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ScreenCast Program to capture screen activity as video and image
About AviScreen
AviScreen is an application for capturing screen activity in the form of AVI video or bitmap images. Beside the usual options defining the capture area, AviScreen has a unique feature called “follow the cursor”. Using this mode you can produce a video or image of relatively small dimensions while covering all mouse activity over the whole screen area.
Capture Area Options
The capture area can be defined in many different ways:
- Specific size: Several predefined dimensions based on standard video sizes are offered (240 x 160, 320 x 240, 480 x 360 and 640 x 480);
- Full screen;
- Custom size. You can define the size and the position of the capture rectangle yourself;
- Selected object: Select an object to capture, either a window including header, the contents area or any object (panel, button etc) that can be captured.
To define the placement or dimension of the capture rectangle, click on the "Set" button. A feature that is unique to AviScreen is "follow the cursor mode". If this option is checked, the capture rectangle will follow the cursor, making it possible to cover the screen activity indicated by the cursor within a relatively small area. This makes it possible to deliver the video through a lower bandwidth. You can specify whether the cursor is visible or hidden in the capture by checking/un-checking the "show the cursor" checkbox.
Key shortcut options
Four shortcut keys are available for controlling AviScreen. As the AviScreen window is hidden by default these shortcut keys can be very useful. Another way of controlling activity is by using the popup menu that appears when you click the AviScreen icon on the Trackbar.
The default combination keys are:
- To take an image: CTRL+X. Press the "Ctrl" key on the keyboard followed by "X" key. For some keyboards it is important to follow this sequence.
- To start taking video: CTRL+ALT+S: Pressing these three keys in the right sequence.
- To pause/continue video capture: CTRL+ALT+P
- To stop video capture: CTRL+ALT+F
Video Options
Video can be saved as uncompressed or compressed using Video for Windows (VFW) video codec as AVI file. When started, AviScreen will collect and list all installed VFW video codec that can be used to write a video file. Select the one to use. Video compression helps to reduce the size of the video file.
Picture Options
Besides capturing video, AviScreen is also good for capturing pictures. The settings size/mode, visibility of the cursor and "follow the cursor" mode are also applicable for image capture.
You can select the image saving format: either jpg, 24 bits bmp bitmap or 256 color gif. Image capture will be done individually. You need to use shortcut key "take an image" to get a picture. If you initiate the image capture through the popup menu, a delay as set by the video option will be given, so that you can put the cursor in the right position before the image is taken.
Capturing Video
It is good practice to first design what you are going to present in the video capture. Open and prepare all applications that will be involved. If necessary write down what to do during the presentation. Practice moving the cursor steadily, avoiding erratic or quick movements. Allow some room before and after the actual target. These sections can be trimmed later with a video editor.
After setting the options according to your needs, you can start the video capture. There are three methods for starting the video capture:
- By clicking on the "capture video" button on the Settings window. To show the Settings window when AviScreen is running in the background, click the AviScreen icon on the taskbar, and click Show settings in the popup menu.
- By clicking Start in the popup menu.
- By using the shortcut key (CTRL+ALT+S by default).
Capturing Image
Capturing image can be done in two ways:
- By using the popup menu and clicking on "Take single image". There will be a delay as set in the Video options. Quickly move the cursor to the designated location and wait for the signal that the image has been captured;
- By using the shortcut key. Image will be captured immediately.
When an image is taken the AviScreen icon will turn into a camera animation with flash.
When the "Follow the cursor" mode is not activated and AviScreen is not in full screen mode, a red dotted rectangle will also be shown indicating the area that has been captured.
Capturing video or image of a running movie or directX game
Movies, directX or openGL games mostly run in hardware accelerated mode to reach maximum performance. This hardware accelerated mode is beyond the reach of any application. When you try to grab the image of a window running in hardware accelerated mode, you will get a black rectangle in the content area. The only way to grab an image from this source is to temporarily set the hardware acceleration to minimum.
To change the hardware acceleration settings, right-click on the empty part of the desktop. Click on Properties. The Display Properties will be shown. Click on the Settings tab, then click on the "Advanced" button. The graphic card dialog will appear, click on Troubleshoot tab. In the middle there should be a trackbar for hardware acceleration. Usually it is set to maximum (remember the position if it is not the maximum, someone may have set it there for a reason). Pull this trackbar to the minimum (none) or one after minimum. Click on the "Apply" button. The screen will turn black for a while, then revert to normal.
Although it is possible, avoid capturing fullscreen movie with a fullscreen capture option. For some slow computers, this task will be really heavy as the movie player will busy decompressing the movie while AviScreen is busy compressing a large video and writing it into a file. In this situation the shortcut key may stop working.
