huge). You can count on 1-2 GB per minute for FullHD 30fps.

Output size:
Codec speed:
Quality:

2. Special paragraph is for one of the compression methods used in MSI Afterburner – RTV1 codec.
According to the author, this is a revised method of S3TC texture compression, improved and accelerated by using SSE.
Compression is really fast, but the quality of the output is not good.

Output size:
Codec speed:
Quality:

3. The next stage of codecs “evolution” – MJPEG, this compression is used in MSI AB and PlayClaw. The codec is very popular in the hardware devices such as cameras and video utilities because it is pretty simple and fast.
In simple terms, MJPEG is a set of JPEG pictures. Each frame is converted to the YUV color space (different formats: yuv444, yuv420, etc), followed by mathematics (discrete cosine transform – DCT) over pixels blocks, resulting in a certain loss of image quality (can be defined), then the data is compressed using Huffman algorithm.
Despite the fact that DCT is accelerated well on modern processors, this method is still a bit slower than Low compression used in PlayClaw / Fraps, but it produces a smaller file size.

Output size:
Codec speed:
Quality:

4. Moving on to the most interesting method: MPEG-1, seen in Bandicam. It is issued by the developers as a super-performance solution. MPEG-1 – is the the same as MJPEG, but with a slight improvement – the ability to encode the differences between frames.
This may in some cases give a good gain in the amount of output data (many unchanging blocks of pixels in frames), but it of course uses more CPU power.
Compared to MJPEG compression quality is unaffected.

Output size:
Codec speed:
Quality:

5. The final and quintessential video compression in real time – H.264. It is usually used as an external codec (if the utility supports external codecs) – sane developers will not add this compression in the set of built-in codecs without hardware acceleration.
But why? This is because the codec is very demanding on processing power. In other words, real time encoding of FullHD 30fps video simultaneously with the game will not be much fun for the player – it will lag and decrease in-game FPS.

This compression is popular in utilities that broadcast video over network (as a standard).
To obtain acceptable FPS you must either reduce resolution or to simplify, reduce the bit rate compression.
In any case, image quality will be decreased. I will provide the evaluation in the terms of gaming experience – it is our priority.

Output size:
Codec speed:
Quality:

What is the result? The choice is of course yours to make. But as I said at the beginning – there is no ideal solution and each developer selects the encoding method for encoding recordings of video games in real time to the best of their abilities and needs.

The following diagram is perfectly suited to this topic:

I would like to note that the game video capture tool PlayClaw will meet all your needs.

Leader in the game video capture and stills display industry, PlayClaw is giving their customers more power than ever! For gamers, both hardcore and casual, the ability to display moves, tactics and strategies to multiple viewers, is of paramount importance. While versions of PlayClaw in use today have given this facility to its users, the company has developed and released an upgraded PlayClaw 4 that rivals any game video capture software on the market to-date.

The biggest problem faced by gamers, is the high consumption of CPU power when running games simultaneously with game video still software. The displays have been negatively affected, rendering them choppy, distorted and often stuck. While PlayClaw has always made light work of managing CPU power effectively without affecting display, their product upgrade promises this and many more valuable options to eager gamers. Some of the features that users can look forward to are new to the industry, but were certainly in high demand.

Each game can now enjoy multiple settings profile. For example, some gamers want to record certain games in high-def, and other games in low-def. Don’t get stuck with fixed settings! Enjoy the flexibility of creating multiply profiles with different settings for the different games you play, inclusive of video captures, audio settings, overlays and everything else a gamer can think of.
Another exciting feature is the integrated ability to extend the functionality of your own unique plug-in software. PlayClaw 4 empowers hobbyists/enthusiasts with a framework to create custom overlays. See all the information needed, easily, without having to tab-out in the throes of your gaming experience.

No web cam? No problem! Many gamers are limited to the sites they can stream their games on because of web cam prerequisites. Stream the game with PlayClaw’s virtual camera capabilities, and never be left out of the loop on websites that make web-cam live streaming, mandatory.

Chat without confusion! TeamSpeak and Ventrilo are a couple of gamers’ go-to audio assets. But when in multi-player mode, it’s difficult to keep track of just who is who. With PlayClaw’s Voice Avatar function, it is now possible to assign an image to a nickname, for easier graphic recognition.

