Do you think that you need a 3DS Capture Card to become successful?

[WishCookie]

The title, do you think people need a 3DS capture card to become successful on youtube when they record gameplay/tutorials as pokétubers? If yes or no, why? I would really like your opinions on this.

 

[classicpaul64]

Okay, so being relatively new myself to being a YouTuber, I think I can help you out here.

If you want to do Let's Plays of Pokemon games, a capture card would definitely be worth the investment (it's rather pricey). Alot of people who see gameplay that literally looks like you rigged a camcorder to record the screens won't touch the videos. The capture cards will deliver video as if the viewer is holding the game system themselves.

Now, if you want to go along the route like TamashiiHiroka, who does mostly reviews, Top 10s, and similar, non-gaming-centric content, I would say you wouldn't need one. I think those kinds of videos take footage provided by other videos and just edits it together in the final version. I'm not 100% on this, but often, those kinds of videos won't need one.

Me, I use my 3DS for my Let's Plays, and most of my content is actual gaming videos, but I thought about doing some non-gaming stuff at some point if I can figure out what to make.

It doesn't hurt to own one if you want to make high-quality LP's of Pokemon games, but that's a decision that you really need to be committed to before you drop that amount of money into the devices. (For an idea, to have my first 3DS have the capture device installed cost me $287, and my new 3DSXL I'm getting in January with the capture board already pre-installed, its about $500. If you want to do console Pokemon games, like XD or Coliseum, you would need something like an Elgato capture device, which can run anywhere between $50 to over $100 to buy.

Now my final bit of advice might sound disheartening, but don't be discouraged if this is something you want to do. There are a LOT of PokeTubers out there; and to get noticed nowadays in today's YouTube, you need alot of luck and hard work put in. You can't put your faith in getting well-known enough like TheJWittz or something like that. Alot of these big names have been at this since before YouTube exploded into the massive media outlet it's become. Having said that however, if you know other YouTubers out there who do have any form of a following, perhaps work on collaborations together. Networking is how you will get known. If this is truly a thing you want to pursue, I would do whatever I could to help you out. :)

I hope this helps you out! :)

 

[SaniOKh]

I'll chime in in favor of capture cards, more from a practical perspective.

I already tried to record a Pokémon playthrough without a capture card, and that's what I tried to do:

• Find or build something stable enough to hold my 3DS and whatever I'll use to record the footage. I made a few attempts, and they all failed, but let's just consider that I'm at fault here.
• Find a camera that has neither autofocus, nor color/brightness correction. Otherwise, here's what will happen every time your character crosses a door (or, generally speaking, during any kind of transition that makes the picture fade to black) :
  • First, OK, the image will go black as intended.
  • Then autofocus and color/brigtness correction will kick in: the camera will focus on your reflection in one of the screens.
  • When the image on the 3DS will come back on, your camera will get, instead of the picture, a bright and blurry mess.
  • A few seconds later, the image will come back on.
  I asked my brother (who back then worked with cameras) about a camera that would have neither autofocus nor brightness correction. He told me all current cameras have that now, it's a standard. I tried using my cellphone and even my tablet, only to find out that even they had those features, and I could not turn them off.
• Avoid using the touch controls as much as possible, otherwise your hand will just cover most of the bottom screen most of the time.
• And, most important, and also the hardest one: don't move the 3DS while you're playing or shake the thing that holds your camera. It's easier said than done, trust me, it's easy to make the 3DS move just by pushing a button.

I already tried recording a bit of a playthrough using such a setup, and stopped five minutes in, because, quite frankly, it sucked. And it was Pokémon, a turn-based RPG, that I was trying to record; I wouldn't even imagine recording an action game in this manner.

With a capture card, I recorded playthroughs of every single (3)DS Pokémon game (which I'm yet to use in any way, shape or form, but that's another story) and it was a very comfortable experience, not to mention the very good video quality.

 

[Guardian]

Yes, I couldnt bother less watching someone play on the console. I rarely watch other people playing Pokemon to begin with, but if I have to, it has to be top quality, and a recording of a game being played on the console with a weird mic, weird angles and player's hands is not what I consider a good quality.

 

[Pendraflare]

Well, with every Pokémon Let's Player nowadays using technology like these for videos that are edited with sidebars and such, it's not gonna be easy to match up with them with a plain emulator that is copy/pasted into a video. I have a 3DS capture card, but with the Mac software I haven't figured out how to use it because the recording fails to make anything but a screechy sound that i've gotten very little help on how to fix.

 

[Tek]

For me, the content of the video is more important than the quality of the footage.

But I might literally be the only person who thinks that way.