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WOW! I think I finally have it, but what did I do???
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Been using CS2.5 to produce recordings of my narrated powerpoint presentations, so my students can review lectures online. Unfortunately, since switching from a P4 machine to one with Core 2 Quad proc,the file sizes have been growing tremendously large and a 1-hour lecture (1024/768 fullscreen with narration) was larger than 2 gig and, therefore, CS has been unable to save the file (I read about the 2GB ceiling on avi sizes, think that's what has happened).
Today I tried something new. Not sure what I did exactly, but it is cooking now :)
1. went back to good old CS2.0
2. configured my monitor #1 to the onboard video rather than my groovy dual mon PCI-e board. Don't know if this effected anything, sizewise, but did it just for kicks
3. changed the video codec to fddshow h.264. was using the CS codec previously
4. changed the microphone audio quality to mono 8-bit 11K (was CD quality stereo before) .. I think this probably made the most difference
5. even added a video camera annotation window with a talking head. Camera window sits in the top right corner and shows me in lecture.
Well, an hour-long lecture today (played it back and it isquite good video quality I might add) was recorded in only a 95 MB file. Unbelievable!!! Went from over 2GB to 95MB by making these changes. And this includes my camera window too (which I have not been able to do)!! Even shows my smartboard annotations during lecture. everything seems to be in sync (audio/video). And my quad core CPU temps seem to be staying about 10 deg C cooler than they were before! Crunch time for an hour production is now just a very few minutes. All is well with the world. I can hardly wait to convert them to FLV and start posting on our classroom server :)
Well, I solved my problem but I don't know how exactly. Guess I should not question it, just go for it. Anyone have any idea what I actually did??? -
I'm not sure why switching from P4 to Core 2 would affect the video size, maybe you went from a 16 bit color setting to 24 or 32. 3 and 4 would definitely lower the file size. The camera window could have been affected by hardware acceleration which would keep CamStudio from getting it, maybe you disabled it somehow by going with onboard video. I have no idea why your CPU is running cooler though, if anything I'd figure using h264 and onboard video would make it run hotter.
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I don't know enough about CPU architecture, but I would imagine if processor work is being evenly spread across all 4 cores in a quad-core CPU, then less heat would be generated.
That said, I'm damn impressed a 1-hour full screen recording weighed in at just 95MB.
Cheers
Nick :o) -
Well, the past couple of days I canned two lectures: 52 min (92 MB) and 50 min (about 96 MB), good quality video (including my talking head camera in the corner) and reasonable audio. A little bit larger, but still quite reasonable, I think. Full-screen 1024x768 resolution. In fact, timing is quite good, I can watch myself make a note on the board (in the video window) and at the same time see the note show up on the powerpoint screen. If A/V timing is a bit off, it sure doesn't show (over a 50 minute time period) .. darn close! Also, since it is voice, mono audio is fine.
I just ordered an omni surveillance microphone (like they use with camera systems) that is supposed to cover an area of 150 sq mtrs. I plan to ceiling-mount it over the student seating, hope it will satisfactorily pick up interaction with my students, while still using my wireless lapel mic for my voice. Hope it doesn't cause feedback, as I am using my speaker system as a PA at the same time ... This is starting to get good!
I might try v2.6 again, like being able to specify which monitor to record. Other than that one thing, v2.0 works just fine :) -
If you want to encode your videos with H.264, you need to download and install the FFDShow Tryout "codec" and then select H.264 from the list of encoders.
http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net (free)
I've personally gotten good results using these settings within FFDShow: FOURCC = H264 > One pass - average bitrate > Bitrate 3000kbps
[UPDATE 30th Aug 2010 = You can decrease H.264 Bitrate encoding to 900kbps with no loss of quality]
With bit of testing (and depending what you're recording) you might be able to reduce the final filesize even more, by testing lower bitrates and choosing one of the "two pass" options.
Go ahead and post any settings and links to videos you've gotten good results with.
Cheers
Nick :o) -
the temps are not an issue, as multi cores typically get hotter then a single core.. 1 of those chips run at about the same temps as the old p4's x4 more cores into one heatsink.. tends to build more heat.. more quickly with less actual load..
sound quality , compression etc.. will effect how long, how big, and how hard the cpu will work..
what kinda gfx card are you useing?? video capture cards in my experience do litte to actually accelerate video rendering.. some may have dedicated processors, more cost effective ones simply support various codecs and features natively on the HW.. making things somewhat faster.. but try to multi-task, broadcast and record.. simultaniously.. might lead to issues..
Getting better results from switching to on-board from a PCI-e tells me that the card itself may not be seated right or is malfunctioning.. or is inadequate for what you are trying to do..
