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Open Source Video Capture from a Win32 Window?

Posted by Cliff on from the similar-problem-different-perspective dept.

Phleg asks; "A professor of mine has been using TechSmith's Camtasia Studio software in order to take movies of what's going on on his screen. However, it's buggy, expensive, and a hassle. I've looked around the web for something that's GPL'd that can accomplish the same thing, and come up with nothing useful. The final stipulation is that it has to work under Windows, as much of the software he uses (Scientific Workplace, for one) is Windows-only. Has anyone found a (free) way to capture what's displayed on screen into a video, as well as grabbing inputs from a mic? Any codec would be fine." Those interested in a similar solution for Linux might be interested in this discussion.

36 comments

  1. Virtualdub by RzUpAnmsCwrds · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Virtualdub, Virtualdub, Virtualdub

    GPL, free, Win32

    Captures to AVI. Any bitrate, any codec, any framerate.

    http://www.virtualdub.org/

    1. Re:Virtualdub by RzUpAnmsCwrds · · Score: 2

      Whoops!

      I thought you meant video from a camera. Sorry. Next time I'll read it better.

      I do know that you can still use Virtualdub for this application - you just need a capture card and a video card with TV-out.

      Also consider Windows Media Encoder. Not GPL, but still free (as in beer).

    2. Re:Virtualdub by fava · · Score: 1

      And it runs under wine.

  2. tsarkon reports sugarbitch piss frost phirst poast by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    The Future of SLASHDOT.

    2002. Slashdot publishes 1,000,000th rumor passed off as actual story. The story generates 480 comments, 263 of which agree with the article, and 107 of which point out it's a rumor and are modded down as redundant. The remaining comments are all "first posts." or posts that contain any rational insight are modded "troll."

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    2003. VA Software bought by Microsoft for a cup of coffee and a donut. All Microsoft-critical articles mysteriously disappear from Slashdot. Bill Gates as Borg logo replaced with Bill Gates as God. (Taco suggested that in order to be "God," or his vision of God, Gates would have to be seen in a NAMBLA T-shirt. Luckily good taste prevails in favor of the old man image in glowing aura)

    2004. CmdrTaco loses virginity, well, not sex with men virginity, that's long since gone, and not sex with anime blow up dolls, this time, real sex.

    2004. The WIPO Troll returns again, showering Slashdot in 45,000 copies of the same post: "Lick my crotch hairs." Slashdot, despite
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    2004. Slashdot officially shut down. Millions of screaming, unwashed geeks invade Redmond campus and lynch Bill Gates.

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    2007. BSD is still officially "dying." No word on when its demise will take place. FreeBSD 9 is delivered in perfect working order in a coherent superior, commercially viable and useable fashion with real documentation, the same practice followed since inception. Linux lunatics, after the death of Cox, are still trying to perfect the Trident driver while ignoring the existence of the GeForce 9. Netcraft dies along with all the surveys they held on Microsoft and Linux servers are lost as well.

    2007. CmdrTaco starts new weblog to replace Slashdot, creatively named Dotslash. Remainder of Linux users flock to the site and immediate WIPO-Troll it out of existence.

    2007. Box running FreeBSD for 6 years sets world record for Unix uptime on consumer hardware.

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    2010 Marcelo Tosatti finally releases a version of the 2.4 Linux Kernel that is useable 2.4.29-RC2099.alpha.stage.99 (not -STABLE!). Fuck you Marcelo, YOU SUCK as a MAINTAINER.

    Is genital-too, I mean Gentoo fixed yet? Last time it made me perform all these stupid, fucking easily scriptable mindless tasks to get it installed, with everything installed perfectly the stupid thing didn't work. Death to OS X, death to lame Linux distributions, I want a COHERENT Linux distribution and FREEBSD or DIE, baby.

    A long long fucking time from now. Malda, fat, poverty-stricken, unrespected and unremembered and living in an appliance box in Michigan with a pickle jar for a toilet comes to a series of epiphanies. The 8.3 file system that made him truncate his nick to an 8 letter series of characters has long been forgotten, and he finally realizes he looks like a fag using it. He also realizes that men's asses look like tacos, especially with the beef pouring out and that his name sounds more like Commander of Ass, since one can command asses because the belong potentially to sentient or living things, it is difficult to command inanimate objects such as food , so one can only conclude he was commanding ass.

