Is there external hardware to record monitor display???

Hello, how is everyone doing & Merry Christmas!

First off I'm an avid PC gamer. What I want to ultimately do is record how I play & then upload it to YOUTUBE. I've tried it with software (fraps, etc...) but it either lags at high resolutions, or I have to bring it down to the lowest resolution & it sucks to play that way.

I'd like to know my options as to some type of external hardware that will record whatever I'm doing on my pc monitor without interfering with how I play while I'm recording. Also, after I'm done recording I have to be able to xfer the recording back to the pc for editing, uploading, etc... I was thinking there might be some type of camcord, or external hard drive? I was even thinking of having it hooked up to my TV, and recording it to DVD.

My PC is gateway gt5628
My graphics card is Nvidia GEforce GTS 250
My Monitor is HP wide 17 inch lcd
I have 6 usbs and 2 firewire 1394 ports

Guys, any help & suggestions would be great!

I'll be checking this post periodically, Tx!

 

What I'd try is an S-video cable from your video card,set the nvidia driver to clone your desktop display through the TV output then connect it to a scart and a DVD or video recorder.

If you have a laptop handy you can buy one of these

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Kworld-USB2800D-DVD-Maker-USB2-Convert-you-analogue-Video-VHS-to-DVD

I have one for converting analogue to digital video and they work pretty good,just connect it to the S-video output on your vid card,then plug the USB plug into a laptop and start recording using the supplied software.


Fraps tip=What your probably experiencing is hard drive lag,the game has to be read from your hard drive whilst fraps writes a video to it,if you have a spare hard drive layin around or have two HD's use that just for recording your videos, put the game on one HD and change the fraps default directory to the other.

A few suggestions for you to try,good luck

And merry Christmas to you!

 

Thank you for your help! I will have to try to figure out some of the suggestions you gave me, but I can try the last one right now because I do have an external hard drive where I store music.

Ty again and merry christmas & happy new year!

 

Also don't forget to try setting the video to half size and set the fraps FPS to 30 or lower,play around with the settings in fraps to see if you can find a happy medium between video quality and playability if you haven't already.