Screencapture Software

For my video i needed to capture gameplay footage of the games I was discussing. In order to do this i had to use a piece of software that could capture the screen I was playing the games on.

PlayStation 4

The PlayStation 4 has a built in recording software. By pressing the share button on the controller, I could record the game I was playing, for up to 15 minutes, and then upload it directly to YouTube, Dailymotion, Facebook and Twitter, or alternatively, you can transfer the files onto a USB. I also have access to a mic for the PS4 and the system allows the user to record their mic audio with the game audio. While this is a possible way to record gameplay, there are a few issues, firstly it requires an internet connection, which for the most part wouldn’t be a problem as I can connect for the majority of the time but it can go down. However, the main reason is because a lot of the games I need footage of, like Half Life and Unreal Tournament, are not available to play on the PS4 and some are exclusively for the PC. Because of this I doubt I will use it. I tested the footage, and i feel the quality was good, but it doesn’t help resolve the major issues and doesn’t have any customisation options to change it.

Nvidia ShadowPlay

ShadowPlay is a piece of software developed by the graphics card company, Nvidia, as part of their GeForce Experience program. It is only available with computers that have Nvidia graphics cards, specifically those that have GTX 600 series cards or higher. I have ta computer that meets all the specifications thus I can use this to record. Like the PS4 there is an option to record mic audio as well as the systems audio, however I do not have a mic for the PC. ShadowPlay also has more options, allowing recording of 30 – 60 FPS, 10 – 130 M/bs bitrate and up to 4K resolution, which is very useful. I tested with a bitrate of 50 M/bs, 30 FPS on my native resolution (1680 x 1050).