Unofficial Tex Murphy

I think some of you guys know how to do this, but I've been having a terrible time getting something satisfactory. Maybe you can point me to the right tools and procedure.

I'm trying to make a video demo of my software and put it on my webpage as a streaming video. In order to demonstrate the software properly, I need to record the entire screen and then scale the image to a practical size.

I used Screen Recorder Gold to record the screen and create a source AVI file which is about 1 min 20 sec long. The resulting AVI file is about 240MB. Way too big.

Then I used CoffeeCup.com's Web Video Player software to convert the AVI file into a smaller (approx 300x200) streaming video for a Flash player. However, this results in a file that is almost 4MB, has very choppy animation and terrible resolution. I can change the settings to get a smoother animation, but the file is 18MB. Way too big, still. You can see the result here: http://myknexus.com/video.html As you can see, it sucks.

I'm sure there is a better way to do this, because I've seen other videos with smooth animation, and resolution that is good enough for full screen with only a fraction of the download size my videos are taking.

Can any of you guys recommend a good procedure, tools, etc., so that I can create a decent-looking streaming video? Please note that I'm not making the video source is not from a camera. It must be a full-screen capture/recorder.

Any help appreciated. This is driving me crazy.

I know very little about the use of this software, but it IS the most widely used for the purposes you are describing.

http://www.fraps.com

As for the scaling it down - I'm sure someone in this community knows something about that.

Limit of my knowledge Doc, I'm sorry I can't be of more assistance.

-Fred

For my recording delights, I use Windows Movie Maker to get a small but easily watchable size. I haven't tried a 1'20" before, but it will be small mb-wise because I average around 80-120 mb for a 40-min clip.

The setting I use to get good quality & a small size in the program is "high quality video (small)". It creates a .wmv file that, to my knowledge, is viewable on any computer that has Windows Media Player 8 or better without sacrificing hard drive space. The final result is usually 30-40% the size (in mb) of the source mpeg-1 file.

I don't know how it will work for an avi (I've only used mpeg), but I haven't had any trouble with mpeg-1.

As a side note, it may just be the record program on my computer, but when I record something as an mpeg-2 & convert that down to mpeg-1, I get a better result than if I had originally recorded it in mpeg-1. For whatever reason, it doesn't seem as pixellated if I include that extra step. Might be something for you to check in to. Then again, it could just be Giga Pocket.

Hope something in this helps.

Hammerhead

Both of these suggestions seem pretty good.

Frapp seems to make even full-screen viewable videos with a reasonable file size but it isn't streaming. It has to be completely downloaded first. Maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing.

As to the Windows Media Maker, does that produce a streaming file? Also, what do you use to make the original mp1 or 2 screen recordings?

To tell you the truth, I don't even know what streaming video is. What I do know is that the final result can be posted on a website & be watchable by anyone who's interested.

As for the record program I use to make my mpeg1 & 2's, I use Giga Pocket, which came with my Sony Vaio computer. It allows me to record manually or at a pre-set time at mpeg1, 2, or 4 quality which, after recording is finished, I can convert from the mpeg2 or 4 to a lower mpeg quality in Giga Pocket Explorer.

Does that help?

Hammerhead

You guys were a great help. Thanks.

I have much smoother videos now, better resolution, and smaller files. It's so easy! (After I spend weeks tearing my hair out.)

By streaming, I meant that one should be able to start viewing the video while it is still downloading instead of having to save the video on the hard disk and then run it. Basically, running it in a web page.

I found a simple (and free) JavaScript that enables me to embed the video into a web page. With this script, I can scale the video to any size.

I made a couple modifications in the JavaScript so that the videos don't autostart. Try the link in the first post again to check it out.

Once again, thanks for the help.