Trying to find alternative to Ms Windows game bar and I have a few questions about AP

I started tinkering with AP yesterday so there’s obviously a lot I don’t know.

Too long version short, Windows game bar stopped working for me and I gave up trying to fix that.

This software was well recommended so I gave it a try.

All I really need to do is record lossless 1080 60 fps. This is for simple games like solitaire so I don’t need all the game bar gizmos and social gadgets.

Since I need a lot more than 10 minutes BanditCam is apparently out for me at the moment.

So here’s my list of “issues”.

Bandit Cam gives you the option to record audio separately, which for me, means it can be done in a single file just like the game bar does.

Q1 - Any way to do that with AP? Ultimately I don’t mind a little hack like using a command line with ffmpeg or whatever the name is and have that done LOSSLESS and without transcoding, just a simple merge or whatever that process is called. Since this would be done on ssds, I’d assume about a minute of work to read / copy the files into a new file for even an hour of recording. Right now full transcoding reduces the quality of the output on top of taking more than 2X original video time, despite a high powered intel i7, even if older generation.

This is critical for me because with the game bar I could just hit stop record, turn around and upload to yt and I’m done. No need to sit around for 2 hours for a pointless transcoding step. Which it seems like I’d have to do with AP.

And then I can also start editing right away lossless and upload lossless and then less yt take care of the transcoding on their end. Which as best as I can tell with no meaningful experience, knowledge or background into this, gave me the best look for videos, as best as I can tell right now from all the little tests I did.

For some of what I do I just cut up the video in 20-30 smaller files. I just need to set 30 start/stop points, hit cut and then upload. So again, that extra transcoding steps becomes real annoying and it gives a lesser result.

Q2 - I like to be able to have the mini recording bar in the final recorded video. But is there any way to resize it even smaller? I’ve already taken out all the options I could but it’s still too thick. I need it about as narrow as the title bar in the game (or the windows task bar). I can’t seem to find a way to do that and it’s almost double that size now.

Q3 - For some reason there seems to be a brightness filter or some sort of color correcting in the original recording. The image is far “whiter” / clearer than the real screen and the reds are screaming rather than just bright reds. I never had that problem with any other solutions I tested so I’m guessing there’s a setting somewhere I missed but I just don’t see anything that resembles that in the recording settings.

Q4 - My last question for now. Right now I’m using mp4 splitter to set 20-30 cutting off (stop & restart) points. Can AP do that also? I did a quick glance and I’m not finding my way around the gui so far.

Q5 - Also is there any reason why the CPUs are only used at 50% while transcoding? Rather than 100%?

Q6 - Any way to force a recording bitrate? I’m pretty sure I’ve maxed out everything and it’s still significantly lower than what the game bar had.

mkvmerge took care of the merge issue. 1 second per 15 minutes of videos.

You got to love ssds :smile:

What drivers are you using to record the videos? Looks like it’s dropping quite a few frames in the process when again, the game bar had absolutely no problems doing so.

Anything I need to update on my end perhaps?

Hi,

ActivePresenter is designed mainly for creating short video demos or training tutorials, so I don’t think it meets all your needs. If you still decide to use it, you can find a lot of tutorials at https://atomisystems.com/activepresenter/tutorials/

Q1: Maybe the Record Audio section in this tutorial is what you’re looking for https://atomisystems.com/tutorials/ap7/insert-audio-in-activepresenter-7/

Q2: Unfortunately, it is impossible.

Q3: You can try check/uncheck the option at ActivePresenter > Preferences > Miscellaneous > Use JPEG color range…

Q4: Yes, you can find the guide in tutorials.

Q5: It will be improved in the version 8.0

Q6: You can select some settings in the Recording Settings tutorial.

Regards,

Thanks Dao, that pretty much covers it.

Except maybe Q1, I guess my question wasn’t as concise as it could have been.

When I hit record, is there a button that will save the audio directly into the video file rather than 2 separate files?

Q2 - I can live with that even tho that’s like 1 line of code but anywho. I found out later that I can also push it further up outside the “normal” screen which somewhat does the trick, not just as clean looking.

Q3 - Hadn’t tried that, checked it off for th next tries.

Q5 - Ok, but then again merging split A/V the files takes the transcoding step completely out of the equation so not that big of a deal for me right now.

Q6 - Really? Must have missed an entirely different menu cause I just don’t see a manual entry box for recording bit rate.

And no offense, but for such a ‘simple’ tool, it’s surprisingly close to what the game bar can produce :sunny:.

Hence my many small things I’m trying to adjust.

Thanks again.

Hi,

Q1: Unfortunately, there is no such function since the program focuses on editing. You have to select Export > Video to do that.
Q6: You can take a look at: https://atomisystems.com/tutorials/ap7/working-recording-settings-dialog/

Regards,