Additionally, an important feature for the modern pc gamer, PlayClaw 4 can be seamlessly integrated into any OS, since it works directly with DirectX/OpenGL Libraries. Specifically for gamers who function on the Windows 8 platform, the program has been tried and tested and proven compatible.

PlayClaw senior developer, Edward Kozadaev, says “The gaming industry is extremely dynamic and we appreciate the limitations that many gamers face when it comes to streaming and networking. With PlayClaw 4, we’ve solved and eliminated every perceivable problem. Gaming with groups is going to be much more fun for everyone!”

Links:
Website:www.playclaw.com
Steam Greenlight - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=111180458
Twitter: @PlayClaw
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PlayClaw

You can also watch an introduction to the settings available in PlayClaw:

The User Interface:

When you start PlayClaw you will see the following screen:

Let’s take a look at each section individually:

The Tool Bar:

The options available in PlayClaw are split up into 4 sections:

 -  Common options – Basic settings for PlayClaw.

 - Capture Settings – Here you can adjust settings for capturing your gaming           moments.

 - Overlay Settings – This screen gives you the tools to adjust all overlay settings.

 - Manage Profiles – PlayClaw creates profiles for each game that is played.            These profiles can be managed here.

Common Options:

The subsections for this screen are:

• Updates and Licensing
• Settings

In the Updates and Licensing section you can select to Check for updates to PlayClaw when it starts. If would like to help out with the development of PlayClaw by providing feedback on future releases, check the Check for beta version option as well. A button is also available to Check now.

Moving onto the Settings subsection, you have the following options available:

• You can adjust the user interface language using the pull-down menu.
• Start with Windows will launch PlayClaw when Windows loads.
• Start minimized will minimize PlayClaw when it is launched.
• Minimize to system tray will minimize PlayClaw to the system tray when you click the minimize button on the PlayClaw main window.
• Show hint overlay on game start controls the information screen shown at the bottom center of the screen when you load a game. It contains information such as current resolution and rendering type (OpenGL or DirectX).
• Record only desktop (DWM) with Desktop profile controls whether or not you want to record the Windows desktop instead of a game.

Capture Settings:

The available subsections of the Capture Settings screen are:

Screenshots:

Here you can set the folder to be used to store screenshots captured during play. Click select to see a browser and select the desired folder. Click Open to open the folder to view your screenshots.

Take screenshot hotkey – This is the key you will use to take screenshots whilst playing a game.

Image format – You can select which format the image will be in. This is either JPG or PNG.

Enable auto-screenshots every – Enabling this setting will take screenshots automatically for you at the specified interval time. The default value is 30 seconds.

Videos:

This section controls the capturing of video. As with screenshots you can select a folder to save your videos to using the Select button. The Open button will open the folder that contains your videos.

Start/stop video hotkey – If you click this button you will be able to set which key is used to start recording a new video.

Stop & delete hotkey – By default this key is not bound. If you set a key for this function, pressing it will stop your current recording and remove the files it has created.

Toggle pre-record hotkey – This function allows you to continuously record without writing any data to your hard drive. You basically have a cache or pre-record buffer that you can define in a value of time (see the corresponding option below). By default the last 10 seconds of game play is kept in the buffer. So while you are playing press the hotkey you define here to start using the pre-record function. You can then continue to play and record constantly and when something awesome happens, press the Start/stop video hotkey to store the last 10 seconds of footage on  your hard disk and continue recording from that point until you stop recording. This way you will never miss an awesome moment!

Video output target – Here you choose between storing recorded data to a hard disk or to a virtual webcam or both.

Video file FPS – This determines how many frames per second are captured.

Resize frame to – Because PlayClaw makes use of multi-core processing it is possible to resize your captured video on the fly. Here you can select either a fixed frame size or even a custom defined frame size.

Capture Cursor – Enabling this option will ensure that your mouse cursor is also captured in games where this is important.

Encoder – This options defines how much compression is used during recording. You can select between No compression, Low compression of MJPEG. If your computer is powerful enough, MJPEG is the best selection ensuring that disk space usage for your recording is relatively low.

