Recording XBOX360 Gameplay

[quik]

I've searched countless hours of the internet, and nothing's shown for what I have to record my xbox360 gameplay. I don't have a DVD recorder or a capture card, so I'll start off from there.

I want to know a way to record xbox360 gameplay. Whether it'd be through my computer screen, or tv. I play on an old magnavox tv with the basic rca cables. However I do have an hd tv with vga, dvi cables, etc.

I have a DVD player, which records vcr and not dvd's sadly

So, what could I do to record?

An idea also occurred. I have a video camera that has one input cable. On the other side are 3 rca cables to plug into the tv. So could i...connect my xboxto the dvdplayer/vcr recorder (so I play through there) and plug in my camera through my dvdplayer to record? would that work?

Any tips appreciated.

Quik

[khy]

you need a capture card. Ive recently ordered an Easycap of amazon.
It's the cheapest High Quality card i could find. In total with all the cords and splitters, it's $22.
If you'd like the link just tell me.

[aeria.]

What khy said is right, you will need a capture card if you want to record video onto your computer. Also it's not just having a capture card, it's about choosing a card that doesn't suck too bad and how to properly export videos so that they are viewable.

External

Internal
There are two types of capture cards. Internal and External. It's a bit self explanatory. Internal cards require you to open up your computer and physically install the part. It's not rocket science, but it can be a hassle. External capture cards are also available. I currently own an external one. Basically it's just connecting your video cable to the card and connecting the card to your USB slot. It's a lot easier to set up and it's a lot easier to use, however they happen to be inferior quality... until you spend hours tweaking the video settings to be correct.

Most CCs on the market are only in Standard Definition, so they have to be highly tweaked for you to get the right picture quality.
HD PVRs/HD capture cards are available, however most of them are internal. That means you need to open the case if the computer and physically install the device. I believe I've seen an external HD card before, however it ran on USB 3.0, which most computers don't have yet.

HD CCs will obviously go for more than SD CCs, but it's worth it if you are really interested in recording your gameplay in the best quality.

I currently own the Diamond One Touch Capture Card and it's an SD CC. It looks fine ingame after wasting time tweaking the settings:
http://www.mpcgamers.com/smf/index.php?topic=2453.msg27181#msg27181

The EasyCap, Dazzle, and Diamond has the best quality after tweaking, I'll find a link of the video quality of EasyCap once I'm home, YouTube's blocked at school so I can't link you right now. The Diamond is the most expensive of all of them (which was why I bought it) however the software that came with it was so poorly made, you'll need to restart it several times until the picture quality comes out right. I opted to 3rd party software, but I'll go into that another time.

If using a 360, you might need to buy composite cables, I don't know if they came with the 360 since I don't own one. A splitter might be useful if you want the game to both display on your computer and on your TV, but it's not a requirement. You can just plug the video straight into the capture card.

Like what khy said, EasyCap's the cheapest high quality cards so go for that one if you want to spend the least money. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
--AG

[quik]

@ag: Sure links welcome

@khyler: Could you send me the link of each of the things i would have to buy? 22$ just makes my budget

[Soap Mactavish]

thats pretty much it quik. looks to me like you plug the usb end of the capture card into your PC and the other end into the correct ports for video and audio and you are rdy to go

[aeria.]

This is how the EasyCap looks like after tweaking the settings. Keep in mind that this is a SD card, so this is actually impressive.

EasyCAP Quality Test HD - Halo 3 Xbox 360 (PAL 60)

[quik]

That's pretty good quality