HQ screen video capture

Question

I'm trying to create a video out of what's shown on the computer's screen. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get it in high quality, and since there are small fonts on the screen - the HQ is important.

I'm using Microsoft Expression Encoder 4. When I view the captured video before encoding (xesc) - it's fine. But after encoding - the encoded file (wmv) is not.

I've tried setting the size to "source" (doesn't help), simply renaming the file to ".wmv" (the text is clear but most of the screen is "grayed out"), and some other ideas. Nothing works.

I'm open to using different screen video capture software. (Preferably free.) I've researched about video editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, but it seems not to include video screen capture.

Answer 1

In order to get a near the high quality you require, you would have to use quite a high bit rate. Unfortunately the number of pixels that the video decodes to and the actual effective resolution of a video are not the same thing.

Modern video compression will make the most effective use of the data rate you set the video to use, but the more you compress, the less fine detail can be stored, especially if it doesn't have much of a pattern to it or changes a lot from frame to frame.

The first thing to try would be to increase the data rate of the video as far as you can and see if that improves it. If not, then you could try another capture program. I personally like FRAPS a lot, it isn't free, but it also isn't particularly expensive ($37). It works really great assuming you have sufficiently fast drives to keep up with the recording, though the initial videos are massive.

Answer 2

I would go with either jing ( http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html ) free or Camtasia ( http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html ) both from Techsmith.

Camtasia allow you to zoom in on part of the screen after recording but before rendering. This basically solves your problem and is great when you need to create video to a resolution that is less than the recorded resolution.

Answer 3

CamStudio is a well-known free screen capture software. I used it, but didn't like it. Movavi suite has screen capture and video editing features, but it's not free. To get best results, you should use quality screen capture codec, not resize your source videos, use good video converter or editing software. Adobe Premiere Pro is a professional video editor (the best choice to edit videos - if you can afford it)