Encoder Setup – The Encoder setup button is only available if you have selected MJPEG as the compression type. On the Encoder setup screen you can set the quality of the image and also select to use YUV411 compression.

Compression threads – Here you can define how many threads you would like to reserve for compressing your captured video.

Max pre-record buffer size – This is where you can set how long the re-record buffer should be.

Audio:

The Audio subsection for capture settings allows you to adjust how all sound is captured.

The list shows all available audio sources. Simply select the desired source and check the Enable source option. In the above screenshot you can see that a Microphone and the Speakers (game sounds) have been enabled. For each enabled source you can also choose to capture the input only when a certain key is pressed. This is done using the Capture only when hotkey is pressed button.

Transform float to PCM -

Transform to stereo – If you are capturing multiple inputs as is the case in the above screenshot, you can choose to merge all sources into a single audio file with this option enabled. With this option enabled the Conversion options button also becomes available.

Write ALL audio tracks in separate WAV files – This options allows you to record each audio input separately which is very useful for post editing of your video.

Advanced settings:

There are four options available on this screen

Use process name as subfolder for capture – Enabling this option will create a subfolder which has the same name as the process that is being recorded.

Use timestamp as subfolder for capture – This option adds another layer of folder structure in the form of the a timestamp.

Use alternative OpenGL code - This option is meant for people who use an ATI/AMD graphics card. If you use such a card, enable this option to gain better performance when recording OpenGL based games.

Use alternative DX free resource code – This is a separate code path for recording DirectX games. It is faster than the default code path but may not be as reliable the original code path.

Overlay Settings:

In this section of the PlayClaw user interface, you can configure how your overlays are displayed. An overlay is an informational aide for while you are in game. You can for instance see live information about your CPU, graphics card, recording time and recorded file size.

By default you will see a black preview frame with the various boxes showing which overlay you have at your disposal. On the right hand side are the properties of each overlay with some other settings for configuring the preview frame:

The first setting you will need to adjust is your screen resolution. In the example here it is 1680×1050. The most commonly used resolutions are available from the drop-down menu. If you so wish you can also click the Select back image button. This feature is very useful when determining the position of your overlays. Simply take a screenshot of your game screen, set the preview frame size and click Select back image to load the screen shot you have taken. Now you can drag the overylay boxes to position them.

Notice that when you click an overlay box in the preview frame, the dropdown-list updates to show which overlay is selected. The properties for the selected overlay are shown in the lower section of this screen. Generally these properties refer to the appearance of the overlay (i.e., font, size, colour etc).

The Toggle overlays hotkey can be used to turn overlays on and off while you are in game.

Let’s look at an example:

Here you can see a screenshot of Minecraft. In this case, the user has a minimap enabled in the top right corner. Thanks to this image, the placement of the CPU overlay can be adjusted to ensure it does not cover the minimap or any other HUD element.

Finally, PlayClaw 4 also supports the use of a webcam as an input for an overlay. You can record your face while recording any game and display it anywhere on the screen in any size.

Simply select the webcam overlay option, then from the dropdown-list, select your webcam. Your webcam will be enabled and you can adjust the angle as needed. Note that the size of the overlay is very important for a good result. You must size the overlay on the VIsual Appearance screen so that the image you are recording with your webcam is properly visible and not stretched.

Manage Profiles

The last section of the PlayClaw user interface is the profile management screen. On this screen you can create and manage profiles for PlayClaw settings.

In the top drop-down box you can see “My Profile 2” which is the currently selected profile. If you click the New profile button you can give the profile a name and it will appear in the drop-down box. The idea behind these profiles is that you can create different configurations and easily switch between these settings by selecting a profile. For instance on profile “A” you have set your video settings like this:

And for profile “B” you could have the following settings:

Note the changes to the path for captured video, the compression threads, frame size and Encoder. It is now easy to switch between these two profiles thereby automatically configuring PlayClaw exactly how you need it!

PlayClaw also keeps track of games it has hooked into. This list is shown in the lower section of the Manage profiles screen:

With this screen you can link detected EXE files (games) with the selected profile thereby automatically configuring PlayClaw for that game.

Processes filter – If you have a lot of processes that have been detected,  you can filter them using this drop-down.

