CamStudio 2.6 Beta released at Sourceforge

Janhgm

Yes.
It makes it much easier to create a tutorial movie if you can do recording all over again with only of few small changes.
And showing the keys you pressed or the mouse button your clicked in your recording just help to improve the value of your instruction video.

Silvio Grosso

I agree that showing the keys pressed is really useful :-)

On Linux, with Ubuntu Maverick, I use Key-mon to do that [1]

In short, I start RecordMyDesktop and, with Key-mon running as well, I record everything :-)

Needless to say, it would be wonderful, to have the same option with Camstudio ;-)

[1] http://code.google.com/p/key-mon/

mlt

Silvio, could you propose how key pressing should be visualized? Shall both up&down events be visualized, key press and repeat count if a key is being held, shall left & right shift button be visualized differently? If so then how to do it so it is still readable? I see only a few images on the aforementioned web site so it is hard to guess. I have some idea, but I would like to elicit ideas from users first.

Silvio Grosso

mlt wrote:
> could you propose how key pressing should be visualized? Shall both up&down events be visualized

Unfortunately, I am not a software designer.
As a consequence, I don't know which is the "right" way to implement such a feature with Camstudio :-(
The only thing sure is that I use key-mon a lot on Linux in order to visualize all Keys pressed during my screencasts (mostly GIS video-tutorials).

This being explained, I have recorded a video tutorial with Camstudio, where I show the options available with key-mon on Linux.
Trough Virtualbox 3.2.10: I run Ubuntu Maverick as guest (Windows xp is the Host).
For recording this video, I run Camstudio, running on Windows ;-)
The link where you can take a look at this video, where I show key-mon in action is here [1].

On Linux there are other guys who are using key-mon for their screencasts.
For instance, take a lot at these video tutorials regarding Inkscape where key-mon is used to show all keys pressed [2].
Episode 104 is one of the smallest to download [3].

Concerning Camstudio, probably the best way would be to have an option to turn on-off this feature: provided it is really implemented :-)

With key-mon you can minimize its window when you don't want it appearing in your video tutorial (sometimes its presence might be a bit obtrusive).

At present, key-mon works only on Linux (it is an open source Python application).

Anyhow, THANKS a lot to everyone for your work and support on Camstudio :-)

Silvio Grosso

[1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/44959108@N05/5128317112/
[2] http://screencasters.heathenx.org/#ep018
[3] http://screencasters.heathenx.org/episode-104/

DerpGuy

I. CamStudio won't let me set MP3 or WMA as Audio Compression Format (always resets to PCM automatically).
II1. Maybe there should be some kind of notification that some compressors only work with standard resolutions (e.g. 320x240 with Xvid MPEG-4).
II2. When recording with the current compressor doesn't work and you press "Yes" when asked to use the default(?) compressor nothing happens.
III. After dragging a "Fixed Region" the part after the drag gets broken.

mlt

1) When does it reset the format? On next launch? Or when you open it again 2nd time in the row?
2) Audio is recorded separately first. I personally also don't like the way recommendation happens.
3) It is a known issue, unfortunately it was missed for the previous release. I guess, Jan is working on it.

DerpGuy

I. It doesn't actually "reset" cos it isn't even set correctly when recording though it's displayed as MP3/WMA in the options. In the options it resets after restart and when trying to change the format after one recording (with MP3) it just says "FormatChoose() failed with error = 6!".
II. The point with the resolution-hint and the (missing) default compressor was addressed to the video compressor(s).
IV. Why is the text made invisible when a shape has Anti-Alias activated?

mlt

1) There was some magic going on during an attempt to recommend best audio (and video) codec. It resulted in the fact that my mono preference was not respected. I cut in one of the previous builds this chunk of code so it doesn't make bad "suggestions". I'll check in some spare time if the build I have at hand can record MP3 at all.
2) Try to use camstudio codec just to make sure that you have proper video size. Most codecs like x264, DivX, and some other require dimensions to be multiples of 4. If you happen to be a victim of 1 pixel size error, encoding will fail. CamStudio codec works fine under any circumstances and you can double check if it was the video size issue.
4) I don't know. I didn't have time to make any corrections in that area. I anticipate GDI+ in that part as well, so, perhaps, it is broken for now. I'll take a quick look whether it is a big mess to fix.

mlt

1) In my build the mp3 setting is not getting reset, but it is not respected either. I simply get PCM according to VLC media player.
2) I think I was right about the reason encoding fails. I just successfully recorded 1280x720 video with Xvid video codec and single pass encoding.

mlt

4) Hm... It looks like that if you use anti-alias, the code simply does nothing. There were some changes around it in r189 and r232, but I don't know how it was supposed to work. I'll try to change the code to use GDI+ for both normal & anti-aliased drawing.

mlt

4) Dirty fix is applied in r301 that works for now. Available AA options became equivalent to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms534404%28VS.85%29.aspx TextRenderingHintSystemDefault, TextRenderingHintAntiAlias, and TextRenderingHintClearTypeGridFit correspondingly.

DerpGuy

I. Yes, like I said, when the format is set to MP3/WMA it won't record in the chosen format and still uses the preset PCM.

II1: I know that it can fail due to the wrong record-resolution, my idea was to give the user a hint about that issue in the "codec error message".

II2: Installed the "CamCodec 1.5" with the CamStudio installer, but I can't choose it as video compressor...

mlt

1. I don't understand completely myself the current way it is working now. All looks like correct codec is requested, however writing to file is based on simple "fister" application from codeproject. Even it can be fixed, the result would be mp3 in WAV container (see the note after the table http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV#WAV_file_compression_codecs_compared ). Perhaps it is not what you expect anyway. I'd recommend for now to record with plain PCM, and then recode as you like, untill DirectShow support is implemented within CamStudio.

2.2. That is totally weird. Have you restarted you application? i'm not sure about reboot.

DerpGuy

II2: CamCodec 1.5 only appears when I used CamStudioCodec14.exe before. (So is the codec that comes with the CamStudioV2.6b-Setup just an update?)

supanut

DerpGuy wrote:
"II2: CamCodec 1.5 only appears when I used CamStudioCodec14.exe before. (So is the codec that comes with the CamStudioV2.6b-Setup just an update?)"
I don't know.

mlt

Yeah... that was a mystery to me as well how I got 1.5 . I have it on one pc, but 1.4 on another. It would be nice to package 1.5 separately.

supanut

Yep that's a good idea to package 1.5 separately

Janhgm

"(So is the codec that comes with the CamStudioV2.6b-Setup just an update?"
Don't know if it is an update only. This is new for me either.
No problem to include CamStudioCodec15 in the next releasee