Tutorials: How to record demo. Run, View or Play demos in Counter-Strike

In this tutorial you will learn everything you need to know about Counter-Strike demos.

What is a demo?
Usually demo means a trial period, an evaluation product if you will. When it comes to Counter-Strike, however, it means something quite different. A CS demo is a previously recorded file of in-game action primarily used for entertainment and analysis purposes.

Are there different types of demos?
There are actually two types of demos, Point of View and Half-life Television.
• POV: Point of View demos are recorded files from a first person perspective. You see exactly what the file recorder saw in his/her match. Most every major online league requires a player to record himself in matches for anti-cheat review purposes.
• HLTV: Half-life Television demos are recorded files of the HLTV experience. Perhaps the most entertaining, HLTV demos allow the user to actually follow the previously recorded in-game action from anywhere he desires. The ability to change camera modes and players is very much apparent; the only difference between an HLTV demo and HLTV itself is that demos are not live streams.

How do I record a POV demo?
It is as easy as 1, 2, and 3.
• 1) Connect to any server you like, or create your own Local Area Network game.
• 2) Once connected, bring up your console (~) and type, “record demoname”, without the quotations. If you are recording a demo of a match or scrimmage you may want to name it “Me-vs-Team”, replacing “Team” accordingly.
• 3) When you want to end the demo, simply type “stop” in the console. This will end the demo recording and place it in the appropriate folder for you to retrieve at a later date.

How do I record an HLTV demo?
There are a few ways to do this. Two ways of which I will cover here. The most advantageous and the most common.

Original Method
The original method is the most simplistic and most common in demo recording. In fact, It might just ring a bell.
1) Run hltv.exe (located in your "Counter-Strike folder" )
2) Connect to the server. Just simply type "connect SERVERS IP" (example connect 209.122.45.32) without the quotations in console, submit and enter.
3) type "record demoname" without the quotations in console, submit and enter.
4) type "stop" when your demo is completed.
HLTV Tool
Over at hltv.org a rather neat little program was released not long ago. HLTV Tool allows a user to record and label their HLTV demos more efficiently than ever before.
HLTV Tool is designed for users who possess rcon access to their own, or another's server.
- Features
You can find HLTV Tool right here

Where are demos located?
Upon completion, demos are stored in your “cstrike” folder.
(C:\........\Counter-strike\cstrike).
If you are using Steam version of Counter-Strike 1.6, the demo file must be placed in
(C:\........\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\URSTEAMACCOUNT\counter-strike\cstrike)

How do I view a demo?

Counter-Strike demos (or Half-life demos for that matter) cannot be viewed in any conventional video player. To watch a demo you must do it from within CS. With that said there are two methods of viewing, playdemo and viewdemo.
• Playdemo: Playdemo is the most basic way to play a demo. There are no control features (such as fast forward and rewind). You watch a demo in it's entirety.
- How? In console type, "playdemo demoname”, without the quotations to play the wanted demo.
• Viewdemo: Viewdemo is the more user-friendly counter-part to playdemo. With viewdemo you can fast forward, rewind, slow down or speed up the game play.
- How? In console, type “viewdemo demoname”.
Examples:
Useful Feature: Unlike playdemo, viewdemo allows the user to have more control over their viewing experience. By typing viewdemo by itself in the console the “Demo Player” bar will pop up. From here you can click the “load” icon. This doesn’t actually load a demo, but rather a list of demos in your Cstrike folder. This is very handy in case you forget the name of a demo and do not want to spend time navigating the Steam folder.

In order to save hassle of typing the full demo file name in Counter-Strike application, it is recommended to rename the demo file which you want to watch to a shorter file name. Please notice that do not remove the .dem file extension, removing the extension will cause the demo not viewable.