Link with current profile – If you have selected a profile and a process from the list, this button will link the selected process (game) to the current profile.

Unlink process – Does the opposite of the previous button. You can unlink a game from the current profile if needed.

Add to black list – It is even possible to disable PlayClaw for certain games/applications using this button.

Remove from blacklist – If you disabled PlayClaw for a game, simply select the process in the list and click this button. PlayClaw will once more be enabled for the game.

This is a basic description of the features available in PlayClaw, if you cannot find an answer to your questions in this documentation, please visit the PlayClaw forum at:

http://playclaw.com/forum/

or contact support

http://playclaw.com/support.php

Enjoy recording your gaming moments with PlayClaw!

1. Start PlayClaw and switch to the Capture Settings section by pressing the Capture Settings button on the main toolbar.
2. In the Screenshots subsection, change the folder used to save the screenshots if necessary and check the hotkey needed to take screenshots.
   
3. Switch to the Videos subsection
   
4. Adjust the folder used to store video recordings if necessary and take note of the hotkeys (Start/stop, Toggle pre-record)
   
5. Select the appropriate encoder. If you have a multi-core processor, select MJPEG and assign 1 or more threads for compression. (Note: do not assign all of your threads as the game you will be recording also needs processing power)
   
6. If so desired, adjust frame size to suit your needs. Note that adjusting the frame size of recorded video can also be done during post rendering.
   
7. Switch to the Audio subsection and enable the required inputs. The Speakers input is the game sound. If you have a microphone installed and would like to provide commentary while you play, make sure it is also enabled.
   
8. Select how you would like to save your recorded audio in the lower section. It can be either as a single audio track or even as separate WAV files for each audio input.
   
9. Now run the game you want to record.
   
10. Once the game is up and running, press the key you noted in step 4 and start recording!

This is a very basic setup to get you up and running. For more information on these settings, check the full documentation here.

How to enter PlayClaw contest?

1. Download special custom build of PlayClaw, install it, configure. You can read more about software settings and configuration here

2. Start killing monsters in Diablo 3

3. With the help of PlayClaw record video with your best kill streak. Upload video to your youtube account and send us the URL of your video via @PlayClaw twitter or PlayClaw facebook

It is important!

Your video must be recorded with customized PlayClaw version and must contain PlayClaw watermark in left-top corner (this version will place it automatically).

Your video must be at least in HD quality (720p).

Your video must contain your kill streak and high score like on this picture:

How to enter Diablo 3 giveaway?

1. Like us on Facebook if you haven’t already.

2. Set your Facebook status as “I want free Diablo 3 license from PlayClaw – must-have tool for gamers”

3. Tag us in your status! If you don’t know how to do that on Facebook, it’s just like Twitter – when you go to type out “PlayClaw” start with an @ symbol. As you’re typing, a dropdown box will appear and you can click to select us from the list.

Also, please be sure to allow everyone to see your status update if your privacy settings don’t already allow it – otherwise we can’t see your entry!

The contest runs from today through May 31, so get your submissions in by then! We’ll be judging your entries after the 31th. Information about winners will be published in next 7 days (1-7 June).

The best “killers” will get free PlayClaw licenses, one random user will get Diablo 3 code.

List of applicants’ videos (we update it manually):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMbZe2fVN0g

I’ve discovered one very interesting thing while recording Battlefield 3 gameplay. If I set “stereo conversion” option in PlayClaw audio settings then the final audio will not contain teamspeak 3 sounds!

Why? PlayClaw uses very simple conversion method – ripping multichannels. Or just removing all channels excepting front left and right. Before ts3 update (3.0.6) this operation did not remove teamspeak audio from final files because ts3 client rendered its sounds in these front left & right channels. Now it seems that ts3 client renders sounds to another channels (front center for example) and PlayClaw 3 just remove these sounds by ripping channels. Cheap and cheerful

But I cannot give you 100% guarantee that this will work on your system. Just try it…

I did my tests on: Battlefield 3 (2ch speaker ingame audio configuration), Windows 7 x64, USB Logitech G35 headset, Teamspeak 3 client 3.0.6 version.

Popular software for making machinima videos allows gamers to record amazing movies in 64-bit games and change capture settings without having to step out of the game.

