How to capture screen and play it back at will (not just offline browsing)

[*Vanguard*]

I'd like a means of starting and stopping a recording of a browser
session. When I want to show someone else exactly what I did, then I
can just record what I did and ship of an e-mail or give them the file
so they could see what I did. That means the capture would have to be
in some format that could playback on any media player, like Windows
Media Player or RealOne, so the recipient doesn't also have to install
and use the same software, or the player is free and can be freely
redistributed.

I don't want a web crawler, spider, leech, or someone that extracts the
web pages of a site. I don't want their HTML code. I'm not trying to
steal their web design. I'm trying to use cached pages to view their
content while offline, especially since the page may have links to
images that won't be there later or was generated using scripts or
programs that I won't have, don't want, and may not be available or work
correctly later. I want to show someone else exactly what I did and
what I saw while in a browser session. It would be handy if bookmarks
were placed in the playback whenever I clicked the mouse or hit Enter,
Esc, or an F-key but then that would probably require the use of a
special player to recognize the bookmarks so the recipient could choose
when to step to the next slide or mini-movie of what happened during my
browser session.

I don't know if there is such a product that works only within the
browser. I'm only interested (for now) to show what I did during a web
session. There might be such a utility that captures and records like a
movie everything that gets painted on the screen. That would work, and
actually might be better because I suppose I could do something outside
the web browser window that affects the web session.

This is not for teaching or training purposes and I'm not doing this for
my job. This is just something that I would find handy for personal
use. When someone asks, "How'd you do that?" then I can just record it
and show them without having to be there or figure it out all over
again. And letting someone see what you did often makes it much more
clear to them what you did rather than trying to expound upon your
experience through pages of descriptive text. Since this would be for
personal and infrequent use, cheap or free is what I'd be looking for.
If I have to pay for something reasonable, I'd like a demo to make sure
it does what I need.

 

[Rick]

I'd like a means of starting and stopping a recording of a browser
session. When I want to show someone else exactly what I did, then I
can just record what I did and ship of an e-mail or give them the file
so they could see what I did. That means the capture would have to be
in some format that could playback on any media player, like Windows
Media Player or RealOne, so the recipient doesn't also have to install
and use the same software, or the player is free and can be freely
redistributed.

I don't want a web crawler, spider, leech, or someone that extracts the
web pages of a site. I don't want their HTML code. I'm not trying to
steal their web design.

What's the practical difference to a web designer? They don't
know or care what your intentions are with their work.

The only method I know of to do exactly what you want would
be to get an entire browsing session into your cache, and edit all
HTML image and other references to a local drive. And even
that wouldn't work in most cases because of cgi scripts and
other things that are unavailable once you're offline.

A far easier and completely effective approach would be to
simply use a camcorder and record your browsing session, then
transfer it to your PC and burn it to CD or other media. There
are even a few Sony camcorders that record directly to CD.

Best of luck in your search.

Rick

 

[*Vanguard*]

in news:[email protected]:

What's the practical difference to a web designer? They don't
know or care what your intentions are with their work.

The only method I know of to do exactly what you want would
be to get an entire browsing session into your cache, and edit all
HTML image and other references to a local drive. And even
that wouldn't work in most cases because of cgi scripts and
other things that are unavailable once you're offline.

A far easier and completely effective approach would be to
simply use a camcorder and record your browsing session, then
transfer it to your PC and burn it to CD or other media. There
are even a few Sony camcorders that record directly to CD.

Best of luck in your search.

Rick

I already mentioned that I don't want their HTML code, their scripts, or
a copy of their files. I don't want whatever they use to generate the
visual presented in the browser, just like I don't care about the code
used to build Word and how it then presents a document. I just want
what is presented on screen to get captured. Having playback halt
whenever I clicked or used a key would be handy to regulating the
playback.

I shouldn't need to be sitting at my monitor with a camcorder making an
external and low-quality recording of my session. That's about as
stupid as the user that calls up and complains that their fax software
won't work as they are holding their paper up to the monitor. No, it
isn't the same thing but it's as stupid a concept. All the video going
to the monitor that shows me what is happening in my Windows session has
to go through the video card. There is nothing to let me capture what I
see on the screen? And, again, I shouldn't need to provide external
equipment for this, like hooking up a VCR to the RCA jack, if there is
one, on the back of the video card so I can put the session on tape, and
then somehow get it back into my computer, compressed, and available so
I can replay it or even e-mail it to someone else to show then exactly
what I did.

There is no means for recording a Windows session that does NOT use
external equipment? There is nothing that lets me record the video
stream and do so such that the recording is kept internal to the
computer whereupon I can act on it, like edit it, compress it, save it
in a particular file format, upload to an FTP server, e-mail it, or
whatever? If what I'm asking wasn't possible, then how do remote access
software products work, like PC Anywhere, where you can see the screen
of a remote computer? There has to be some means of intercepting and
recording the video data stream.

 

[Vance Green]

From the Windows Media 9 encoder helpfile:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---

You can capture your entire desktop screen, individual windows,
or a region of the screen and broadcast the screen or encode
it to a file just as you would any other content. You can use the
screen capture feature for:
Capturing from .avi files that were created with a third-party
screen-capture utility.
Capturing a window (or the entire desktop) directly from your desktop.
Capturing from a card that is connected to a scan converter device.
When you capture a window, you can save the session for later use.
Keep in mind, however, that the title of the window and its coordinates
are saved along with all the other configuration information in the session
file. When you reload the session file for a subsequent screen-capture
session, the encoder looks for a window that matches the stored title.
If the encoder does not find one, it captures a window that matches the
stored coordinates.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------

Is this getting any closer to what you want?

What is being discussed here is the Windows Media Screen codec
and its operation. There's lots more info on it in MSDN if you do a search
there.

 

[Rick]

From the Windows Media 9 encoder helpfile:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---

You can capture your entire desktop screen, individual windows,
or a region of the screen and broadcast the screen or encode
it to a file just as you would any other content.

He'll wind up with static bitmaps, which then would have to
be combined into an avi or other movie file. He could do the
same thing with SnagIt or another screen capture utility.

Rick

 

[Colon Terminus]

Check out Camtasia:

http://www.techsmith.com/products/studio/default.asp

 

[Vance Green]

--

He'll wind up with static bitmaps, which then would have to
be combined into an avi or other movie file. He could do the
same thing with SnagIt or another screen capture utility.

Rick

Nope.

As I indicated, this is just a pointer for
him to do further research on.

When you dig a little further, you will find
WM Encoder will produce a .WMV stream
as its final product using the Screen Codec.

 

[Jerry McEwen]

I'd like a means of starting and stopping a recording of a browser
session. <snip>

Camtasia or RoboDemo.

 

[Diane_N]

Camtasia looks good but it's pricey for a "personal" solution. While
looking around regarding this and RoboHelp, I did a search on "screen
capture" at www.download.com and found CamStudio which is *free*. You can
also find a download link at
http://www.rendersoftware.com/products/camstudio/index.htm. Obviously it
won't do everything you could do in Camtasia but then if all you want is a
movie of the Windows session then maybe it'll do. Since it produces .avi
files then anyone else can play it without having to install special viewer
software. However, I'm not guaranteeing that CamStudio might not pummel you
with adverts for their pricy RoboDemo product.