How To Capture Video On Your PC Part 1

Capturing video from your pc is one of the most beneficial skills you could ever learn. It's also very easy to pick up. With the right tools, anyone can do it. Video capture can be used for a variety of purposes. I use it primarily to create computer game play videos, but video capture can also be used to capture video of any other activity that you carry out on your computer. For instance, it's a great tool for digital artists to use when they want to demonstrate a certain editing technique or show off their creative flare in photo shop.

To capture great looking videos, there are several things you'll need to take care of first. I've narrowed this list down to 5 major steps. If you study this list and follow the directions, you'll be well on your way towards creating vibrant, high-quality videos in no time.

How To Capture Video On Your PC Part 2

How To Capture Video On Your PC Part 3

The absolute first thing you want to do is to make sure that you've installed the latest drivers for your graphics card. Video capture relies heavily on the performance of your graphics card. The performance of your graphics card relies in turn on the quality and stability of your video drivers. To update your video drivers, you need to download them from the manufacturers website.

The first step in doing this is to identify which company manufactured your video card. 90% of all video cards are manufactured by either ATI or Nvidia. To find out the origin of your particular card, go to your desktop and right click with your mouse. A drop down menu will then come up. In this menu you may see an entry dedicated specifically to your video settings. In my case, the first entry at the top of the menu is titled "Catalyst(TM) Control Center." It also has an ATI logo positioned to the left of it. If you have an Nvidia branded card, you may see a menu entry titled "Nvidia Control Panel." In that case, you would proceed to the Nvidia website here: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us. In my case, since I have an ATI card, I would proceed to ATI's website to get my drivers: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

If you're unable to bring up the graphics card menu by right clicking on your desktop, there is an alternative way to discover the type of video card you have. Open the "Computer" menu or "My Computer" menu depending on which version of windows you have. In my case, it's the "Computer" menu since I'm on Windows 7. From there, you want to click the "System Properties" or "System" menu depending on your windows version. In my case, it's called "System Properties." From there, you'll see a menu on the left titled "Device Manager." Click on it. In the "Device Manager" menu, you'll see a list of all the devices installed on your computer. Navigate down to the device category titled "Display Adapters." Click on that menu and you will be able to see what kind of graphics card you have. In my case, I have the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650. Note the title of your card because you will need to select it on the ATI website in order to get the proper drivers.

Once you have the proper drivers, you're going to need to install them. The best way to do this is to uninstall your current drivers, boot up in safe mode, and then install them in safe mode. First, ensure that you have your new drivers in an easily accessible location. I usually copy the new drivers to my desktop, so I can located them easily when I boot up in safe mode. After you've done this, navigate back to the "Device Manager" menu and then to the "Display Adapters" menu. In the menu, right click on your display adapter and click the "uninstall option" when it asks you if you want to delete the drivers "select yes." Next, restart your computer and boot up into safe mode. To do this on most computers you have to tap F7, F8, or F9 while the computer is starting up. Once you're in safe mode, find the drivers on your desktop and open them up. The drivers will then begin installing. When they finish, restart your computer and boot back up into normal mode.

Once You Have The Proper Graphics Drivers Installed, It's Time To Move On To Step 2: Downloading The Proper Video Capture Software.