Recording and post-processing problems

[oblivion]

Having not used this for a while, I dusted it off yesterday for the first time in ages as  I've signed up for a MOOC in public speaking and need to be able to record and upload videos of me waxing lyrical to an imaginary audience.

My first attempt, I got a short way into a recording then my Win7 netbook started beeping at me, alarmingly. I stopped the recording and discovered that the minute or two I'd captured had created a 400Mb file. Oops, I thought, no compression.

So I picked a codec and tried again. One of the Intel ones. Results were stripy. Try again...

...and again...

...and again...

Look, I don't know anything about video recording and codecs and the like, but the more I try to more weird results I get. Including a saved video that claims to be 0 bytes but nevertheless has a shot of me reaching across to switch off recording.

The help file doesn't contain anything under most of the headings.

I'm quite sure it's me rather than the software but HELP! Is there a basic set of settings that are (a) pretty much guaranteed to exist on most PCs -- to save me listing all the codecs listed -- and (b) likely to work -- bearing in mind I have to upload to Youtube?

[mouser]

I have to say that I find getting the compression settings correct in any video recording program is a frustrating and confusing process, and Webcam Video Diary is no exception.

It's also not a program that very many people use so it has some rough edges.

So i'm afraid the best advice i can give you is to experiment and let us know when you find some good settings that result in small but good quality files.  mpg might be best for youtube uploading.

[oblivion]

I have to say that I find getting the compression settings correct in any video recording program is a frustrating and confusing process, and Webcam Video Diary is no exception.

Okay, I'll continue to experiment and

My lack of a systematic approach for this probably didn't help: I picked settings that I thought looked sensible, got results I didn't like, tried others, got worse, tried to go back to what I thought the previous settings were and got different results again and the more frustrated I got the less systematic I became -- particularly as I was up against a looming deadline, so there was a certain amount of panic involved too 

I have a DivX codec installed -- I think it arrived when I got bought the first of the new Star Trek movies on a special-edition usb key -- and that was actually okay except the audio was slightly out of synch so I ditched that idea too and it was as if my system thought fine, chum, you don't want that I'm not going to give you anything else at all.

I have a tiny suspicion that rebooting between experiments might be necessary. That's more painful than I'd like, but I'll post any helpful results as and when.

It's also not a program that very many people use so it has some rough edges.

Really? 


I don't remember the context now but it's here because I had a problem to solve -- capturing a still from a usb webcam into ScreenShotCaptor was, I think, what I thought I ought to be able to do and couldn't -- and you suggested WVD yourself. So this is (a) your fault and (b) definitely the first time I've tried to use it for actual moving video-and-audio. If I get it working, it'll definitely be useful while I do this MOOC, at any rate. If I don't, I'll probably have to rig up a camera and tripod instead. Which is probably going to use something nasty like Quicktime  and be a lot harder to physically manage

Thanks for the advice, anyway. I WILL crack this.

[Technol.geek]

So would you have an idea of the best way to work out the best codec and settings that would work for this program?

I have tried ffdshow and it works without compression but not of the settings I tried would sync the video & audio correctly.

Same for Xvid MPEG-4 I couldn't find any settings except no compression that would work.

Please I would love to get this working and I have friends that would love to use this as well.

Using this to keep a video diary seems to be the best program I can find as none of the other even try to give you compression.

Mouser, I would help find the best but I am not the best with codec settings and the way to find the best settings. If you had a plan to troubleshoot this that I could follow I would.

Thanks for your time!  

[oblivion]

For all my optimism, I didn't crack it. Mostly because the need sort of evaporated -- the MOOC I was trying to find time to participate in apparently couldn't manufacture any more hours in the day for me to use for it, sadly.

I may re-enrol next time it runs, but I'm not going to do that until I'm sure I can get everything working first -- so sorry, I can't help.