Shoutbox

Hey, I just wanted to share what I've discovered with you people.

So here's a little guide on how to capture your contacts' WebCam video when you are having video conversations with them.


I used Camtasia Studio 2 by TechSmith Corporation to do this. The software costs 300 bucks after the 30-day trial, though.

Anyway..... After you install the Studio, open it and read the impotant stuff they show you in the first time. Then when they ask you what you want to record (the wizard thingie), just cancel that and go to Camtasia Recorder (the small window with the red icon, should be opened already). Camtasia Recorder is one of a few applications that are a part of the whole Studio, and can be opened from the Windows Start menu.

Anyway, in Camtasia Recorder, go to Tools -> Options -> Capture and untick the option "Round frame size to a 4 pixel boundary". Click OK, and click the down arrow next to the red record button, then select "Fixed Region...".

For the "Width" enter 160, for the "Height" enter 120 and for the "Y" enter 116. The "X" value depends on your screen's resolution; You need to subtract 186 from your resolution's width to get the right X. For example, if you use a resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels, you would enter 838 (1024 - 168) for the "X".

Now your Camtasia Recorder should be set to record EXACTLY that part of the screen which displays the WebCam activity when the conversation window is maximized.


Now, whenever you want to record a video conversation, all you have to do is open Camtasia Studio (or just Camtasia Recorder), maximize the conversation window which has the video conversation (very important!), make sure no window is hiding the video area, and finally hit the red record button in Camtasia Recorder.


Note that the video is initially saved using a "lossless" codec, which means it will have a very large file size if you record for a long time. As WebCam videos are in low quality anyways, you should compress the file more tightly from within Camtasia Studio after you finish recording. You can also edit the captured video file in Camtasia Studio if you want.

Last note, I haven't tested the pixel stuff on configurations other than mines, so I hope it will work fine for everyone... in theory, it should.


Have fun!