trouble recording media player visualizations

jamesrichardbailey

As part of creating a music video I'd like to record the visualizations provided by VLC Media Player and/or Windows Media Player. In ordinary use these players display visualizations that morph smoothly, seamlessly. When I engage CamStudio v2.0 Recorder and then start the music and visualization, the screen image begins to move jerkily. When I play it back it is similarly jerky. I've tried different codecs. Also fiddled with the capture frame every and playback rate numbers, always keeping the ratio so it multiplies to equal 1,000. I should mention that I need for the music to stay synchronized with the visualization image. I'd be very appreciative for any guidance. My thanks to all concerned in the creation and maintenance of this forum. ===>>jrb

James_Richard_Bailey

[inadvertently, I have signed up with two variations on my name...just so there's no confusion] ====>> The visualization I wish to capture emulates an oscilloscope, so its movements are both quick and constant. Naturally it must synchronize precisely with the audio. Fortunately, there will only be 6 segments, each of 20 seconds or so.

TerryBritton

James,

This is not your codec misbehaving, I'd wager. VLC Media Player has admitted that they are having trouble reading the AVI files made with CamStudio, and a fix is eventually going to arrive. Meanwhile, we are analyzing our code in an effort to make their efforts unnecessary!

Do the videos you've recorded play alright in Windows Media Player or other media players?

You did not mention the codec used - I recommend either Lagarith Lossless or Xvid for smooth motion recording - CamStudio Lossless is made for low-motion tutorial videos and will not work well with your oscilloscope captures.

You've done everything else correctly with the sync, but I recommend NOT trying to compress your audio - check "Use MCI to Record" in the Audio panel (using "Record from Microphone" -- with Stereo Mix engaged if you need the Media Player's music captured as well.)

Terry

James_Richard_Bailey

Learning curve notwithstanding, I will prevail. Here's what I've tried. I set video options to use the Logarith Lossless codec, capture frame rate 5, and playback rate 200. This definitely gets me closer, perhaps as close as I'll get due to the limit on playback of 200. I'm recording audio from speakers, so CS insists on compressing the audio even though I went to mic option and selected Use MCI. The captured audio is only important in that it is needed to synchronize the video to the same music in Win Movie Maker. Note: the visualization I'm trying to capture is Windows Media Player Bars and Waves: Scope. Try it on any bit of music and you'll see what I'm going for.
By the way, I sure like that you've set the forum write comment pane to save drafts automatically. Kudos. You certainly have professional standards. ===> jim

James_Richard_Bailey

It is still not fluid enough for my purposes. I might just run the signal through a real oscilloscope and record that with a videocam.

TerryBritton

Jim,

You say, "CS insists on compressing the audio even though I went to mic option and selected Use MCI." - that is simply not possible. It is using the system audio settings (thus MCI) when you check that box.

Try Xvid if Lagarith is not being smooth enough. This could be the limitations of your processor exposing themselves - try for a smaller capture size (lower your screen resolution to see if the oscilloscope will re-size to a smaller window). When you run at CFE-5 and PBR-200, you are pushing the maximum limits that your machine can provide. I would set it to CFE-20 PBR-50 at the fastest. This is only the PBR that it will instruct the media player to try and respect - the actual recording rate will be much slower, and depends entirely on your machine. For slower machines, Xvid has boasted the highest actual capture rates yet.

Terry

TerryBritton

Also see http://camstudio.org/faq.htm#CPUResources Basically, you are stealing from the screen saver the resources it itself may need to run smoothly!

Terry