Month: August 2019

I love playing video games, a lot. In fact I like it so much that you could say when I am not scheduled to do anything else I try to make it a point to play some game or another.

When I first started doing YouTube videos way back before Google bought it out, I did a series of “video strategy guides.” This was before Let’s Plays and Long Plays became a thing. Of course back then you were very limited in the length of videos and there wasn’t ad sharing in those days either. I was doing the videos not so much as a business or even a job but it was a partnership with other colleagues who were trying to launch a business. In the end I walked away due to the convoluted way the site handled copyright strikes once Google got its hands on the site.

Since then I have dabbled on more than one occasion trying to get back into doing Let’s Play videos. My first attempt I spent money on a video capture device. I plugged my consoles into the computer and captured the video that way. Then I went back and watched the video footage while I talked over it. This was cumbersome.

I quickly gave up because it took too much time to produce videos in this manner. It also took all the fun out of the games. Due to the hardware limitations of my PC at the time I couldn’t play the games in real time because the capture card ate up all my CPU power. What I did to solve this issue was dual monitor out. I set it up so I could watch the footage live on the TV and record the footage on the capture card. It didn’t increase the speed of the process but it made the games playable.

I took a break for a couple of years while Let’s Plays became a popular form of content on YouTube. A few years ago I decided to give it another go. I invested in a more powerful computer and an HDMI video capture card. This allowed me to capture newer games real time and play them at the same time. I also picked up a Microphone and was able to record the audio at the same time. I was doing the part where you see my face on a separate camera because I didn’t have the capability at the time to do it all from the desktop. This added a step to the editing process. It also was a chore getting the audio to sync up with the video. It was a little more cumbersome process but it did produce a higher quality video. This venture didn’t last more than a week as each attempt yielded some technical difficulty in the chain each time that caused something to be wrong with the final video.

My most last attempt to do this I went simple. I downloaded a screen capture program and used the web cam in my laptop to record the video and capture desktop at the same time while recording the audio to a third program using the microphone. This was less complicated but it resulted in multiple hours of rendering. It was tiresome. It could take 8 hours to render a 20 minute video with all the parts. In an attempt to shave some time off I tried using the internal video capture of the emulators but again this required I play the game, render that video then watch it while recording the commentary part. This took too long so I gave up and deleted my channel.

I had maintained a separate channel devoid of Let’s Plays where I upload all my other content, be it personal or professional. I finally decided to try again. This time I am using two computers. The laptop will capture the screen image using the emulator and a screen grab program I downloaded. Then while I am playing the game on the laptop I will use my desktop to record the audio and video using an HD camera and microphone. I put everything onto a flash drive, migrate it to my working desktop that has all my video editing software and piece it together there. I decided to limit myself to 30 and 60 minute videos depending on the game I am playing. This way if something goes wrong and I have to redo the entire session it’s not the end of the world.

Recently I discovered one minor flaw. The capture software I use to grab the footage glitches out after a while and grabs random frames instead of full video. I haven’t solved this problem yet but I am at least finally using a setup that when it does work right produces a video I can be comfortable sharing.

That being said, I am going to do everything in my power to work out the kinks to improve the process. This time I am not giving up in frustration. I am making it a point to produce multiple videos each week. I don’t want my channel to become nothing but let’s plays. I am okay with making a number of them in an attempt to produce more content and, covertly at least, justify my desire to play old video games for the hundredth time.

I have been saying for a while now I was going to begin reviewing podcasts. I wanted to wait until I was comfortable talking about my personal stuff I was hiding before I did so because I knew if I wrote an honest review of this particular podcast before my reveal it was not going to be all that honest. I was trying to pick shows I have heard more than one episode before I reviewed them. Since that is not the case here consider this more of a general musings than a proper review.

Here goes. The premise of the show is you have two guys that are both openly gay and horror fans. The show appealed to me because talks about horror movies which I am a fan. The thing is they do more than just review horror movies from an LGBT perspective, they tie it into an aspect of real life horror tales, in an attempt to analyze the real world horror through the lens of the art. It’s an interesting concept.

I only listened to the most recent episode so I don’t have a lot to go on. Basically what they did was discuss two topics involving horrible people from society. They did an old Hollywood segment and a new Hollywood segment. They talked about recent controversies surrounding Kevin Spacey and Brian Singer. They then dove into a discussion on two films they tied into the topic.

It was an interesting show. Based exclusively on the name of the show combined with their social media posts the show was nothing like I was expecting. While I would have been fine with two gay guys talking about horror movies and doing voices, having fun or doing a lighter show, I was very impressed with the maturity of which they handled their subject matter. It was a decidedly darker show than I expected. As someone who lived through the horror of being bullied for being different, let’s be honest I wasn’t as good at hiding who I was as I thought, I can say it was a relief to be able to listen to relatable stories that reminded me of the things I had to go through. Fortunately my story isn’t entirely as dark as some of the topics discussed but it was relatable nonetheless.

The hosts are very familiar with the topics. They are clearly fans of not just cinema but the Hollywood lifestyle as well. This does allow them to offer a pretty deep looking into the darkness they covered. As someone who calls their website The Spiders Lair, I can appreciate taking a stroll into the darker side of humanity.

I would highly recommend the show for anyone who is a fan of cinema, especially classic cinema and horror movies in general. The show does have a gay slant, as the title implies, but don’t let this turn you off, they are able to talk about these topics in a manner I believe was respectful and insightful. They do speak opinion on the show so fair warning. Also there is profanity.

I would need to listen to more episodes to give it a true and proper rating but for now I enjoyed what I heard enough to subscribe. My intention is to go back and check out some of their earlier shows in due time. The episodes were reasonable length too. I have a hard time with 3+ hour long podcasts, which there are many, but a sub 90 minute show is manageable for me.

Be sure to check them out and as always, Stay cool.