    He also realized his site was a lame, fad, he sold out, he needed to refactor his shit code and never did it. He also realized that communites such as Fark don't have this complete asshole running it with gay lameness and compression filters and lame IP blocking bullshit and cheating, pissing and whining and barely anyone trolls it.

    We hate you, Fucking Robbie;

    he remembers as reams of pages of trolls cry for his expulsion. He also realizes he cant have a computer anymore because he hates the RIAA and MPAA but ran out and gave George Lucas and other shit media companies tons of money to ruin the laws in favor of the omnicorps. He also realizes his socialist and fascist fucking moderation system squelched all the real comments out of view. He also realizes that a full time crew "working" at Slashdot did a shittier job than anyone thought possible.

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  3. Ask Slashdot by tps12 · · Score: -1, Troll

    I use a certain piece of Windows software that is very difficult to make, and therefore costs a lot of money. However, I have heard about "Open Source" and would like to get something for nothing. Clearly I am not interested in switching operating systems or (horror) volunteering any of my valuable time. Can you friendless computer geeks help me? Go Open Source!

    This is the third one of these this week. This one wasn't so bad, but can you believe the nerve of this guy?

    --

    Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
    1. Re:Ask Slashdot by Piquan · · Score: 2
      I use a certain piece of Windows software that is very difficult to make,

      If I recall the VFW API right, it's very easy to write.

    2. Re:Ask Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're such a troll.

    3. Re:Ask Slashdot by Nevermore-Spoon · · Score: 0

      For all you know he could desiring such an encoder to document all the security flaws linux loving /.ers like you love to point out. Or maybe a tutorial on how to backup all of ones data to make the switch linux. Granted this may be unlikely, but trolls like you will never find something good to say, nor will you ever choose to say nothing at all.

      --
      I have great faith in fools; My friends call it self-confidence. Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1845
    4. Re:Ask Slashdot by ameoba · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Considering that the article uses Scientific Workplace as an example of the software that's going to be run, this is highly unlikely.

      To some extent, I mirror the feelings of the 'troll'. I've been noticing a lot of people comming into the open source looking for free beer and if they can't find it, expecting others to buy them a beer. They feel that they are entitled to have the community serve them.

      What's even worse are those people that hear about this 'free software' thing, and want drop in replacements for expensive proprietary software that interfaces into the lowest levels of windows. There's reasons people don't write free versions of this stuff.

      Most of the problems that are solved by going into the plumbing of windows (the win32 API is ugly, awkward, and when you get to the lower levels, very poorly documented) are either non-issues under Linux (such as the firewall post the other day) or have trivial solutions under Linux.

      --
      my sig's at the bottom of the page.
  4. Windows Media Encoder by ccady · · Score: 1, Informative

    I know I'm evil and bad for saying this, but Windows Media Encoder is free (as in beer, but not speech) and works fine.

    --
    J'aime mieux les méchants que les imbéciles, parce qu'ils se reposent. -- Alexandre Dumas
  5. Workaround by Dunkirk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As someone who is trying his best to move away from any and all Windows-related software, I make what may be a stupid suggestion. If you can find a GPL'ed piece of software that runs on Linux, go ahead and use it. Just use it while capturing what's happening on screen - and using VNC to get at a window of a Windows-based desktop running the vital application.

    --
    Acts 17:28, "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being."
    1. Re:Workaround by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or use rdesktop, which works with Windows' (2000+) built-in remote desktop software. Should do sound too. And run faster than VNC.

  6. Not free and kinda crude, but... by Pauly · · Score: 2

    Lotus ScreenCam is something you should check out. Also, Microsoft Camcorder is a blatant rip-off of Lotus ScreenCam and came free with Office 97, but I don't recall it capturing audio.

    Both of these apps are old enough that they may even run under Wine reliably.

  7. huffyuv 2.1.1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://math.berkeley.edu/~benrg/huffyuv.html

  8. SnagIt by Bazouel · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's not GPL'd, but I can't think of a better and smaller program. It's well worth 40 $ IMHO.

    It can capture video at any quality/codec and have many useful options.

