Screen Capture Software

[tjcinnamon]

I have been through a long process of trying how to figure out how to capture the timeshift on DVR software. So I could rewind and capture what was on the screen at that moment. Last night I had a stroke of genius. I tried screen capture software. Most screen capture software allows you to isolate an application and it will record whatever is on screen.

Problem almost solved. I tried Fraps the leader in in-game capture software it worked great except the problem is it's only for 3d (directx or OpenGL) so the capture is real choppy, The other 30+ (including reputable developers software: Camtasia, SnagIt, GameCamPro, Adobe Captivate 3) I tried were unable to see the DVR video screen. It would just record blank or black footage with their water mark over the top.the next. The last one I tried, at 3am, was Screen Virtuoso. It worked! with moderate results 🙁 (intermitant crashes)

My question is:

Does anyone have any idea why desktop screen capture devices are unable to see the DVR software display windows?



Thanks, JOe K.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Uh what is capturing the timeshift? I don't get it.

The technical reason is because of the way many programs play 'video' back. They use a technique called 'overlay' mode or 'video overlay' which basically takes a stream of video and just kind of draws that on top of your screen image while it is already inside the frame buffer of the graphics card. So the screen image really does have some empty black / blue / whatever window drawn by the application in the location where the video is going to go. Then the video content for the empty window is filled in somewhat automatically by a different low level program and part of your video hardware/card.

If you capture the 'window' of the player program it really *does* just have blank space there. If you capture by reading pixels out of the frame buffer of the graphics card you'll be more likely to get the video image too.

It is like the TV weather... the weathergirl is just standing next to a big blue screen with no graphics or images on it whatsoever and they're just pretending to point at things on the screen. If you took a picture in the studio of them you'd see someone standing next to an empty blue screen looking like an idiot pointing at and talking about things that aren't there.
Only later in the video processing do they overlay by chroma-keying the graphics for the weather stuff over the top of the blue screen area.

Same kind of deal with movies that mix real live action actors with cartoon characters.. it'd be hard to get a photo of Mel Brooks standing together with Bugs Bunny on the set of the film.

 

[tjcinnamon]

Originally posted by: QuixoticOne
Uh what is capturing the timeshift? I don't get it.

I have a DVR that has a DVD playing into it. I run that threw my computer and timeshift (or pause or rewind it back about 1 minute) so when the DVD is at 10minutes the Monitor is at 9 minutes.

This is used to I can watch movies and when I see a cool scene that I like I can press record via a remote and capture the image while I watching the movie.

It's a lazy mans method for collecting video samples for VJ production.

Originally posted by: QuixoticOne
If you capture the 'window' of the player program it really *does* just have blank space there. If you capture by reading pixels out of the frame buffer of the graphics card you'll be more likely to get the video image too.

So are you saying instead of capturing the window itself, I should capture a rectangle of space on the monitor?

Or will that still end up as a blank space?

What would you say the best method for capturing the pixels out of the graphics card?

Thanks for your reply,
JOe K.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Yeah capturing a rectangle of screen area may work better than trying to capture the player window only since it may have a blank area.

Or you can disable video overlay playback mode and then it'll have higher CPU consumption during playback but it'll be more easy to capture.

Or just use one of the programs that seems to work well / better in its current state, it is probably using some technique that helps the capture to work better.

 

[tjcinnamon]

Originally posted by: QuixoticOne
Or you can disable video overlay playback mode and then it'll have higher CPU consumption during playback but it'll be more easy to capture.

Would disabling the video overlay be a program setting for in DVR software? Or is it a setting on my video card?