Ryzza's Recording Setup

Discussion in 'Sim Racing Systems & Troubleshooting' started by Ryzza5, Aug 16, 2016.

  1. Ryzza5

    Ryzza5 Professional

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    Ok so it's really simple... except it isn't

    Basic PS4 Project CARS Setup
    PS4 connects via HDMI to an Elgato GameCapture HD60 device. (I have an older GameCapture HD device that records up to 30FPS if anyone is interested in MEL). From the device another HDMI cable goes to a PC monitor and USB takes the feed to a PC on the same desk, which records the main video clip. That's all you need for basic console recordings. There are other capture cards out there by the likes of Aver Media as well. Search YouTube for more details on using these devices.
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    Adding Voice Chat to the Mix
    The PS3 could send audio out to HDMI and Optical outputs simultaneously. The PS4 cannot. If you connect a headset to your console or gamepad you can hear and chat, but your recording via HDMI will be silent.

    Run the official 'Remote Play' application on your PC. Using the wired network connection it will mirror the audio and video output of the PS4.

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    You can now hear the game via your PC speakers but you still can't record it yet. You essentially want to get a cable looping your headphone jack to your microphone jack in order to record this audio.

    What you want is a 'virtual audio cable', so download Voicemeeter Banana (aka Pro).

    This creates 2 virtual Playback and Recording devices in your Sound properties. Confusingly, it calls the Playback channels 'Inputs' and the Recording channels 'Outputs'. In my opinion it should be the other way around. Instead think of these as an Input into the Voicemeeter app.

    Set the main playback and recording VIAO devices as default in Windows. I use the auxiliary ones for PC voice chat: Skype, TeamSpeak, Discord, etc (this is irrelevant for consoles - you will not be able to record PS4 voice chat).
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    Voicemeeter is also a very powerful virtual sound mixer.
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    Yellow box (left): These channels are manually mapped to real recording devices (microphones)
    A1, A2, A3: These channels are manually mapped to physical playback devices (speakers) up top (Hardware Out)

    Orange (center): The 2 new virtual Playback devices (inputs). You only need the first one.
    B1, B2: The 2 new virtual Recording devices

    Control the flow of audio by turning these A1-B2 buttons on/off for various channels. I want my main PC audio be sent out almost everywhere simultaneously so it has the most channels enabled.

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    RemotePlay audio hits Voicemeeter as 'PC Audio', which is redirected an A_ channel (your real speakers, which is only required for normal PC use, not recording PS4), and sent to B1, which is our 'virtual audio cable loop' to be recorded in Elgato. For that reason you'll want to prevent other Windows programs from making noises if you can help it as these will end up in your recording.

    In sync
    Because of the two different audio sources, the audio lags behind the video. Download and run Avidemux. Load your video. Watch the video until you find a part where it becomes obvious the audio is out of sync, for example hitting a kerb (or another driver).

    Tick shift audio and enter a positive or negative value depending if the audio is ahead or lagging behind. It's usually -300ms for me. Change from AVI to MP4v2 if that's the source video and hit save. It takes a few seconds only as there is no conversion happening.
    [​IMG]


    What about PC gaming and recording?
    You can do so much more. I take a HDMI cable out of my PC into the Elgato and into a monitor afterwards. Although I've not benchmarked it, I'm pretty sure it means better performance (FPS) when recording compared to using OBS Studio or MSI Afterburner to record, since the external device does the heavy lifting. Press 'Pause' in the Elgato software after recording for further performance gains.

    Since it also records everything coming out of HDMI, no need to worry about game compatibility. If the game crashes to desktop it will record that too. The device sits on my desk for somewhat simple cable swapping with the PS4. I can also record my voice and/or others via Skype, etc to a separate MP3 file for later editing into the video. Image below shows the 'flow' of my microphone audio (orange) and PC audio.

    [​IMG]

    Recording Skype?
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    Another neat trick
    Got 2 PC's near each other but only one set of speakers? Use the VBAN function to send all audio from one PC over LAN to the other then out of it's speakers with practically zero lag. My gaming PC has no speakers connected, it goes over LAN to my office PC on the same desk (yep a console and 2 PC's all cosy together).
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    Alternative Pit Crew Chief
    I setup Project CARS on PS4 and PC to work with UDP 1 data broadcasting over the local network. I purchased the Android version of the Crew Chief app recently so that I could use this for PS4 league races.
    You may want to go into its' settings and disable swear words.

    I run this app on an Android tablet and connect a physical audio cable (the horror) from the tablet out to the USB transmitter for my Logitech G933 headset.

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    Now I can hear when @cruciald00dz is alongside. But my Elgato recording can't. The solution is surprisingly simple. Just run the free PC edition of Crew Chief on the same PC along with PS RemotePlay. Adjust the audio levels so nothing is too loud or quiet, and job done. Technically the video may record different crew chief messages compared to what you hear live - but who's going to know?

    [​IMG]

    The result
    Following some light editing in Sony Vegas:


    Hope this helps or inspires someone in the ROOZ community. Now @Nathancarhead knows why it sometimes takes so long to accept his lobby invites.
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2016
  2. Beau_Albert

    Beau_Albert World Champion

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    That seems awfully complicated.... my Haupaggue HD PVR 2 GE i used to use before my laptop broke did all of that audio matching; syncing and file conversion and compression for me. For recording i used the Haupaggue official recorder and sometimes a program known as Arcsoft Showbiz.
    Showbiz was awesome for dual commentaries or multiple audio inputs. I'd reccomend looking into them to save you such a hefty workload
  3. Zachery

    Zachery Professional

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    Wow wtf. Thats so far out of my league its not funny.

    Good :):):):) Ryzza!
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  4. Ryzza5

    Ryzza5 Professional

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    For basic gameplay recording, it is very simple (just the first paragraph only). For league racing on PS3 it was also very simple.


    If I didn't use a headset at all I could record voice chat as well (but not chat back to you), as per my first night of league racing with OzCoMoBros before I had owned a mic.


    It's only complicated now because the PS4 can't output two streams at once unlike the PS3. I went into a lot of optional extra stuff just so you know what's out there and possible.
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2016
  5. Spidey_11

    Spidey_11 Professional Gold Member

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    Ryzza that :):):):) is way too complicated for ps4 haha
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  6. Ryzza5

    Ryzza5 Professional

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    I'm an IT guy, I like it complicated (aka feature-rich) :cool:
  7. Clevohead

    Clevohead Taswegian Ambassador Team Raceonoz

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    Thought this was all we needed to record gameplay???
    [​IMG]
    Maybe I missed something????
  8. Ryzza5

    Ryzza5 Professional

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    Time limits and the ability to edit?
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