Recording computer screens
 

Hello
I’m trying to edit up a software demo video. I’ve tried recording the image of my computer screen with my Sony FX1 as well as using “Snage It” screen capture/video recorder. Neither are producing the results I’m after, ideally I would like to obtain comparable resolutions and quality to the online flash demo’s here (http://www.phpbb.com/support/tutorials/)

Any Ideas?

Does it help if you change your shutter speed?

yah, it helps a bit, what happens is a bit of a ghost image follows the mouse, which isn't the end of the world. Thanks for taking the time to post.

Rob

I have a slow connection so I didnt look at the link.Not sure what you want to do but if you need a shot of a computer sceen part frame one way is to shoot with a camera like XL1S with clear scan that allows fine control of frequency.Another way would be to green screen the screen and add video to it in post.

Microsoft's Windows Media Encoder will also do screen captures in WMV format if that is an option. It may give similar results to SnagIt though.

Camtasia studio 3 might do it.

Have you tried using a LCD monitor for the demo? They do not have the same problems with flicker and scan lines that CRT monitors do.

The software companies that I've seen (think Autodesk and McGraw-Hill) capture their screens with software and the end up as bloated avi files. Need a pretty speedy box though. I use Fraps to capture FPS game time and the quality is excellent.

The PHPBB demo is a flash movie - try BB Flashback for recording screen demos at http://www.bbsoftware.co.uk/bbflashback.aspx

I've used it for software demo CD-ROM's and it works well.

Hope this helps

Camtasia will work
 

I use it a lot and it works great:
http://www.techsmith.com/products/studio/default.asp

Can you record from an LCD to a camcorder?
 

I am also interested in recording activity on the computer screen for a client and am trying to find a better way. My challenges are:

1) The software is being demonstrated on my client's computer so I'd rather not install video capture software on their system. I only have macs and the software is pc only.

2) I have a cheap scan converter, that I have hooked up to the computer in the past and then recorded onto miniDV with my camcorder. However, I am not thrilled with the quality.

The only possible solution I have come up with so far is using a LCD TV with a RGB video out that is hooked up to my camcorder (Viewsonic makes one).

The question is, is this possible and will there be any refresh or flicker issues? Has anyone tried it or do you have a better solution? Thanks in advance.

Check your camera's manual for something called "ClearScan" or something similar. It's a feature some cameras have that helps sync the camera's scan to a monitor's scan to get rid of the rolling strobe bar that otherwise results. You haven't said what camera you have so there's no way to know if your's has that feature or not.

I'm using a Panasonic DVX-100. Thanks, will see if that function exists.

Shooting Computer monitors
 

If you're trying to shoot computer screens to video (as opposed to capturing a flash movie for computer display) there are a few choices:-

1. Get a good scan converter and match the output resolution of the computer to the scan converters best setting (usually lower res is better for SD as the scan converter doesn#t have to srop so many lines)
Result - OK, depends on scan converter

2. Shoot an LCD monitor - doesn't seem to flicker much, but needs to be carefully lit. Again the lower the res, the better the result usually...

3. Try the "PD150 trick". This involves matching the shutter speed to the scan rate. Don't know whether it would work on your Panasonic. A BBC PD150 training course at http://www.bbctraining.com/onlineCou...=5160&cat=2797 explains this well (about page 10 of the PDF) It works but takes a while to master!

Hope this helps

Thanks Graham, that is a good source for info. I tried videotaping the LCD screen of my iBook and the results were pretty good so I think I'll go the LCD monitor route. I let you know how it turns out even though the filming won't likely be for a few weeks. Thanks for all the ideas.