Record my desktop activity to a file

[iw2rmd]

Hi, as the title says I just want to record what I'm doing on my desktop and save it as a file to my hard drive.

Does only the Mac version know how to do this?
Because I found this video for how to do it on a Mac http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig2HVCZnAl4
but I can't find a tutorial/guide anywhere for how to do it with Windows.

Thanks in advance.

[VLC_help]

Media -> Open capture device... and set Capture mode: Desktop. And next to Play button you can change mode to Stream or to Convert.

[iw2rmd]

Thanks so much!
It took a bit to figure out what settings to put in afterward, but rewatching the youtube link in my OP gave me a basic idea of where to go next. The part about cranking up the bitrate was very important.

One last question though. Why does it keep wanting to save the file with the .ps extension? I have to manually change it to mp4/avi/whatever else I decide to save it as.

[VLC_help]

Why does it keep wanting to save the file with the .ps extension? I have to manually change it to mp4/avi/whatever else I decide to save it as.

It is designed to be like that. File extensions don't mean anything.

[AdPoster]

Hello I am also wanting to record what I am doing on my screen. I was able to figure out how to record the desktop by setting a figure for the frame rate and bitrate, im not sure I did all that right but the file that was created played back what I did. I tried playing it back with vlc and towards the end of the clip things on the screen started to look like a barcode like on something to purchase??? I am a complete noob with this program other then opening an avi file and pressing play/stop, etc. I am trying to record a tutorial to upload to youtube with audio. Is there somewhere that could explain step-by-step how to get this to happen?

[rogerdpack]

any error logs during record or playback? http://wiki.videolan.org/Basic_Troubleshooting

[AdPoster]

I have received a message that vlc has crashed twice within the past 24 hours... Thanks for the link!!

[AdPoster]

After reading whats on the wiki link above this is what comes up in the logs: avcodec error: more than 5 seconds of late video -> dropping frame (computer too slow ?)
access_http info: Raw-audio server found, mp3 demuxer selected

[VLC_help]

You shouldn't get access_http info if you playback file that is located in your hard drive.

[AdPoster]

Any ideas about why I would?? The file is saved on my desktop.. Also is there a way to record audio with the tutorial I want to make??

[rogerdpack]

are you streaming it to a "file" destination only?

[VLC_help]

Also is there a way to record audio with the tutorial I want to make??

Not with VLC (well not very easily) since slave-input doesn't work with screen+dshow combo. You can naturally open two VLC instances and use first one for video capture and second one for audio capture, but joining of the video and audio requires some extra steps.

[rogerdpack]

You could use a directshow "screen capture" filter as the video source (though I haven't really tried it).

http://betterlogic.com/roger/2010/07/li ... e-filters/
http://betterlogic.com/roger/2010/07/ho ... playon-tv/

[Rick Atreides]

Not with VLC (well not very easily)
...but joining of the video and audio requires some extra steps.

Could you please direct me, where to find that extra steps ?
I need not only capture dshow audio + screen, but also braodcast it via rtp multicast.
I've try vlm where add 2 input to one channel, create two different channels but still fail to find correct configuration.
Another possible way, that I did not test yet - is mosaic.

So If you could say, which wayshould work, it will be nice.

PS. Directshow screencapture filter works properly. http://www.umediaserver.net/umediaserver/download.html, 800x600, 30fps

Code: Select all

start vlc.exe -vv dshow:// :dshow-vdev="UScreenCapture" :dshow-adev="SoundMAX HD Audio" :sout=#transcode{vcodec=h264,vb=1600,scale=1,acodec=mpga,ab=128,channels=2,samplerate=44100}:rtp{access=udp,mux=ts,dst=239.80.0.80,port=9361} :no-sout-rtp-sap :no-sout-standard-sap :ttl=10 :sout-keep

But I am fail with stream it with MPEG-2 video encoder (vcodec=mp2v) with error 'no encoder module matching "any" could be loaded'

[VLC_help]

MPEG-2 encoder will fail if the resolution or FPS values aren't the ones it likes. (yes, it is SUPER picky about those)

[hottamami]

HELP ME PLEASE ASAP EVERY TIME I TRY AND RECORD WHAT MY ACTIVITY I GET ERRORS YOU CAN LOOK AT THEM ON --> http://pastie.org/3900450
IF ANYONE KNOWS WHAT I SHOULD DO PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

[VLC_help]

VLC cannot identify the hot.ps file. So most likely your transcoding options are incorrect.