Author Topic: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - Easy Screencast Recorder - v1.17.01 - May 31, 2017 (Read 362,051 times)

mouser · « **Reply #75 on:** November 10, 2012, 07:56 PM »

I could use some help from someone who has experience with commandline conversion of video files and hosting video on the web..

Here's what I'd like to do.. I have added support in ESR for running commandline tools on the current recorded video file. What I'd like to ultimately do is bundle in a free commandline tool for converting recorded video files to formats suitable for hosting on the web.

I originally thought this was going to be straightforward using ffmpeg, but I'm having no luck at all, and I don't understand enough about this stuff to know what I'm doing wrong.

Ideally I'd like to be able to record files from the program using non-standard AVI codecs like this lossless one or in ASF format, and then be able to invoke the commandline tool to convert them to standard SWF files or other formats that could be easily uploaded to the web or emailed, etc., without requiring the recipient to have that non-standard codec installed.

I uploaded two sample short videos so anyone who wants to experiment with conversion can do so without needing to play with ESR itself:

http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/esr/downloads/samples/asf9.asf - ASF WMV9 format (windows media encoder codecs here http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17792)
http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/esr/downloads/samples/msucodec.avi (REQUIRES codec here http://www.compression.ru/video/ls-codec/screen_capture_codec_en.html)

So to summarize:

I'm looking for help in finding and testing and finding the right settings for a FREE commandline tool that can convert these two files to something suitable for generic sharing on the web without user needing any special codecs.

mouser · « **Reply #76 on:** November 11, 2012, 11:08 PM »

v1.06.01 - November 11, 2012
[Improvement] You can now set an option on Capture tab that will let you move the region window during capture.

v1.05.01 - November 11, 2012
[Improvement] Will now remember your last chosen audio device+mode, and restore it even if it is plugged in after program starts.
[Improvement] More tweak options for advanced users.
[Improvement] You can now save and load settings into named files.

mouser · « **Reply #77 on:** November 12, 2012, 08:00 AM »

It looks like, from what i read, the ffmpeg solution for handling these codec encoded files is going to be to use avisynth..

cmpm · « **Reply #78 on:** November 12, 2012, 11:53 AM »

Some of these are free and I downloaded a lot of them.
Handbrake is recommended, mostly.
To incorporate conversion into ESR may not be in one of these websites.
Just posting these, to give options for now.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=commandline+tool+convert+ASF+WMV9+to+flash+and+upload

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=convert+ASF+WMV9+to+flash

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=convert+ASF+WMV9+to+flash+and+upload

mouser · « **Reply #79 on:** November 12, 2012, 04:32 PM »

I just figured out how to use AviSynth with FFMpeg, and it seems to be able to convert the proprietary codecs now -- the trick seems to be that you use AviSynth to parse the video files and provide them to FFMpeg..

So i *think* I should now be in a position to add a feature to ESR that will let you ask the program to prepare the convert the video file to a format for easy uploading to web for sharing, without worrying about what codec you recorded it with, and hopefully with some sample html code for embedding the video on a page.

mouser · « **Reply #80 on:** November 13, 2012, 08:51 AM »

Thinking about an ideal final tool:

It seems to me that what would be ideal for ESR is to have a standalone helper tool interfaced with the program, that will take the current video (regardless of what format it was recorded in), and do two things:

1. Convert it to desired format for actual use. Depending on what format the file was recorded in, this could be as simple as leaving the file as is, to converting it to multiple formats for different uses. In an ideal case, one would record the original using a lossless codec specialized for screen capture, and then convert to format for the desired end use. Common target uses would be youtube, email attachment, or a format suitable for web upload, like webm, mp4, flash.

2. Help user share final video. This could include some combination of email, upload to youtube, upload via ftp, prepare html web page for showing the video (using something like FlowPlayer).

As I see it, this is really a standalone tool, not something to be built into ESR itself. ESR already has a system for configuring 3rd party tools and invoking them, so the work their is already done.

Based on my preliminary investigation, it seems to me the best candidate backend commandline processor for this stuff is a combination of ffmpeg and avisynth. Unfortunately while ffmpeg can be used portable, avisynth has no such easy option, but is needed if one wants to be able to process arbitrary codec encodings.

