Support Tips for Making Let's Plays?

Discussion in 'Technology' started by ReverofEnola, Mar 27, 2015.

  1. ♥♦♣♠Luxord♥♦♣♠ Chaser

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    Two guys used exclusively apple products which I really don't recommend, and sadly the rest of us just built our computers (I know that isn't the answer you might be looking for but that is what happened). In reality if you have the money, all it takes is a several hour session (could take a while if it is your first time, but really it is just plugging things in) to build a computer.

    This is by FAR my highest recommendation. It can leave you room for future upgrades, it is 100% personalized, and it has the potential for being very cost effective. Plus, the main perk of building your own machine is that you get to pick and choose EXACTLY what you want. If you are just interesting in gaming for example, prioritize most of your money into a graphics card, whereas a lot of video editors may choose a better CPU or more RAM.

    Take a look at some tutorials on youtube (there are plenty of them), and just kind of get the feel of if this is something you are willing to do, because if you do, it will be soooo much more worth it. I've already built several computers for myself and a couple for some friends, and I haven't gotten a single complaint from any of them (or myself lol).
     
  2. Karuta Reborn

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    Whatever you do, whether you're planning on making videos or not, do NOT buy a prebuilt consumer desktop. You will be getting ripped off almost 100% of the time. I would highly recommend building a PC, but if you're seriously against doing it yourself, buy the parts and pay somebody to do it for you, you'll still be better off than you would if you buy prebuilt.
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2015
  3. Amaury Legendary Hero

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    As long as your quality is decent, it doesn't really matter, though when all I had was my digital camcorder I didn't really have any complains.

    As an example, my videos don't fill the whole screen, and I've yet to have complains:

     
  4. ReverofEnola King's Apprentice

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    Well great then it looks like building my own PC looks like my only route huh? However, thanks guys for letting me know about pre built desktops and using Apple products. I was wondering what type of computers I should steer clear of.

    Lol I was wondering when you'd show up. I watched two of your videos yesterday. What kind of equipment did you use for your Let's Plays at the beginning? Plus, what do you use now?
     
  5. Amaury Legendary Hero

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    • Digital camcorder.
    • Roxio.
    • Roxio Plus in September 2013 when my previous Roxio, which was outdated, broke.
     
  6. ♥♦♣♠Luxord♥♦♣♠ Chaser

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    It should be known that Roxio products (at least their capture cards) are notoriously meh
     
  7. Hayabusa Venomous

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    Well, for one, that video was of a game that isn't HD. Stretching it to fill the 16:9 ratio of YouTube would make the quality absolutely ass, sooooo yeah.

    Pro-tip: keep games in the ratio you're meant to play them. Some are 4:3 (square-ish size) and some are 16:9 (wide rectangular size.) Do not stretch video, ever.
     
  8. ReverofEnola King's Apprentice

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    Alright now what kind of Desktop or Laptop did you use?
     
  9. Hayabusa Venomous

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    If it helps, here's what I've used to stream PC games, but it's a laptop (pre-built obviously) and outside your proposed price range. It manages just about everything but high-end games (like playing Tomb Raider above Medium settings) really well.

    The newer and stronger model is selling right now at the price I bought the G550 for.

    I don't have a capture card for consoles currently.
     
  10. Amaury Legendary Hero

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    Just a desktop, which hasn't changed since.
     
  11. Hayabusa Venomous

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    Think he is asking for specifications.
     
  12. Amaury Legendary Hero

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    Specs.png
     
  13. ♥♦♣♠Luxord♥♦♣♠ Chaser

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    It should be mentioned that specs, in terms of pushing videos out are only really important for the speed that it will take to edit (which is important). For example, Amaury's specs make me want to cry, strictly because I have been exposed to better. If you can handle really slow rendering, etc. It doesn't "really" matter, as long as you are making LP's on consoles.
     
  14. ReverofEnola King's Apprentice

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    So if I decide to record myself playing LP's on my computer then that will be the crucial moment where having better specs will be the difference? That makes sense due to it being less strain on my computer.

    Are you also saying that it'll be easier to record games on my consoles than on my laptop despite its specs? The only difference would be the speed it takes to render and edit the videos (which I'm already used to).
     
  15. Amaury Legendary Hero

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    Upload speed is based on Internet speed, so that's an entirely different thing. Processing (after recording) and saving on Windows Movie Maker or whatever you use depends more on your CPU than RAM from what I understand and personal experience.

    If you remember, my cooling unit died on me a while ago. Before it got replaced, it would take about an hour for a 45-minute video to process on Roxio. Now it only takes about 20 minutes. In addition, saving times were inconsistent on Windows Movie Maker. A 20-minute video could take 10 minutes to save in the morning and an hour to save at night. Now they're consistent and a bit shorter. I can save a 30-minute video in about 15 minutes, and it doesn't matter what time of the day I do it at.
     
  16. ReverofEnola King's Apprentice

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    Lol that's different from me.

    It took me 2-3 hours to both render and upload my videos.
     
  17. ♥♦♣♠Luxord♥♦♣♠ Chaser

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    I explained all of this already, I don't know why you feel the need to tell me things that (obviously, otherwise how else would I have explained them) I already know.

    Depends on the quality/file size man. If its bigger/higher quality it'll take longer to upload.
     
  18. Amaury Legendary Hero

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    I just sort of skimmed this, so sorry if I missed something.
     
  19. Misty gimme kiss

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    I have an Elgato and use my HP laptop with it. Does it get the job done? Sure, but not very well. Some of the features of the program are disabled simply by system specs, editing and rendering take forever, and oh god the overheating. I bought the laptop two years ago and, while I did look for good specs (I'm a computer nerd), I was mostly buying the laptop for school and web browsing. Disk speed sucks on most sub-$1000 laptops (they use 5400rpm drives to lower the power consumption), the processors aren't great, and few of them have a dedicated GPU. I've made it work but if I had the money to get a desktop, I absolutely would.

    It sounds like you could use a new computer, LPing or not. If you're comfortable with going for a desktop, then you absolutely should -- mobility was a big factor for me, being a commuting college student, but laptops in general are becoming less and less relevant in today's industry. $500 is an okay amount for a budget build, and I'll throw in my vote for building your own. If you're not comfortable doing it yourself, see if you can find a friend to help or supervise, but it really is dead simple. You do have to consider however the "extras" of the budget -- do you need a monitor? Keyboard? Mouse? Operating system? That'll eat into your budget, but I'm sure we can help you to put together a build. Pre-built is obviously appealing upfront but you'll be able to suck a lot more life out of a custom built PC. Not only that, but it's actually ideal for your situation: you'll have more control over your specs, which means better performance for making LPs, but if you find you are getting serious about doing LPs and really enjoy it, you can upgrade the machine down the line with more expensive parts (and for better performance). If you do abandon the hobby after a while, you'll still have a good PC on your hands that you really didn't sink much money into (I imagine you'd be spending $500 on a prebuilt machine anyway).

    As a side note, too, if you do abandon the LP dream, Elgatos and Yetis have a pretty high resale value if you take good care of them.
     
  20. ReverofEnola King's Apprentice

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    Sigh, what if I were to get a Lenovo?