• Acer Aspire 5552
  
• AMD Athlon II X2 processor P320 clocked at 2.1 Ghz
  
• 15.6" HD LCD display with 1366x768 resolution
  
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250
  
• 4GB DDR3 Memory/RAM
  
• 500 GB HDD
  
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

• I love video gaming and want to share this passion with the world through YouTube. Does anyone have some tips?
  
• What is some good styles? If I were to do a "Let's Play", should I do live commentary or edit in the commentary afterwards? Should I instead stay away from Let's Plays? What can I do so long as it involves gaming?
  
• What would be the best free editing software? Whilst I may invest in paid software later, I'd like to do a few "pilot" episodes first without spending any money just to see whether I enjoy making them, whether I get any response in the slightest and all that stuff.
  
• What is some good, free screen-capturing software? Again, I don't want to invest in the hobby yet until I know for certain that I enjoy it.
  
• Does anyone know how I can add a HUD to my video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DF5P3IFE80&feature=plcp, there is a bunch of information to the right of the video. How would I go about doing that? What software would I need?
  
• Looking at the specification of my laptop above, would upgrading my RAM allow for faster video rendering or would I need an entirely new machine? What kind of specification would I need if so? Just, at the moment, 15 minutes of HD video takes up to 3 hours to render. I don't want to do brand new HD games, just retro classics and indie.

As you can see, I posted a few questions that I'd appreciate answers for. Thanks to anyone who helps...

http://www.fraps.com/

Fraps costs money?

The main thing I have no idea how to do is the HUD like thing. The rest I am shaky on, but have a rough idea on. Look in the OP if you don't know what I mean.

There is a free version, but for lengthy recording, you will need to pay for the full version of FRAPS.

1. That's entirely for you to decide. Your videos are your creation, you have to decide how you want to do them.
4. Video editing software (also GIMP if you want to make an image yourself, could use photoshop if you want to spend money...but I presume you don't )
5. Not sure RAM is really important in video rendering, CPU is, GPU can be depending on what you're saving the video as. (Also if you're looking to upgrade parts a laptop is not a good idea)

I actually already have Photoshop. I was at one point interested in photography, so a relative got it for me. But, I mean, how would I go about it in the video editing? Would I just like overlay the image?

Well, I believe MP4 is the best format I remember reading somewhere for YouTube.

I found one. It isn't perfect, but it does the job. How long can you record for free with Fraps and how much does the full cost? Also, I need some decent video editing software for free? There is Windows Movie Maker, but that is barely better than no editing at all...

FRAPS can record for 10 minutes when using the free version. Bandicam is another good option (I personally think it's better).

MP4 is a lossy format
However if you're just starting out I wouldn't worry too much about having the best quality videos.

As I said, I found one. I need video editing software and want to know how to edit in a "HUD" onto a video? I also need the resolution for widescreen YouTube.

No idea, I'm not a video editor myself, I suggest checking youtube for video editing tutorials.

I have a pet peeve that any video I watch must be in HD, so I am worried about quality. What is a decent format in terms of quality in size? Like, I want HD, but a smaller format will make it faster to render and upload (my upload speeds are awful).

I'm probably the wrong person to be asking too much about video editing software. The answer I gave you regarding FRAPS is about the extent of my knowledge in that field. Ain't got a clue how much it costs, you could Google it and find out pretty quick though...probably quicker than it takes you to read this post.

I need the software first and then I learn it for that said software.

Sony AVC is a good format, it will utilise your GPU when rendering also.

I found RAM to have some difference on performance of editing giant video file sections, say ... but not in the time it takes to render the project. If that makes sense. But I don't know for sure. It's just what it felt like.

Free versions of FRAPS - I think it's a 10 minute limit, but you can keep pressing record again and then cobble together all the sections. It does, however, put a small logo watermark in the center/top of the video. It's not too horrible/distracting, but it is there.
Last I looked, FRAPS cost was about $35 I think, but it might have gone up a little by now. I don't know. The one thing about FRAPS tho, is if you buy it, all the upgraded versions are free. eg, you don't have to keep rebuying it over and over and over.

Then I suggest you start asking me the questions you want answered first.

We're talking about YouTube here. How good the video looks on their site is going to be dependent more on the quality of the original video that you upload and how much compression your original video has undergone, etc. Whatever you upload is going to go through another conversion process via their own software. (edit: in other words, I've seen some "HD" vids. on YT that still look like crap, including some of mine, heh). Some formats do probably work better with their compressor, tho...but I don't know anything about that. (2nd edit: I just use the free Xvid codec for game stuff...)

If you upload anything in smaller resolution than 720 wide, the video will default to the 480 scaling size and not be considered "HD" no matter how uncompressed/good it may look.

Fraps is good. I suggest windows movie maker as well as an external hard drive because fraps videos eat up alot of space.

As for an idea for a youtube channel. It's up to you. Mine is mostly videos of Fallout Talking heads with low intellegence from the orginal Fallout Games as well as other videos from Fallout, Fallout 2 and Tactics.

I think you should make 10 minute videos your gimmick.

Everyone has to have a gimmick and making quick 10 minute videos packed with information on whatever game you're covering is a lot more appetizing to someone like myself who will inevitably speed through a video longer than 5 minutes.

You need to have a sort of hook. If you start off your video boring and blah, people are bound to speed through it and miss out on certain details you might want to cover. So, if you start off interesting and with something that reels people in for each video, it will reduce the chance of people speeding through the video and missing out on things. I know that I personally speed through a video if it starts off boring -- especially a long one.

Aside from 10 minute video gimmicks, you should try coming up with a theme. I prefer minimal, as a lot of other people do. If every single video you make has a big bright HUD with only a couple of inches of screen estate for the actual video, then people will get tired and annoyed. You have to keep in mind that people don't like staring at white and bright screens. Take the gamesas forums for example. The default desktop theme is dark. It's more pleasant. If you're using it at night, it won't hurt your eyes or completely illuminate the room. If you're using it during the day, it's comfortable and non-obtrusive to the environment the computer is set in. People just like dark themes. So, if you make any sort of HUD (which I don't think you should because people don't want to be badgered with advertisemants/links when watching a video for some quick info) try to make it have a dark theme.
-- But like I said, don't use a HUD. Try going minimal. Use as much screen as you can to show off the video. The less annotations you use, the better.
-- Try to get as much information as possible packed into the least amount of time as possible.
-- Have a good voice, don't start or end boring.