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Gamers looking for a way to share their gameplay tricks, reviews, or even create their own machinima will soon be able to do it in a simple and an affordable way. Rovi Corporation today unveiled two economical and sure-fire ways to capture, edit and share gameplay video from game systems like the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii or PCs.

The first solution is the Roxio Game Capture hardware and software bundle for recording and sharing gameplay footage from game consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii). While playing games in HD as players typically do, Roxio Game Capture does a real-time capture of gameplay. Using the Game Cap USB hardware unit, gameplay is recorded via the included component video and stereo audio inputs (also included are RCA audio and USB cables). Gameplay is captured at 480p and can be saved to AVI, WMV, DivX, and MP4 files. Screenshots can be saved as JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP or GIF files. The Game Cap hardware unit itself is fairly small and compact, measuring about 5.25″ x 3″ x 1″, so it should be no problem accommodating it. See the simple setup here on roxio.com. The Roxio Game Capture is priced at $99.99 MSRP and will be available starting March 24, 2011 from www.roxio.com/gamecapture, as well as retailers such as Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, and GameStop.com.

Pictures of the Roxio Game Capture hardware (or see here):

Watch a Gran Turismo 5 gameplay video below using Roxio Game Capture (or here on YouTube):

For PC gamers, the Roxio PC Game Capture is a software capture solution for recording and posting PC gameplay. PC gameplay footage and screenshots are also captured in real-time, and can be captured in high definition, full screen resolutions. DirectX 8-10 and OpenGL based PC games are supported. Roxio PC Game Capture will be available for a $49.99 MSRP in the second quarter from www.roxio.com/gamecapture and retailers including Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, and GameStop.com.

Both solutions include an easy to use video editor. The video editor allows for additional audio commentary and background music, as well as the addition of transitions and titles. A 32-track timeline editor adds picture-in-picture, animated credits, and more effects to take the gameplay video production further. Videos can then be directly uploaded from the Roxio Game Capture software to online social sharing sites like YouTube, Facebook and WeGame.

See screenshots of the Roxio Game Capture video editor below (or here):

Both the Roxio Game Capture and Roxio PC Game Capture have been designed as affordable and manageable ways to work with and share gameplay video. Keeping gameplay video at 480p, file sizes are kept small to make editing quicker, storage easier and sharing faster, while looking much better than off-screen capture. So it’s a bit of leaner way to share gameplay, and maybe even beat out others to the upload. The Roxio PC Game Capture for $49.99 or the Roxio Game Capture for $99.99 MSRP is also much less of an entry price than other gameplay capture solutions currently available.

Minimum PC system requirements are as follows:
- Windows 7/Vista/XP, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon x2 64 2.0 GHz, 2GB RAM
- DirectX® 9.0c compatible graphics card or higher, sound card
- 2GB free hard drive space for installation. 10+ GB free recommended for video recording.
- Windows Media Player 11 or higher
- Internet explorer 7 or 8
- Internet connection required for registration, product updates and tutorials. Any Internet changes are the user’s responsibility
- One available USB 2.0 port

For more details and examples on both the Roxio Game Capture and Roxio PC Game Capture, visit the official Game Capture website at www.roxio.com/gamecapture.

I spoke with Chris Taylor and Greg Girton from Rovio, to get a bit more insight on the Rovio Game Capture solution. Chris clearly defined for whom the Roxio Game Capture is made for, and how Roxio found the niche of the Game Capture. Essentially, the Roxio Game Capture is an out of the box all-in-one gameplay video capture solution for a comparatively low entry cost. There’s no fuss on what cables you’ll need, nor a complicated tutorial on hooking it up. There’s also no need to worry about what software to use for capturing, editing and sharing gameplay videos. It’s a simple answer: everything is included in the Roxio Game Capture box to get you going. While some gamers may find that the 480p capture resolution is limited, I can tell you from experience that working with 720p+ HD video file sizes can be time consuming and consuming of your hard drive space. Viewers will also need decent bandwidth to see the higher quality video online. For some gameplay video sharing purposes, not everyone will need to go to the 720p+ HD view. That’s the trade-off for higher quality video. Consider how you’ll be using, sharing and working with game videos to see if you need to go with a high resolution capture method, but it will be a bit more of an investment financially and time-wise. Roxio Game Capture is the simple solution.

The Roxio Game Capture hardware has also been designed to work specifically with the included Game Capture software. Greg Girton gave me a preview of the software side of Game Capture, which is another major component to consider for what you get for the $99.99 MSRP. There are two main options when you launch the software: Capture and Edit. Capturing is a pretty simple process. You can set the aspect ratio (4:3, 16:9) and select from video encoding methods (ex: WMV, AVI, DIVX). The DIVX codec works great in keeping the gameplay video size small and quality up. The capture window shows a real-time preview of the gameplay. It’s a fairly straightforward process that allows a few fine adjustments (such as brightness and contrast). The editing side Greg demonstrated has several great features, for those familiar with video editing and those that are not so familiar. For the new video editors, or those who want a quick and easy edit method, the Storyline view is great to work with. It provides a simple thumbnail view of videos and transitions (a good selection of those are included as well). Even for the experienced editor, the Storyline view is a nice outline of the video clips and transitions being used. The Timeline view is very similar to the layered view seasoned editors are familiar with. One of the great features of the Game Capture software is a picture-in-picture layer, where you can drop a commentary video or maybe some gameplay video showing Kinect, PlayStation Move or Wii Remote motion controls. A sharing button makes it easy to post the video to your YouTube or facebook account using your sign-in. Don’t overlook the value of the included Game Capture software, another key part of sharing gameplay videos.

To sum it up, Roxio Game Capture simplifies what used to be a complex and time consuming process of gameplay video capture. If I had to recommend a easy all-in-one system for gameplay capture and sharing, Roxio Game Capture would be it. Another side note is that while Roxio Game Capture is designed for Windows PCs, I was able to successful capture and edit video with it using a Mac with Parallels and Windows 7. Please note the PC system requirements above, as Roxio does not specifically state this is Mac compatible. Watch for an upcoming review and samples of gameplay captured with Roxio Game Capture soon on GamingBits.com!

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