Ok. So I have installed FRAPS and I recorded me playing on TF2. I went into Pinnacle. I opened the FRAPS video and than it just shows blank green. I try to play it but it just plays sound. What am I doing wrong? And keep in mind that FRAPS has AVI files. Is that not good? And what is a good recording program for recording games that works for Pinnacle. Thanks in advance.

You should understand that all AVI files are not the same. Its just a file type that stands for Audio Video Interleave. Some AVIs are actually mpeg!

FRAPs is a particularly unusual beast in that in order to capture the screen in real time and not interfere with gameplay it uses even less compression that the standard DV-AVI file type that Pinnacle uses.

You might notice that the files are even larger the DV-AVI for the same duration.

Pinnacle can choke on these large files, or not recognise the codec depending on which version of Studio you have and what settings you used in FRAPs. Some of the lower resolution and frame rate settings can play in Studio, I believe.

This is from the FRAPs FAQ

Why is the AVI movie generated by Fraps so big? How can I reduce the size?

The filesize is big because there isn’t enough time to encode the movie while the game is running. The movie frames are slightly compressed, but still require a large amount of disk space due to the high resolutions. Once you have finished capturing you should convert the saved AVI into one of the popular compressed movie formats such as mpeg or divx. Recommended programs for doing this are tmpgenc (Tsunami Mpeg Encoder), and VirtualDub.

Using VirtualDub is quite easy. To create a compressed version of the AVI follow these steps:

• Start VirtualDub
• Select File->Open and choose the AVI in the Fraps directory you wish to compress.
• Select Video->Compression and choose the codec you wish to compress with (usually divx)
• Select File->Save As AVI and specify a filename for the new AVI.

If you have Windows XP you can also use Windows Movie Maker to compress the video files. If you use Windows Movie Maker it's recommended that you keep your Fraps video files at 800x600 or under.

Note the limits on using WMM. I'd guess you should apply the same to Studio, or use virtualdub to get the fraps files into a managable form.

 

Unfortunately, the last version of Studio that directly read Fraps videos was Studio 9. With 10 and 11 I've had to use VirtualDub to convert Fraps videos to .avi files that Studio can accept. Studio no longer uses just any codec on your system -- apparently only the ones supplied with Studio.

I used to do game captures with FRAPS and also use virtual dub to render raw files to divx, and then I import them to Studio for editing.

Ok. So I compressed it with WMM and now I have the first part of my video. But there are 2 things I need help with. 1: There are some parts in my clips where I will kill someone, than 10 seconds later in the same clip I will kill someone else. So my question is, how can I make it fast foward so that I don't have to wait. And I know I could just trim and stuff but I'd prefer it to speed up and I don't see the spped up effect on the effects menu. 2: I put in those hollywood transition things and they'll work.... the first time. After the first time it'll just show a sort of outline of it. Oh and also how do I completely remove sound from the clips?

Do you mean how do you all this in Studio ? If thats what your asking. The best way to go is start by pulling up the help. by downloading the manual here. I'm sure you'll be able to finish this in no time.

If you have the quickstart version of Studio, the Speed effect is not included.

Well ***. I have the quik start. But on the box, it says version 11. And no quikstart...?

I assume you have a Dazzle device? They all come with Quickstart. The Studio Standard software alone costs more than some of those devices. What does it say on the disc?

Thats good then. What version does it mention on the disc itself?

It says Pinnacle Studio QuickStart.

Can you check the Version number and revision on this disc as well? AFAIK there are no Quickstart version for 11. Only for 9 10 and 10.5.

Well it doesn't say.

Hmm.. Strange. Does it have a serial key printed anywhere for it? Would you kindly send that over to me via PM?