The VideoLAN Forums

Posted: **21 Jun 2013 15:13**

I think, I've tried everything, and I'm unable to force VLC 2.0.6 under Windows 7 to capture wideo from my desktop with mouse cursor. After reading debug messages I'm beginning to think, if this isn't some kind of bug.

I started with two YouTube guides. I.e. using GUI and adding:

Code: Select all

:screen-mouse-image=c:\mouse.png

to options. I've tried all three forms of specyfing paths under Windows:

Code: Select all

c:\mouse.png

Code: Select all

"c:\mouse.png"

Code: Select all

c:\\mouse.png

No effect.

Then I tried command-line approach, found in this forum blog, only changing it to Windows version of:

Code: Select all

C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\vlc.exe screen:// :screen-mouse-image=c:\mouse.png :screen-width=500 :screen-height=300

No effect. In each approach, video is being correctly captured (first two attempts -- written to disk, third attempt -- displayed in VLC), but there is no sign of mouse pointer in captures.

After analysing debug messages captured for each of three attempts (here, here and here) I begin to think, that we're dealing with some kind of bug in 2.0.6 Windows VLC.

Lines like following are clearly understandable:

Code: Select all

main debug:creating access 'c:\mouse.png' location='', path='(null)
main debug:looking for access module: 0 candidates
main debug:no access module matched "c:\mouse.png"
main error: no suitable access module for `c:\mouse.png'
main debug: could not open c:\mouse.png for reading
screen error: Failed to open mouse pointer image (c:\mouse.png)

The thing is, that file "c:\mouse.png" exists and is 100% sure accessible by any other program, except VLC (just tested on IrfanView, Paint and Windows Explorer).

So... What next? Is this really a bug or am I doing something wrong? And what is most important for me -- how to capture videos with mouse cursor in Windows in VLC 2.0.6?

Posted: **21 Jun 2013 16:21**

vlc.exe --screen-mouse-image="file:///C:/mouse.png"

Posted: **21 Jun 2013 19:03**

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI7EXRjvajc

Posted: **24 Jun 2013 12:31**

Thank you for your answer and help. I've seen this video tutorial, but looked at it quite fast and missed information given in comments, that protocol-like approach is the only available of specifying path to mouse cursor image file.

Posted: **24 Jul 2013 21:11**

I ran into the same problem and noticed that you can use the answer by mederi: vlc.exe --screen-mouse-image="file:///C:/mouse.png"

However I found out that the quotes around the path didn't work. I had to leave them out on my Window 7 64-bit and VLC 2.0.7.
But what happens if the full path to the mouse pointer has spaces?

My answer was to use the old DOS 8.3 filename format. By using the DIR /X command on every folder of the path with a space I could get the 8.3 folder name, all the way to the mouse pointer file. So my path looks like this:

:screen-mouse-image=File:///C:/PROGRA~2/COMMON~1/mouse.png

Till now it has work every time...

The VideoLAN Forums

[VLC 2.0.6] Unable to capture wideo (desktop) with mouse

[VLC 2.0.6] Unable to capture wideo (desktop) with mouse

Re: [VLC 2.0.6] Unable to capture wideo (desktop) with mouse

Re: [VLC 2.0.6] Unable to capture wideo (desktop) with mouse

Re: [VLC 2.0.6] Unable to capture wideo (desktop) with mouse

Re: [VLC 2.0.6] Unable to capture wideo (desktop) with mouse