Friday, January 15, 2010

On the subject of capturing my desktop

So, after hearing the response of the readers I think I may start up again, maybe not just for Compiz Fusion but other things as well. Even though there haven't been that many comments I know that my 400+ subscribers on Youtube might also appreciate more videos.

However, I can't keep using the system I have been so far. Xvidcap, as good as it might seem, is not the best option. All my screencasts were actually sped up because of frame dropping, and the performance wasn't phenomenal even so.

I'm considering buying a capture card to plug in to my graphics card (which has s-video out) to record the video. On Newegg it seems like I can get one for around $25 to $30.

This way video would be nice and smooth and I can show you guys the real truth behind my desktop, which, though it's not the most top-of-the-line in terms of hardware, performs amazingly with Compiz Fusion. Screencasts taken with software just don't do the cube justice.

Also I'd rather not use a camcorder like I did for my big million views video. Having such a capture card would also likely open the doors for linux gaming and other features.

Now, I know capture cards are not designed to capture video from the computer to record onto the computer, but I'm thinking this should be all right. Then again, I could be totally wrong about this increasing performance. Would recording with the capture card on linux be a CPU hog or would it be all right? If it's a CPU hog I suppose the situation isn't any better.

If anyone could give me advice about this or another method of using hardware to record the desktop it would be greatly appreciated.

Finally, I'm removing the Adsense ads and replacing them with a Paypal donation button. I don't think any of the ads are really relevant, they must be annoying, and I've only gotten about $35 total through Adsense after all these years. If you would like to speed up the process of me getting started up again I would always appreciate a small donation. Perhaps if I get enough I could use it for the capture card!

Once again, thanks for your patience and helping me out with this capture card business, I'm not an expert with hardware like this.

1 comment:

Leif said...

someone probably already suggested gtk-recordmydesktop ?