Ideas for Youtube gaming video setup

My 12 year old son is very interested in making gaming videos for youtube. He games on the PC as well as his consoles, so it'll need to work for both. I've already put him togehter a nice gaming rig, but have no clue what I need to get him to make videos. I've looked at alot of other peoples setups and its a little confusing because so many people use different things. So I need opinions for camera (web cam, go pro), mic (thinking of going with a Yeti), video capture (in pc card or unit like Happuage) and software (no clue here as there are so many...). Please help!!

94 views and no replies? I was sure that someone here would have some ideas! C'mon give a guy a hand here!

There is no need for a webcam unless he is going to be livestreaming on a service like Twitch.tv or Justin.tv

 

A Yeti would be a great starting point for a microphone, but there are other options available like the AT2020. The only problem with mics like these is they tend to pick up a lot of background sounds.

 

As far as Capture Cards go, there is nothing really much better than the Elgato Game Capture HD or the Elgato HD60 that just released recently. The differences between the two are that the HD60 can capture 1080P 60FPS with the Game Capture HD only supporting 30FPS. If the differences are minor in price, I would personally go with the HD60 as YouTube now supports 60FPS.

 

Just make sure he knows that uploading videos will put himself out on the internet and people can be quite horrible when they have the anonymity of the internet. I've dealt with it on my own channel. I do tech reviews, but the concept is still the same.

I'll check into the HD60 and the recomemded mic. What kind of software do you recomend for editing the videos before upload? It is totally possible that he might want to live stream as well as doing unboxings and reviews in the future. What would be a good cam for that? Thank you for the response!

Doesn't get much better than the C920 from Logitech as far as webcams go.

 

I would start him out on some basic software like Windows Movie Maker or even the Elgato Software's built in functions. Elgato does offer live streaming directly from the device in the software, so there will be no need for additional software for that. I do believe that they have added the ability to even add a web cam in the software. If they haven't then he would need something like Xsplit to add the webcam to the live stream.

I'll look into the C920 for camera purposes. I'm going towards the ELGATO HD60 for console capture and yeah I've heard that their software is pretty easy to use.

What does everyone think of OBS for the software? It is recomemded for use by Twitch and it looks pretty good on their site. Plus it's free...

I've purchased the Blue Yeti after using it on a friends setup. Really nice mic.

The few times I've streamed I've used OBS. Initial setup can be a pain but once you get everything set, you just fire it up and hit the button to start streaming, and your twich channel is live.

I couldn't help but notice this thread (despite it's a bit dated, hopefully still relevant) and that microphone recommendation. Are there any good similar priced microphones that use the audio port instead of usb (I have decent onboard sound from my mobo)?

 

Also I'm assuming your kid is smart since he wants to get into streaming and youtubing, but always make sure he's safe. There are a lot more creeps on the internet today and web cams are hackable even when they are turned off (this happened a while back with smart tv's)

 

Lastly you said you built him a good comp, are your specs listed the ones he has, if not, what kind of beast rig did you build?