A card that supports cuda could also help significantly with compression and other number crunching.. and rendering tasks.. nvidia 7000 series and up cores should do this.. maybe look for one geared toward editing and digital content creation.. ATI i'm not too familiar with, they may actually out perform nvidia.. but i'm unsure if they support cuda like features...
happy recording XD -
you could also convert using vlc
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What's your problem, PicoBella? Go ahead and tell us! Someone here can help! :-)
Terry -
@uregmi
What are your frame capture and playback rate settings in CamStudio?
What size area are you trying to record?
What are you trying to record? You using your desktop? A game playing? A movie?
Cheers
Nick :) -
FrameRates are Grayed out - how to ungrey that ?
capture every frame 5 millisecond
Playback Rate : 200 frames/sec
Full Screen - my screen resolution is 1920x1200, 32bit, 60hz
I'm trying to capture the EMC training I'm getting on-line.
Pls help me how to reduce the filesize
Nick, I'm really glad and happy you replied back. Much appreciated.
Pls help me. -
FrameRates are Grayed out - how to ungray that ?
---> Un-check the box that says "auto adjust"
capture every frame 5 millisecond
---> set that to 50
Playback Rate : 200 frames/sec
---> set that to 20
Full Screen - my screen resolution is 1920x1200, 32bit, 60hz
---> Try watching in a 1280X720 window instead and record that using fixed region.
Under audio options for microphone, check the box "Use MCI to record" and ignore the other settings as they won't be used. Record from Stereo Mix if you can.
Sorry - I've been busy or I would have been able to help you sooner.
Terry -
Oh, one thing, I just noticed in 2.0 - when I change the settings as you mentioned, I recorded the video/audio and I close the program. After a while, I reopen the program - all the settings were gone ??? Is that normal, is there a not a way, to save those settings and make it permanent?
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In Windows Vista and 7 you have to start the program as an administrator for the settings to save.
You can squeeze a little more using Xvid and setting the quality level to a setting other than 1 (say 2 or 3).
Try running the recording in a window and recording a region - it will save a ton.
Terry -
Saving problem is done, looks like when camstudio is open and if I hit x mark , it will not save, but if I choose exit from File option, it saved all the settings. OK, this one is fixed.
Now, what ever I do , I think in my original screen resolution, I cannot reduce than 11 or 12 MB / min. I can live with that.
One question tho - In video option, if I choose Quality as 1 or 3, then what do I need to choose for Set Key Frames Every, - mine is set as 200 frames....I have never changed that....will that cause any reduction in size ???? -
I set it pretty high. That setting determines how often an entire, full-screen frame is saved rather than only the differences between frames. If you set it too high, seek-time is hurt when you want to click the slider to jump ahead, as it can only land on full-frames (that is, on key frames). But it sure helps in file sizes!
You may be able to squeeze it a tiny bit more by using 16-bit color rather than 32-bit color if the screen you're recording will still show up.
Terry -
One last final question
How do I save my file - automatically in some location - other than default location, and I want this to be permanent.
In Options I select Save as - but with this, I have to tell the location and file name each time, I want to avoid that. Its ok, file name gets into as date and time format, as default when camstudio saves the file, but, that one is saved inside the programfiles86\camstudio.
I want to specify new location and that needs to be permanent. And the file naming style system can put whatever it likes - its OK to me -
I just answered this somewhere here, but here it is again!
The easiest way is to first create a folder where your CamStudio recordings all will go - both the temp files and the finished ones. Make this in your My Videos folder called "CamStudio Videos" to be really simple about it so you'll never forget what you called it! (Been there - done that!)
Then go to Options | Program Options | Temporary Directory for Recording and select "User Specified Directory" and it will ask you which directory exactly and so you tell it to use the one you just made.
Then go to Options | Program Options | Name of AVI File and select Automatic File Naming (Use Date / Time)
Now it will automatically name your file with the date and time to the second and place it inside of that Temporary Directory for Recording that you specified.
Thanks, Booklover, for pointing this feature out to me!
Terry -
Terry,
It is not helping, yes I made the changes.
I started recording, while keep opening that folder.
Now, I do see the ~temp file - the video file is being created there, as recording goes on. But as soon as stop recording, it writes to origianl location - c:\programfiles86\camstudio.
The finished file.
I do see - the ~temp file is wiped out as soon as write is finished in above default location.
That is where my problem is : I want to save the finished AVI file to my location suggested......
The one you said is for temp file, that is fine. But, I want to save the finished file to my location.....