    It can also do simple screenshots of anything (entire screen, a region, a window, the active window, a button, etc. etc.)

    --
    Intelligence shared is intelligence squared.
    1. Re:SnagIt by arglesnaf · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ermm, the Video version of snagit is canastia studio. exactly what he said he did not want to use. You go to the techsmith website and canastia studio ads take up half the screen.

    2. Re:SnagIt by Trikenstein · · Score: 1
      From the SnagIt features page
      Video Capture Capture on-screen activity, including mouse movements, as a standard AVI video file. Optionally add a voice-over. For even more powerful video capture, check out Camtasia Studio.
      I think its worth a try.
    3. Re:SnagIt by Digital11 · · Score: 1

      Groan... do ya not even read?

      Quote:A professor of mine has been using TechSmith's Camtasia Studio software.....

      --
      I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
  9. Get a mechanical finger and use the print screen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    key. Once you get the rhythmn right you will end up with a smooth movie. Enjoy.

  10. Re:Windows Media Encoder tsarkon reports. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    evil? well, you are a dumb fag thats for sure, prick butt loving ass fuck rim felching puss drinking herpes simplex 69 motherfuck.

    it embeds DRM shit in files, you fuck felch, and if not DRM it pasted a player UID in there.

    fucker.

    i hate the pile of linuxsucks has become, with the kernel assholes thinking the kernel is the only thing in an OS, and the rest of the GNU/Linux dist being a paste and glue special, so I demand the use of FreeBSD, but Windows crap sucks so fucking and has NSA office of the fatherland security and john ashcroft FUCKING CRAP in it and you FUCKING support it you god damn pig bitch motherfuck MOTHER FUCK. traitor to the free world mother fucker FUCKER.

  11. Hypercam! by Enry · · Score: 5, Informative
    It's not GPL'd, but Hypercam rocks. I used it for creating two computer-based-training CDs. Accepts mic input, can caputre the entire screen, a window, or a measured part of the screen, can add a starburst and click for mouse events, and uses the codecs built into Windows. The cost is $30, so while it's not free as in beer or speech, it's the best thing I found.

    Your best bet is to encode the videos at the highest quality (assuming your machine can keep up), then edit/cut quality later on. There's no way you will be able to encode DiVX or any of the more complex codecs in realtime, so just make unencoded AVIs and worry about the codecs later with VirtualDub.

  12. Not open source, but... by n9hmg · · Score: 0, Troll

    MicroSloth wmv encoder
    Free, and works well.
    We just recorded ~40 technical presentations at the division's annual conference with it, and it actually worked, quite well.
    /me punishes self for speaking well of "he who must not be named".

  13. That doesn't answer the question. by Chasing+Amy · · Score: 3, Informative

    The question was about a utility to make full-motion screen captures of the desktop/computer screen. Windows Media Encoder is just an encoder, it can't capture video of the desktop/computer screen, you need an application for that. Then if you wanted to you could encode the capture with WME, but that's irrelevant because the question was about the app to make the capture, not an encoder.

    Anyway, I've made low-res screencaps before by taking the video-out port of an ATI All-in-Wonder 128 (several newer versions are available) and feeding it back into the video-in port while using VirtualDub to encode it into an AVI file. Again, low-res, but I've only used it for capturing protected full-screen streaming content that wouldn't download using standard hacks, so it worked OK for that.

    However, for higher quality, one might set up an external capture box using any decent S-Video capture card and VirtualDub, and have the main box run a video card with an S-Video Out. That would be the best quality I can think of because I don't know of any video capture cards that have a VGA-in capture port.

    --

    Chasing Amy
    (We all chase Amy...)
    "The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
    1. Re:That doesn't answer the question. by Softwiz500 · · Score: 1

      Not true. It can capture the screen, see? Look at the features list on this page. Clicky.

    2. Re:That doesn't answer the question. by isorox · · Score: 2

      I'm no microsoft fan, but windows media encoder can capture, convert and broadcast any available video + audio streams (DV camera, webcam, screen) at a variety of bit rates for a pretty low processer use. It's not that bad a product really

  14. about 3 minutes on google..... by maken · · Score: 3, Funny

    about 3 minutes on google gives :

    http://www.atomixbuttons.com/vsc/index1.html

    Runs on windows
    captures to .avi
    and it looks to be open source

    just email your billing address
    Ill send you a bill.
    cash, check, visa, m/c, paypal accepted

    maken

    1. Re:about 3 minutes on google..... by shyster · · Score: 3, Informative

      Linkified. I'll take 15% of the billing rate for data analysis and report generation.

