I have a low-end PC, so HD recording is not an option. I have a basic $10 video capture card which accepts either a composite (yellow cable) or S-Video signal. THe problem with this particular capture card, and many others, is that if you try to use your computer as the monitor while you're playing, it introduces a bad lag and makes games like Wipeout completely unplayable. I bought a multi-console video cable which has BOTH a composite and S-video plug on the other end; I plug the composite cable into my TV, and the S-Video cable goes to the computer. THat way, I can use my TV to play a game without any lag, and the higher-quality S-video cable will give a slightly better video quality when recording.

If you're going to use a camcorder to record the screen of your TV, make sure there aren't any image sync problems; sometimes you'll get dark bars in the recorded video because the camera isn't quite synchronized with the refresh rate of the display.

Learn different codecs for compression; it's best to save the initial recording in uncompressed AVI, so that you can re-compress it and re-size it for whatever purpose you're going to be doing. h264 is a good one for high-def content, but regular xvid and divx serve a basic purpose too.


I wish I could pay more attention to what Im trying to say, but I'm ironically in the middle of a class at school which is teaching the fundamental basics of digital imaging... lol gtg