So now what's left is to decide whether it's worth me (or someone else here) writing a custom tool for this, or whether ESR should simply recommend that users install some other 3rd party converter tool for this task -- god knows there are enough of them already.

If anyone feels like writing this tool, let me know -- I'd be happy to lead the cheers from the background.

kunkel321 · « **Reply #81 on:** November 13, 2012, 04:13 PM »

This sounds pretty complicated to my little brain.
I'd recommend having the necessary background components bundled with ESR, if possible.
I don't do a lot of screen-casting, much less the developer-side of it, so I can't really offer expert advice...

What I can say is that I want to click a button to record some screen stuff, then click a second button to have the video uploaded someplace for sharing.

Of course I like all the different pref options too--and will experiment with most of them. But video tools can be pretty confusing if they rely on external components right out-of-the-box ... Complicated for me, at least.

cmpm · « **Reply #82 on:** November 13, 2012, 04:45 PM »

For the programer, or something beyond me.
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/241399/Convert-Video-to-Flash-Video-flv-and-progressive-s

For the rest of us, including me

https://www.moyeamedia.com/video-to-flash/

or online

http://www.convertfiles.com/

kilele · « **Reply #83 on:** November 20, 2012, 01:33 PM »

I've just read Vlastimil's suggestion for a quick and dirty screencasting tool with limited options: low quality, only one format (*.mov), a few buttons, send to youtube, gdrive, skydrive or dropbox.
Something like the java applets of screencast-o-matic or screenr, but simpler with very few options to use from the commandline and accepting parameters to directly capture windows controls (useful for developers to invoke it as a plugin as explained by Vlastimil)
This reference might be of help to develop such application:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3113174/screencapture-using-java-applet

Edit:
suggestion: add commandline parameters to run with a minimal gui

Renegade · « **Reply #84 on:** November 22, 2012, 01:24 PM »

The beta that I've been playing with seems to work pretty well. The audio there is mic, and not direct, but I just made the clip to illustrate something that irks me... videos that jump 60 dB in volume...

[attachurl=#]

Very annoying.

(Been adding in some new stuff for GDT - audio from video is one. It's not the actual video, but the waveforms and live EQ visualisations.)

But the screencasting there works very nicely so far.

Can't wait for the final!

Quote from: mouser on November 13, 2012, 08:51 AM

...Based on my preliminary investigation, it seems to me the best candidate backend commandline processor for this stuff is a combination of ffmpeg and avisynth. Unfortunately while ffmpeg can be used portable, avisynth has no such easy option, but is needed if one wants to be able to process arbitrary codec encodings.

So now what's left is to decide whether it's worth me (or someone else here) writing a custom tool for this, or whether ESR should simply recommend that users install some other 3rd party converter tool for this task -- god knows there are enough of them already.

If anyone feels like writing this tool, let me know -- I'd be happy to lead the cheers from the background.

I'm currently actually working on some encoding and transcoding, so I'll post back later to see if I can swing something. No promises.

I've done a few things for posting multimedia before, so I'll look into that as well. Again, no promises.

mouser · « **Reply #85 on:** November 30, 2012, 09:46 PM »

So I did think of a kind of unique feature I ~~could~~ will add to ESR that could be useful. I don't know if any other screen video recording tool has it.

The idea is a mode where it records continuously, but deletes anything older than say 1 minute.

With that mode, you could basically start recording in anticipation of some event, without worrying about file size growing too large, and just stop recording after the event occurs.

It would be useful for capturing events that are somewhat unpredictable, like a bug that crashes a program, etc.

kyrathaba · « **Reply #86 on:** December 05, 2012, 01:04 AM »

Quote

The idea is a mode where it records continuously, but deletes anything older than say 1 minute.

With that mode, you could basically start recording in anticipation of some event, without worrying about file size growing too large, and just stop recording after the event occurs.

It would be useful for capturing events that are somewhat unpredictable, like a bug that crashes a program, etc.

Darn good idea. Innovative.

Renegade · « **Reply #87 on:** December 05, 2012, 04:06 AM »

Quote from: kyrathaba on December 05, 2012, 01:04 AM

Quote
The idea is a mode where it records continuously, but deletes anything older than say 1 minute.