  15. VNC by 1010011010 · · Score: 2

    There's a program to capture a VNC stream to a playable file. Search freshmeat.

    --
    Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
  16. TV card by sql*kitten · · Score: 2

    A professor of mine has been using TechSmith's Camtasia Studio software in order to take movies of what's going on on his screen. However, it's buggy, expensive, and a hassle. I've looked around the web for something that's GPL'd that can accomplish the same thing, and come up with nothing useful. The final stipulation is that it has to work under Windows, as much of the software he uses (Scientific Workplace, for one) is Windows-only. Has anyone found a (free) way to capture what's displayed on screen into a video, as well as grabbing inputs from a mic?

    Get a graphics card with TV-out, and just use a regular video recorder (or plug it into the back of another PC with vidcap). Something capturing your display to video in software is going to hurt your performance and may be incompatible with other software.

  17. Roll Your Own by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You could write your own a simple one in java wouldn't be too hard using the JMF and this screen grabber datasource. The output file can be in anything that JMF supports .avi or .mov by default.

  18. Look for a VNC framebuffer recorder by ManxStef · · Score: 3, Informative

    VNC seems to be the way ahead as screen capture is generally a very different problem to standard video capture/encoding. so using VirtualDub with Huffy, DivX, etc. would all be pretty useless for this application, as they're not designed for screen capping.

    I'd check out the mailing lists at the real VNC website and maybe ask the question there. Trolling through the above archives I found a link to this, which seems like it may well be ideal (though very rough round the edges from the looks of things, I haven't had time to check it out yet).

    It's basically a VNC session recorder/replayer

    Linux/UNIX but as the guy says should work with CygWin. Don't think it's GPL, but an e-mail to the man may clarify what you can do with it.

    You can of course get VNC for windows at the above site, or TightVNC over at SourceForge(which may/may not work with the above, I'd stick to straight VNC until you've tested the above).

    Hope that helps,

  19. Windows Media Encoder DOES do screen caps by chocolatetrumpet · · Score: 5, Informative

    I use it all the time for screen capture videos. From http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/wm7/ encoder.asp: "Enables Screen Capture to File and Real-Time Broadcast. Includes an easy process for creating screen capture and training demos using the Windows Media screen capture codec."

    The dogma is running rampant!

    --
    Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
  20. Nasty people! by lwicks · · Score: 1

    Hi all, I feel for this poor chap. Why hassle the guy because he is looking for OpenSource on Windows? Especially you Linux lads. Think of it this way... If there was more OPenSource software for Win32 then that might force the software houses to embrace it more. Linux is my OS of choice, but I still use a WIN32 box and miss free/opensource solutions to my software requirements. POrt them to Windows and who knows Windows software might come down in price to compete? Think Open Office versus MS Office. How much pressure is Open office excerting on MS to make MS Office better and cheaper? Anyway, rant over!

  21. Not sure how much content i need for this question by yugami · · Score: 2, Informative

    but hopefully this gets it past the retarded filter.

    camstudio found on codeproject
    http://www.codeproject.com/tools/cams tudio.asp

    free, with source.

  22. easy by aliusblank · · Score: 2, Funny

    1) hit windows key + print screen real fast
    2) paste
    3) ???
    4) profit!!!

    1. Re:easy by Nova1313 · · Score: 1

      i wrote some software in vb that got a webserver built in to it so if you refresh the software alot it would work. It's saves to a jpg. So if i implimented the avi code i have you would have the same effect. I never realized anyone was interested in this type of thing..... you can get desktop server from http://www.novaslp.net/downloads/desktopserver.zip it's based on a jpg compression dll i found on the internet. I'll impliment avi support when I have time. You can just set it to refresh how many times per second. Although it already uses some cpu power as it's written in vb so like a 15 fps capture could drag my comp to slowdown i guess....

      --
      There exists some positive integer N that you are the Nth person to read this signature.