In a recent update to Xbox One, the Game DVR can now record gameplay at 1080P resolution instead of 720P @30 FPS. This is huge if you are looking for better quality. However, you will have to enable this option manually.
Enable 1080p Game DVR capture on Xbox One
To enable this, you will have to open Settings section in the Xbox One, and then look for the DVR Options. The option is available in settings of the console.
During selection, you will get to see that when switching from 720p SDR to 1080p SDR, the time of recording drops from 5 minutes to 2 minutes.
If you have an Xbox One X console, you should see a 4K resolution option which will record at 60 FPS and HDR.
Save Game DVR Clips to an external drive
Now that you know how to switch to 1080P while doing this, you may have noticed that there was an option to change “Capture Location” right under it. This means if you have external storage, you will be able to save it right there. This will make it easy for you to carry it anywhere you want. However, once you unplug from the console, the settings will set back to default “internal”. To do this, you will need a USB 3.0 hard drive. However, there is no restriction on the minimum storage size.
If you have an NTFS formatted hard drive, stay assured that none of your data will be lost when using it for media only. The message clearly says:
If you choose to use this external storage for media, i.e., music, videos, and pictures, you will keep any content hat is currently on the device.If you choose to use it for games, and apps, the drive needs to be formatted. Everything on the device will be erased. You can manage the device later in Settings > System > Storage.
Follow these steps to change the location to external storage:
Next, when you select the 1080P recording, the time limit is increased to 1 hour instead of two minutes. Since video recording takes a lot of space, it was an intention to keep the limit to a max of 2 to 5 minutes, when internal storage is used. Microsoft should totally make this drive available on the network, so there is no need to unplug the hard drive when the clips are needed to be transferred to PC.
Troubleshoot ‘First, format this device on your PC’ error
In case you get an error which says In this case, you will need to reformat your hard drive as NTFS again to make it work. When formatting the drive, you should uncheck the Quick Format option, and then format it. It takes longer than usual, but that worked for me. Also, I had to try multiple numbers of times, and then only it worked for me. Also remember, if you switch between Games and Media, you will have to format it every time. A hard drive formatted for Xbox Games usage cannot be used for saving media files.
