How to record gameplay on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S

• PS5: press the Create button and select Start New Recording. When you are done, press the Create button again and select Stop Recording. One recording runs up to 1 hour.
• Xbox Series X|S: press the Xbox button and select Capture & share > Start recording. To stop, open the guide and press the X button. A recording runs up to 10 minutes on internal storage or up to 1 hour on an external drive, depending on clip resolution and free space.
• Then: copy the recording to a USB drive, move it to your PC and upload the MP4 to Hypevideoshorts. On PS5, set Video Clip Format to MP4 before you record, if your PS5 offers it.

Everything starts with the Create button on your DualSense controller. Press it to open the create menu.

Start and stop a recording

1. Press the Create button and select Start New Recording.
2. Play. One recording runs up to 1 hour.
3. To stop, press the Create button again and select Stop Recording.

Missed a moment? Your PS5 keeps recording your recent gameplay in the background. Select Save Recent Gameplay in the create menu to save anywhere from the last 15 seconds up to the last hour.

Settings worth checking

Open Settings > Captures and Broadcasts > Captures before a longer session.

• Video Clip Format: choose the file type and the resolution. Hypevideoshorts takes MP4 files, so pick MP4 if your PS5 offers it. 4K recording is only available with a compatible display.
• Audio: in the same place you decide whether your microphone and your voice chat are part of the recording. More on that under Commentary and sound.
• HDR: turn it off for recording under Settings > Screen and Video > Video Output > HDR and select Off. The FAQ explains why.

Where your recording goes

Recordings are saved on the console. Go to your games home and select Media Gallery to see all your captures.

To your PC with a USB drive

Use a USB drive formatted as exFAT, not one set up as USB extended storage. FAT32 also works, but it can't hold a file over 4 GB. Copying works in one direction only: from the console to the drive.

1. Plug the USB drive into your PS5.
2. Open Media Gallery, select your recording and select More > Copy to USB Drive.
3. Plug the drive into your PC and copy the file over.

To your phone with the PS App

Turn on Settings > Captures and Broadcasts > Captures > Auto-Upload, or in the PS App go to Library > Captures and select Enable. Your PS5 must be linked to the PS App and set to rest mode with Stay Connected to the Internet turned on. In the PS App, open the capture and select Download to save it to your phone.

The limits: only video clips up to 1920x1080 and up to 3 minutes long are uploaded, and they stay in the PS App for 14 days after you record them. That suits short clips. For a whole session, use the USB drive.

Recording starts in the guide, the menu that opens when you press the Xbox button.

Record from now

1. Press the Xbox button to open the guide.
2. Select Capture & share > Start recording.
3. To stop, open the guide and press the X button. A message tells you when the clip is saved.

Depending on your game clip resolution and free space, a recording lasts up to 10 minutes on internal storage or up to 1 hour on an external drive.

Record what happened

Something great just happened? Open the guide and press the X button to save the last 30 seconds. For a longer stretch, up to the last 2 minutes, press the View button and choose a duration.

On a controller with a Share button, a single press takes a screenshot and press and hold records a game clip. In the Accessories app you can set the button to Record what happened or Start recording instead.

Settings worth checking

Open Profile & system > Settings > Preferences > Capture & share.

• Allow game captures: set it to Captures by me or Captures by me or games, otherwise nothing gets recorded.
• Game clip resolution: the 4K options only work when your TV output is set to 4K.
• Capture location: choose an external drive for recordings of up to 1 hour. It has to be a USB 3.0 drive formatted as NTFS. A drive formatted for Xbox games won't work for captures.
• HDR: with HDR on, 4K clips are recorded in HDR too, and some games record only in 4K HDR. Turn it off under Profile & system > Settings > General > TV & display options > Video modes by clearing Allow HDR10.

Where your recording goes

Open the guide and select Capture & share > Recent captures to see your recordings. Captures made on the console also upload to the Xbox network on their own.

The USB drive and OneDrive both start in the Captures app: press the Xbox button and go to My games & apps > See all > Apps > Captures, then select Manage and pick your recording.

To your PC with a USB drive

1. Plug in a USB drive formatted as NTFS. It can't be the drive your games are installed on.
2. In the Captures app, select Copy to external storage.
3. Plug the drive into your PC and copy the file over.

If your capture location is already the external drive, your recordings are saved there directly. Recordings on an external drive can't be uploaded to the Xbox network from the console, but they can go to OneDrive.

To your PC or phone with OneDrive

In the Captures app, select Upload to OneDrive. To send future captures there on their own, turn on Capture & share > Automatic uploads > To OneDrive in the settings. Your game clips land in Videos > Xbox Game DVR on OneDrive. Every Microsoft account comes with up to 5 GB of OneDrive storage for free.

To your phone with the Xbox app

In the Xbox app on your phone, go to My Library > Captures, select the recording and select Save. This works for captures on the Xbox network, which holds up to 10 GB of your captures and may delete them after 90 days.

A capture card sits between your console and your TV and sends the picture to your PC, where you record it. It is worth it when you play long sessions, want to set the recording quality yourself or want your voice in the recording.

Connect it

1. Connect an HDMI cable from the HDMI OUT port of your console to the HDMI IN port of the card.
2. Connect a second HDMI cable from the HDMI OUT port of the card to your TV or monitor. This passthrough lets you play on the TV while the PC records.
3. Connect the card to your PC with its USB cable.

On PS5, turn HDCP off first under Settings > System > HDMI. Capture cards can't show or record a signal protected by HDCP.

Record with OBS Studio

On your PC, add the card as a video capture device source in OBS Studio, set the recording format and start recording. OBS recommends MKV, because an MKV file is not lost as a whole when a recording stops unexpectedly. Hypevideoshorts takes MP4, so turn the file into an MP4 afterwards with File > Remux Recordings, or let OBS do it with the option Automatically remux to mp4.

Which card

Well-known examples are the Elgato Game Capture Neo, the Elgato Game Capture 4K S and the AVerMedia Live Gamer ULTRA S. All three work with OBS Studio.

Hypevideoshorts makes its captions from the speech in your recording. Talk while you play and your words show up as captions in the finished gameplay video and in the shorts. A session without any speech gets no captions.

PS5: connect a headset or microphone, then go to Settings > Captures and Broadcasts > Captures > Video Clip Format and include your microphone audio. The same setting can add your voice chat. Ask everyone in the chat first whether it's alright to include their voice.

Xbox Series X|S: Xbox is adding an option to include party chat and game chat audio in captures, and Xbox Insiders get it first. Each player decides whether their voice is captured. If your console doesn't offer it yet, use a capture card and record your microphone on the PC along with the game.

• Hypevideoshorts takes MP4 files of up to 8 GB.
• Record with HDR off, on PS5 and on Xbox.
• Before anything uploads, a dialog shows what the video costs. On a paid plan that is one video minute per started minute, so 20 minutes and 30 seconds count as 21. For a 20-minute recording it reads “This video is 20 minutes long and uses 20 video minutes.” On Starter, Creator and Pro a video uses at least 16 video minutes. For a 12-minute recording the dialog reads “This video is 12 minutes long. Videos under 16 minutes use 16 video minutes.”
• On a paid plan, if your browser can't read the length, the dialog says so, and the length is measured after the upload, at the same one video minute per started minute, at least 16 on Starter, Creator and Pro.
• On the free trial each video uses one of your trial videos, also when your browser can't read the length. The dialog tells you how many you have left.