TAMBOV, Russia – January 18, 2012 – Sytexis Software today announces Playclaw 3.0, a new version of the popular video capture software for DirectX and OpenGL games. The new release puts more power into the hands of gamers with support for 64-bit games and in-game overlay that lets users change capture settings while in game, rather than press Alt-Tab to quit the game and do the same in Windows.

“We do our best to create a tool that offers an incredible quality of video capture in games and powerful features for benchmarking a computer. Taking full advantage of multi-core processors and codecs, created especially for capturing games, our software lets you record virtual victories with minimal loss of frames and little impact on game performance. Also Playclaw makes it easier than ever to benchmark and configure your computer’s performance with a set of dedicated tests”, said Edward Kozadaev, author of Playclaw.

The latest update of Playclaw, available in its online store starting today, opens even more opportunities for players to capture video and screenshots in games. Following the requests of users and trends of the game market, the developers updated the program with support for 64-bit games, allowing players to capture the hottest moments of the game play on video and screenshots in memory intensive games

Also new version provides an overlay atop the game that allows users to change capture settings without having to quit the game. The overlay is very handy as gamers can see the results of their changes instantly. In earlier versions of Playclaw the player had to use Alt-Tab to quit the game, change settings and come back to proceed.

Other changes in Playclaw 3.0 include an ability to set custom font, size, shadow and color for any overlay (FPS counter, GPU/CPU overlay). Also it is possible to change the position of an overlay while in game.

Next updates will introduce more unique features for video capture.

Pricing & Availability

Playclaw 3.0 is available today for $29,95 from the online store on the product website.  Supported operating systems are Windows XP, Vista, Seven. Free trial version is available for evaluation. It is identical to the registered commercial version, except for an unremovable watermark at the top of every video. Full system requirements and more information on Playclaw can be found at http://www.playclaw.com

About Sytexis Software

Sytexis Software specializes in the development of software for capturing video and screenshots in Windows games since 2003. The company strives to meet all user needs and expectations with regard to quality of video capture and features that enhance the gaming experience. For more information, please visit www.sytexis.com.

###

NOTE: Reviewer’s license is provided to magazine editors and bloggers who are willing to review Playclaw.

Press Contact:

Edward Kozadaev

Sytexis Software

Email: support@sytexis.com

Web: www.playclaw.com

The new version of the voice communication software Teamspeak 3 has undergone serious changes and the old method to enable overlays does not work any longer. You need to copy the plugin for Teamspeak to the plugin directory and then activate it.To begin, open the folder with the installation of PlayClaw. By default, it is C:\Program Files\Play Claw3\ts3plugins\. Or C:\Program Files(x86)\Play Claw3\ts3plugins\ on 64-bits systems. Here you will find the plugin file – ts3playclaw.dll that you need to copy to the plugin folder of the Teamspeak client.

By default, the Teamspeak client is located in this folder C:\Program Files\Teamspeak 3 client\. In the Teamspeak folder, you can find the folder with the plugins, where you need to copy this file – ts3playclaw.dll (or ts3playclaw64.dll for 64bit Teamspeak 3 client). If you use Windows Vista or Windows 7, the UAC system may ask you to confirm this operation.

Now you should run the Teamspeak client and in the Settings menu, select Plugins.

The only thing you need to do now is to put a tick next to the name if the plugin and close the Settings window. Now PlayClaw can get information from the Teamspeak client and display overlays with people, speaking at the moment.

The overlay capabilities for Teamspeak 3 will be expanded to provide players with more useful information. Download trial version of PlayClaw to get Teamspeak 3 overlays.

The new option that appeared in new version is a combination of buttons to activate PlayClaw in the game. You can specify a combination of two buttons on keyboard, mouse or joystick. What does it mean?

While running PlayClaw and the game, you can call the full interface of PlayClaw configurations right in the game (similar to Steam overlays). There you can make the configuration of video capture, audio capture, configuration of overlays and other.

Some of the available configurations in PlayClaw, can be done right here by clicking on basic settings of capture.

They are: selection of buttons of screenshots capture, start-stop of the video, codec format and FPS video file format, and also selection of sound sources and sound processing options.