Screen Capture Program to Save PTE to AVI?

[ADB]

Has any body found a screen capture program that can successfully capture a PTE show played in full screen together with soundtrack?

This could be a simple alternative to convert PTE to DVD. Topic was discussed some time ago but I can't find the posts, it may have been on the old forum

Cheers

[boxig]

Hi Andrew,

I'm not expert in this field but here is what I can contribute and hope it will help.

There is a program called "CamStudio" with which you can capture whole screen to avi file. Then you can use a program named "AviEdit" to cut frames you don't want.

I never tried it but those two programs are good to have anyway. Let us know if it works.

Granot

[ADB]

Hi Granot

Thanks for the post

So far in my journey of discovery I have tried SNAG-IT, CAMTASIA, CAMSTUDIO, PROFESSIONAL SCREEN CAPTURE with varying degrees of success.

So far none of the programs will produce a smooth dissolve, I always seem to get a jerky result however the quality of the AVI is excellent. So I am still searching the net.

I am currently running a 2.4GHZ Dell with 500 megs RAM

I have read some mention of video capture cards that allow you to send your video signal from your video card to the capture card and it captures in perfect quality video but from what I have seen these cards don't come cheap.

So the search continues.

Cassie is a bit of a whiz when it come to these things but I haven't seen any posts from him here for a while now?

Cheers

[swan_atn]

Try CamStudio

http://www.ehelp.com/camstudio/product/scr...creenrecording/

[ADB]

Hi Anton

Thanks for your post, have already given Camstudio a go, and it suffers the same jerkines during fades as do the others.

I'm currently downloading a 156 MB program called screen watch which captures in a different way. Rather than recording the whole screen every frame it only records the changes to the screen. From the promotional blurb it looks promising BUT the $650 price tag will be the killer for me!

Cheers

[LumenLux]

Andy - it is good to see you back. I am looking forward to your next show. The show you put up when you brought home the new wife - that still stands as a classic for perfect photo-to-photo fade/blends.

A while back, RayPar gave me some very generous help - ie he put a couple of my PTE shows onto CD to play on DVD player for me. Since that time he has stepped up to using a DVD burner for the final result. You may want to email him through the forum if he does not drop in here soon. I think danabw may also be knowledgeable on this topic. Casey is hanging out elsewhere but still checks in here. You might send forum email to him also.

Once you find "the" method, please report back to us all.

[ADB]

Hi Lumenlux

Thanks for the warm welcome back and vote of confidence in the "UK EXPERIENCE" show. Everytime I see that show now I get the "tingles" especially as the music to it was what we played as were travelling that beautiful country.

I'm currently working on "Southern Autumn" which I will probably finish soon if I stop getting side tracked by trying to find ways to put PTE on DVD!!

Thanks for your coments re RayPar, I had a hunt back in the forums and found the posts relating to your shows being put onto SVCD. Sadly looks like it invloves buying hardware and I think for me this would be unwise given the speed technology is changing. I have come to the conclusion that this whole DVD thing is at present too hard and we are possibly spending too much time on it, probably better off putting all that time into making good PTE shows and wait for the technology to catch up so we can then effortlessly transfer to DVD. With DVD RAM recorders getting cheaper and cheaper this whole DVD issue will soon be a thing of the past IMHO. Failing that we might see output to AVI from PTE in the near future :-) (Igor are you listening?)

I finally downloaded Screenwatch and installed it. Wish I hadn't, not only did it lock my screen colours on on a lower than 16 Bit level it defaulted my screen resolution to 800x600 (understandable for video I guess but it never asked me!) loaded an AOL link and basically behaved very badly. I couldn't get it to capture anything.

So I have learnt my lesson and am back into the job of making presentations and not trying to discover things that probably don't exist!!

Cheers

Andrew

[alrobin]

Andrew,

Until the technology improves (at least in price), you could always transfer to VHS - pretty easy, with a connection from a suitable (low-priced) video card to your VCR! Of course, it won't match the quality on DVD.

[ADB]

Hi Alrobin

Already have that one covered, its just that the way things are going VHS is going to be like 8mm film before long so I'm always trying to keep one step ahead of the technology. Some video rental shops over here should probably start to call themselves DVD rental shops as VHS's begin to become the minority.

Cheers

Andrew

[mannybr2003]

I've been using PCtoTV since 1995, (and it is still available in its newer version from CompUSA. It's an external device that you can connect to your pc video output (where you usually connect your monitor). It has two outputs. One for your svga monitor. Then the other output you can connect to an rca cable that you can connect to your AV grabber that connects to another pc that has a program for grabbing AV's. You need to have a DVD burner to be able to create your DVD.

Mannybr2003

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Hi Mannybr2003

Thanks for your post

Was trying to do it all on the one PC save having to lay out the expense of two PC's

Cheers

Andrew

[nobeefstu]

Andrew

You may want to try and reduced your screen size if possible (I dont know what size screen you are trying to capture). A little compromising here may benefit you here

You'll also most likely get better results trying to capture a borderless window show rather than a full screen show. I dont know what frame rate your capture programs are capable of ... but less capture area (window vs full screen) would most likely be smoother for your fades.

Since PTEs fade transistions can be quite demanding on any PC in normal play ... trying to capture it smoothly may also be quite challenging. I suspect you may need to adjust the slide transition fade timing to closely match the capture programs frame rate capabilities to get the best results.

Hopefully you dont have to compromise to much to get your desired effect.

Wow ... a 156MB @ $650 Screen Capture program ... that more than a killer price tag !