With that mode, you could basically start recording in anticipation of some event, without worrying about file size growing too large, and just stop recording after the event occurs.

It would be useful for capturing events that are somewhat unpredictable, like a bug that crashes a program, etc.

Darn good idea. Innovative.

+1

I've had a few situations where that would have been helpful. I'd want the 1 minute to be configurable, but yeah - wicked cool feature!

dedomof · « **Reply #88 on:** December 13, 2012, 12:27 PM »

Hi admin, where's the link 4 download, i'm just want to try ur software, thx b4.

tomos · « **Reply #89 on:** December 13, 2012, 01:30 PM »

^ hi dedomof,
they seem to be still well hidden...

Quote from: mouser on November 09, 2012, 03:09 PM

Setup program: http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/esr/downloads/EasyScreencastRecorderSetup.exe
Or portable version: http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/esr/downloads/EasyScreencastRecorderPortable.zip

I dont know if this is still relevant:

Quote from: mouser on November 08, 2012, 11:29 PM

I recommend anyone who wants to use it also install a free lossless codec that is optimized for screen recording:

MSU Screen Capture Lossless Codec: http://www.compression.ru/video/ls-codec/screen_capture_codec_en.html

mouser · « **Reply #90 on:** December 31, 2012, 03:48 PM »

I wanted to post a quick note.

If you want to upload and share screencasts via YouTube, the simplest and best results can be had by recording in WEBM format, and following the Easy Screencast Recording help instructions for configuring recording in webm format, which i repeat here:

For WebM recording you need a few things. Following instructions on http://www.webmproject.org/tools/ do:

Run install_webmdshow.exe from webmdshow-*.zip obtained via: http://code.google.com/p/webm/downloads/list
Run opencodecs_*.exe obtained via: http://www.xiph.org/dshow/
Choose "WebM" as recording file type, then Compress on the Fly, then Video Codec Engine="Webm/google" (this may not be important), Audio Compression Engine="Xiph Org Vorbis". You *may* also have to set the custom Multiplexer to "WebM Muxer Filter".

Once you have that setup, you will get excellent quality recording with very small files, and they can be directly uploaded to youtube without any issue.

cmpm · « **Reply #91 on:** January 01, 2013, 03:45 AM »

Thanks, webm works.
Mp4 works too, and of course the asv/wmv.
Tried a few combos for flash but no luck so far.
I do have another program for quick flash casts though.
Box's Simple Share does fine, with a Box account.

tomos · « **Reply #92 on:** January 07, 2013, 07:37 PM »

Could you add a link to the first post mouser
(it's given as the location of the app from the NANY summary thread)

THanks

mouser · « **Reply #93 on:** January 07, 2013, 08:12 PM »

Oops -- thanks for pointing out this pretty glaring mistake tomos -- i've updated the first post with a link to the downloads.

rgdot · « **Reply #94 on:** January 11, 2013, 07:45 PM »

Mouser, the page http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/esr/ says this is an early alpha?

mouser · « **Reply #95 on:** January 13, 2013, 01:15 AM »

Thanks rg, i've updated it to remove that line

rgdot · « **Reply #96 on:** January 14, 2013, 03:41 AM »

Thanks mouser, review coming soon

rgdot · « **Reply #97 on:** January 17, 2013, 03:39 PM »

Review by me

http://www.rgdot.com/bl/2013/01/17/create-videos-with-easy-screencast-recorder/

mouser · « **Reply #98 on:** January 17, 2013, 04:18 PM »

Thanks so much RG, I appreciate it!

I think it probably needs another round of features before it's truly useful for anyone but the hardcore.

tomos · « **Reply #99 on:** February 21, 2013, 08:33 PM »

This doesnt have a 'mouser' board of it's own so I'll post here:

Freshly installed:
Ran the exe, created a random sized frame/box.
Hit F9
It seems to start recording but after a second or so,
the screen (sometimes) blacks out and then I get this message:
--------------------------------------------------------
VideoRecorder ERROR: graph can't run: 80070016
--------------------------------------------------------

[attachthumb=#]

A file is saved but it just shows black in the mini-preview player at the end.

option to change settings - any suggestions?

EDIT/ win 7 pro 64bit // install version of esr