Worth buying? FPS drops and stability?

[-ETU-Daedalus]

I have been using FRAPS since version 2.99 or something. I know it lacks a lot of options but personally I don't need them. I don't need to chose a codec since my footage get edited anyway and encoded with all the options I want. File size doesn't really matter. But what annoys me is the huge FPS hit and the lock to 30 FPS (while recoding at 30 FPS) if the FPS drops below a common multiple of 30.

Dxtory seems faster than FRAPS and MSI Afterburner on my system but it is the least stable one. In some games it keeps crashing the games, sometimes right from the start, sometimes while taking screenshots or trying to record. And sometimes the overlay is visible in the video and gives a strange and unrealistic FPS counter. Especially in some few older games it likes to crash. There aren't many so far I can reproduce but I can't effort to risk a crash during a very good session (maybe walkthrough/review/let's play) or online gameplay. So when I'm using Dxtory I feel kind of uncomfortable, not knowing when it crashes the next time, even it just does that to 1 out of 100 games. But I have NEVER had any crashes with FRAPS. That's the reason why I'm still using the "old" FRAPS at 90 % for most of the games. Since it just works. Yeah, there are FPS drops but it records nevertheless, stable, no syncing, audio or video or game problems. It seems the lack of features is compromised for the purest and most stable recording.

But how is PlayClaw working? Is it that stable compared to FRAPS? Did you guys had ever any issues or crashes while running PlayClaw and trying to screen-shot or recording your gameplay? How is the performance compared to Dxtory and FRAPS?

[Neko Jakey]

I've used the demo for FRAPS and Bandicam before, however none of them to really match up to the performance that playclaw gave me. For example, on normal settings I could not record at 60 FPS in minecraft with FRAPS or Bandicam. Playclaw handled it fine.

I suggest you try the demo they have for playclaw and see for yourself http://www.playclaw.com/download.php

[-ETU-Daedalus]

Thanks for the advice! It has really much performance, quite the same as Dxtory and way better than FRAPS or Afterburner. Too bad my video editing software doesn't like the codec (I tried "fast" and "mjpeg"). The first one doesn't output any visuals in any player, just the sound. The latter output both but a blank, black screen in my editing software, like the first one.

Too bad, could have been a real alternative :/

[MixTape]

i bought it when it was on sale a while back and im pretty content with it. the fps drop is very little (it could differ between machines i guess) and the quality is great. would i pay full price for it? no but it was worth the 20 bucks i paid.

[RYNO MAN]

Is it worth 23.00 bucks?

[A Brown Bear]

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

this video review is fantastic for it

[-ETU-Daedalus]

Originally posted by Jakey #DemoBuddy:

What video editor do you use?

I use Adobe Premiere Pro, CS4

[Mystix]

It seems to be a good capture / recording software for desktop and games. Though there are some games it won't capture, and there's no option that I'm aware of to select & capture just a portion of the desktop screen. Still, overall, it has nice features, seems fairly easy and intuitive to use, can make good quality videos, not much FPS drop for the games I've tried it with so far and I do like it.