Pls tell me what wrong I have done,
Rgds and Rgds -
uregmi, you are using CamStudio version 2.0 instead of 2.6b? I was never able to get version 2.0 to retain the file location settings, but 2.6b has no problem doing that, on either my XP or W7 64 machine.
I just opened my CamStudio 2.6b after not using it for a while and all my setup changes were still there, including the file location I have set using Options>>Program Options>> Directory for recording>> Use User Specified Directory >> CamStudioData)
I long ago got into the habit of closing CamStudio and reopening it anytime I made any change in the setup I want it to have the next time I opened it.
Perhaps I missed something about which version you're using, but if it's 2.6b the changes you make in Program Options should be retained (sometimes if something has gone wrong with my computer I'll have to reset all the options, but under normal circumstances -- like this morning -- everything was still set the way I wanted it).
FYI: I stilll use CamStudio 2.0 too -- I'll have one instance of each up -- when I need to stop one capture that has sound and start another while the first one is rewinding and merging the video and audio files into the final one, but I know the files that 2.0 creates will be in the Program directory. So when everything has stopped I just go to the 2.0 directory and move the file over to my CamStudioData directory, since the file structures are the same.
Hope this helps. -
Booklover,
thanks for the info. Yes, I'm just using 2.0.
2.6b did not work at all for ffdshow codec.
2.0 works perfect and it does the work perfect.
Only you do not have that file saving style. In 2.6, yes, I do see that it works for your location.
Only few suggestions to developers :
a) if we can have audio file also built in seperate or very , very basic editing of both video and audio in the same program - that will be wonderful. Sometimes - the audio voice levels needs corrected - and which is hard to do.
b) timeslot or sizeslot - continuous video creation. Like lets say after 1 hr, create another video may be .2 extension, when going for large recording. We can do this either based on timeslot or sizeslot. Like if video file riches 1 gb, create another file automaicallly like .2 extension. -
Have you tried xvid codec as Terry suggests? It works fine with 2.6b and you would then be able to save all your videos in one place. Even with 2.0 saving the videos in the program directory works better than in the windows temporary directory, in my view. It's fairly easy to find.
Have you tried doing the editing you mention using Windows Moviemaker or VirtualDub? Either should be able to handle what you mention. -
That codec just works fine - about 5 to 6 MB for 30 sec, I can live with it.
All set now, I can record the video - if somebody is giving me training how to do the stuffs. I can save that stuff in my networked hard drive dlink 325 and watch while I'm sleeping thru my Samsung Tab 10.0 - streaming.....all set....this program is so beautiful I simply love it..... -
Awesome! Glad you have it working, uregmi. And thanks, Jo, for helping out! :-)
Terry -
Actually, you should be able to save the file to any location you want by browsing to that location when the "Save AVI File" dialog comes up. Once you do it once, it should automatically go to that same location the next time. I only use 2.0 as the 2.6b doesn't use ffdshow and I haven't seen too many advantages on 2.6b over 2.0.
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DoubleYou,
2.6 has the Region|Window setting that I like to use, the ability to set a time limit to the recording, the ability to have a different colored cursor upon clicking, and some cool new annotation-effect capabilities, like timecode, watermark and captioning (where you want them to appear on the whole video).
Here's a video I did on that topic last year:
There is a 2.6c at Sourceforge that seems to work with ffdshow-tryout now you could try out, though it is a work in progress. http://sourceforge.net/projects/camstudio/files/next/
That new version requires you to have Visual C++ 2010 Runtime libraries installed. (XP and Vista had 2008 or earlier.) Get that here:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5555
Remember - this 2.6c is VERY beta, and is being updated soon.
The current stable release of ffdshow-tryout, though still labelled beta, is here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow-tryout/files/Official%20releases/generic%20build%20%28stable%29/
Terry -
A thing about VLC, guys. If you do that and then try to play the movie in iTunes, it won't work for some reason.
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Chromebuster,
Could you please explain that a little better? VLC is just a media player, isn't it???
"If you do that..." - do what, exactly???
EDIT - Ahhh - I see - it has some kind of converter in it from CTRL-R. I have NO IDEA what format this is converting things to! Has anyone used it? What settings do you have available? What compression formats/codecs are there from this???
Anyway - avoid that - use a well supported converter like Any Video Converter.
Terry
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In this Discussion
- ashily September 2011
- asnider123 November 2009
- booklover February 2012
- brandished November 2009
- Chromebuster March 2012
- DoubleYou February 2012
- nickthegeek February 2012
- pazsion January 2010
- PicoBella December 2011
- rogerdpack August 2010
- TerryBritton March 2012
- uregmi February 2012