Shooting a PC Screen

[kevinreddog]

Is there a way to use your camcorder to video a PC screen without it flickering (interlace) during playback? Does anyone have any tips or is it impossible?

[adam]

That is usually caused becaues the monitor has a refresh rate higher than the camcorder. If you have an NTSC camcorder then set your monitor's refresh rate to 60Hz. If in PAL land, use 50Hz. I think this should do it.

[vhelp]

Yes, that' will work. I do this. But, also, set your focus to manual.
Because the focus has a tendency to fluctuate and horizontals will jitter.

I only wish I could get it too look just like the screen. But that's imposible.
-vhelp 3083

[mpack]

If the PC screen is a CRT then I don't think that will work. The frame times will be the same, but almost certainly not in sync. And in practice even if they start in sync they won't stay that way, because each device has its own independant clock, and clocks are never perfect. Probably you would see a slowly rolling black bar across the recording of the PC screen, meaning that the camcorder sees the refresh period of the PC screen.

I'm not sure what you would see if you videod a TFT monitor... I'm no expert on TFTs, but I don't think they refresh in the same way that CRTs do...

Of course, there may be another way to do it: you can buy devices (or you used to be able to) which turned a PC video out into an analog composite signal for display on a dumb TV style monitor. You could feed that into a VCR and record it.

[adam]

mpack you more or less sync the monitor to the camcorder by setting them to the same refresh rate. It works, I've done it. The picture is definitely still kind of weird looking, like really dim but oversaturated, but you don't get that scrolling effect.

[JimJohnD]

If your computer/laptop has S-Video out you may be able to feed that to your camera. I've used this method and it works great. You may want to lower your screen resolution because NTSC DVD is only 720X480. Short of that an LCD screen will work much better than a CRT. The screen is FLAT for one thing. I've used that method too but the S-Video route is the best.

[ebenton]

There are probably more recent and better programs for recording screen activity, but Lotus Screencam comes to mind. I don't know what type of video file it produces, or if you can burn it to disk or anything, but you can download a "try before buy" version of it from:
http://www.keyscreen.com/KeyScreen(s)5/scrncam97.htm

[thecoalman]

Try camstudio ..... it's free

[Cornucopia]

mpack you more or less sync the monitor to the camcorder by setting them to the same refresh rate. It works, I've done it. The picture is definitely still kind of weird looking, like really dim but oversaturated, but you don't get that scrolling effect.

mpack is on the right track...

Even if your nominal refresh rate is the same, the clocks will drift and you will get some sort of horizontal blanking bar that steadily rolls up or down the screen. The best you can do with that setup is to have a monitor and/or pro camera where you can tweak the sync rate--this will make the bar a think line, and the roll will be very slow.
---UNLESS---
You have both video card and camcorder than can both be GENLOCKed by a single external SYNC source. THEN you will get a dead-on shot as long as you want.

Of course, you still have to deal with screen curvature (if any), keystoning, ambient light/glare, etc.

Nothing is as good as getting a direct feed to a recorder, or a digital frame capture.

Scott

[vhelp]

@ Cornucopia

I think that results will vary, in particular to this issue of lines.

On my LCD monitor, I can capture it w/out the lines you mentioned, using
my TRV22 cam, set it to MEMORY mode. It set the shutter to 1/60 I think,
in this mode. And, depending on your timing errors, you can adjust this
(per your given setup) to whatever refresh rate..

* Rt-click desktop
* settings
* [advanced]
* Adapter tab
* Refresh rate: [Optimal ] -- change to 60 in most cases.

A CRT will be different. But other factors come into play here, because
there is also the cams' Gain; Brightness or Lighting modes and a few other
settigns that also affect this line issue you spoke of.
.
I've done this w/ my TV set, and in the evening/night hours, were there is
low light, the TV will not produce the lines, but in daylight, it does.
I guess it just a matter of tune-tuning the *sweet spot* of your cam and
TV set.

But I do know, that it works on my LCD monitor w/out issues.

-vhelp 3087

[adam]

Ok, maybe the results will vary from one monitor to another, but I'm telling you, if I just set my refresh rate to 60Hz and record on both of my CRT monitors there is no scrolling bar. I know the exact scrolling you are talking about, and I cannot reproduce it so long as my refresh rate remains 60Hz.

The quality does look like crap though.

[junkmalle]

Using the camcorder's manaul controls to force a long exposure and small aperture setting will reduce the problem. If you have a full color "night mode" option on the camera that may do the trick. The idea with a long exposure is for each video frame to include several refreshes of the monitor.

Of course, if your shooting high action content, like a 3D game, you'll get a blurry picture.

[Cornucopia]

Yeah, but can you set your refresh rate to 59.97Hz?
That is what your (NTSC)camcorder is set for.
If not, you'll have a .03Hz vertical black roll (very slow)--maybe even pencil thin--but it should still be there.

Scott