I have recently finished a video comparing recordings from Bandicam (Registered), Dxtory (Trial Verison), Fraps (Registered) and Playclaw (Trial Version). I do a series of testing called TestRuns and wanted to compare side-by-side, video taken of the same material/game/area.
For this TestRun, the game used is Minecraft. Yes, MC isn't exactly 'high-end-tessa-shadow-bump-mipped', but that's the point. Without taxing the CPU/GPU extensively, more of the power can go towards recording and getting the most 'bang-for-the-buck' from the game recording apps. Also, the sharp edges and movement of groups of pixels, along with solid colors and dark areas, are a good test of compression and will bring out any artifacts that the contending codecs might sweat out. It is mainly a comparison of the file size produced (shown on the right hand side) vs the general quality of the recording (program/codec shown on the left hand side).
Here it is on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... Rvtc8QUV78
Recorded with: Fraps, Dxtory, Bandicam, Playclaw
Resolution: Slightly higher than HD @ 1920x1096, (Maximized Window @ 1920x1200 Desktop with doubled taskbar), resized to fit into 1920x1080 (1080p HD) video rendered as final video output for upload
Recording Time: 10 seconds or 300 frames, attempt made to record from same location for each segment
Recording Size: Varies, sizes are included in the video for each recording segment
Codecs utilized: MPEG, MJPEG, UTyuv422, FRAPS1, various quality settings for all
In general, the recorded segments in the video comparison are shown in order of largest disk space usage per second to the smallest.
Here is the 4x4 (16-Video/Codec) comparison key (it is in order of largest file size produced to the smallest):
A - Dxtory High Quality w. Compression
B - UT video codec YUV 422
C - Dxtory Medium Quality w. Compression
D - Playclaw NoCompression [Trial Limited Quality]
E - Fraps FullSize
F - Dxtory Low Quality w. Compression
G - Bandicam MJPEG Quality100
H - Playclaw LowCompression [Trial Limited Quality]
I - Fraps HalfSize
J - Bandicam MJPEG Quality80 'Vegas/Premiere/Pinnacle' setting
K - Bandicam MJPEG Quality60
L - Playclaw MJPEGcompression (6 threads) [Trial Limited Quality]
M - Bandicam MJPEG Quality40
N - Bandicam MPEG-1 Quality80 'Default' setting
O - Bandicam MPEG-1 Quality80 'YouTube720p' setting
P - Bandicam MPEG-1 Quality80 'HalfSize' setting
Look at the difference for the smaller size recordings! Bandicam clearly wins out in keeping quality with the small file size
(Example: small file size recording "N", Bandicam's Default Recording Setting)[Playclaw, at the time of this testing, was Trial Limited in it's Quality capability. As of June 2013, this no longer seems to be the case. Therefore, it will be re-included in an upcoming TestRun of multiple game recording applications]
Again, this comparison wasn't to show off shadows/effects of a high-end game, it was to compare the file sizes vs quality for each program and recording codec used. The sharp edges and dark areas in this game with simple graphics are the obstacle course for the testing. For more information and analysis on this specific test, the article is here:
http://gametipsandmore.blogspot.ca/2012 ... xtory.html
Great job, Bandicam!
See you in the games!