Video recorder problems

[colobill]

Ok, so I USED to be able to use the video recorder function on my MacBook 2Ghz running 10.4.10, under AS 3.o v 96.

Now, not so much. I set the area I want to record, click record, get the Save Video prompt and have at it. Then when I try to play the movie I made, it get a message that says the movie can not be played, saying "the File is not movie."
The files I save are "findable" in the Finder, but do not show up in the Shared Video folder from within AS.

What am I doing wrong?

Bill
Denver, CO

[LisaD]

I just did a test for you to see if I could replicate your issue.

Running an iBook with 10.4.11
Using AS 3.6 114
Have Quicktime 7.4.1 (Pro)

I was able to record an area.
I was able to save to Shared Video.
I could pull it out of Shared Video into a flipchart.
I could see it from the "Finder" and play it externally through Quicktime.

Not sure if this helps, but we'll see!

Lisa

[colobill]

I think I found part of the problem. :)I started poking around in the settings. I changed Compression from "animation" to None. Well, it plays, I can find it, etc. [clap]

So, now my questions become: What is the best setting? Best being best resolution with smallest file size…:confused:

Bill
Denver

[LisaD]

Well, I haven't played with all the settings but since on the Mac, it makes a .mov so I use my Quicktime Pro to export as a "web" movie and it makes the file size considerably smaller (but the window size smaller as well.)

then I make a link to an embedded file- the new .mov.

Lisa

[Vicky-d]

The best setting for video with smaller sizes is to use either the H.264 compression or MPEG-4 video. Its really a matter of trial and error with compression settings but I have found these to work well for me.

[airskeeter]

I have noticed that the audio is choppy. I was counting down from 10 to 1 and numbers were missing and not because I forgot them....

[bpeskin]

I use Snapz Pro sometimes. The file size is smaller than the Activstudio video recorder.

Quicktime Pro can export to .mov which makes a smaller file size.

iMovie can also export to .mov.

in iMovie, you can edit your movie and attach titles before you export.

(You can also extract audio in imovie then edit and add titles -- unrelated to the original question but very neat.)

[rlippman]

I have had similar problems when recording and find that it's hit or miss. I've done 2 recordings that worked fine and then tried to follow it up by 2 more which didn't work. I saved changes to flipchart closed and then reopened the flip chart which seemed to have solve the problem for me

[bpeskin]

It would be helpful if the default setting on the mac was not on animation but on MPeg 4 and/or whatever settings save the file in that balance of small but okay.

I realize that I went to Snapz-Pro because of the hit or miss. The Activstudio recorder is so easy to use to capture the video -- but it's not something I'd recommend over Snapz -yet -- because of the difficulty in actually getting the movie into the page.

Cheers,
Barbara

[jepatton]

Like Barbara, I also prefer SnapZPro. I've had problems with the Activstudio video recorder. For example, I tried to record a video with no sound, and the file was corrupted.

The other issue is file size. I just tried a little experiment. I recorded the same small (about 385 x 290 pixels) area doing the same thing - an annotation and typing a text block. I used MPEG-4 video (no sound) with the lowest quality in both cases. The video made with SnapZPro is 13 seconds and 40 KB. The video made with the Activstudio video recorder is 15 seconds and 3.9 MB, which is two orders of magnitude larger.

Of course, SnapZPro costs $60, and the Activstudio video recorder is free, but this is quite a difference in file size.

[Joshua]

A great app that I use is called "ScreenFlow" from VaraSoftware... its lets you zoom in on different spots on the screen and exports in many different formats such iPod, Web, and even Full HD. Its retail price is 99 dollars but they offer a cheap education discount. Check it out.
Josh Lindsey

www.varasoftware.com/screenflow

[LisaD]

OOOh, that looks nice. I'll have to try it. I love that you can pan and zoom in it!

Lisa