Convert Screensaver to Video?

[p_l]

What are some good ways to convert a screensaver to a video? Which methods would be lossless or provide the best quality?

[mats.hogberg]

Some screen capture app, that records to AVI?

/Mats

[guns1inger]

If you can get a screen cap to grab it, well and good, although many won't cap screensavers. The other problem is that screensavers often use strangely high CPU levels, which can make screen capping harder.

Easiest is to plug your PC into a DVDR and record it from there.

[p_l]

Thanks for the responses. I tried with a screen capture program, Camtasia, but the results are rather choppy, as you predicted. I may go the route you suggested, going from S-Video Out on my computer's video card to the Analog In recording on my Canon Elura DV cam, or even hauling my Toshiba RD-XS35 DVR into the computer room.

But before all that, is there a more direct way, for example a little app that converts screensavers to video directly? A quick Google turned up a few programs that go the other way, turning your video into a screensaver. I'm looking for the opposite.

[guns1inger]

No, mostly because most screensavers are executable programs that just happens to br writing graphics to your screen. It's not a matter of converting data from one format to another, because that data doesn't exist. To do what you are suggesting you would have to basically set up a virtual PC that captured the screen output to a video stream instead of to the monitor. Lot of work just to grab a screensaver output.

[mats.hogberg]

Some screen savers are in fact an AVI file and an app that plays it - IIRC the old MS "Bliss" screen saver was one such. If that's the case here, just grab the AVI and you're basically home free.

/Mats

[p_l]

Progress, sort of: I located the content of the screensaver tucked away in a folder in Windows/System 32. It's an .swf file I've managed to play with something I googled and downloaded called Swiff Player, but when I try to convert it with Super, it errors out, and WinAVI also gives me an error ("Can not find FLASHWINDOW component, must exit...", then "Failed in initializing the file(s)!").

Any ideas?

[Ai Haibara]

It sounds like what you have is a 'regular' Shockwave Flash file. SUPER (as well as many of the other video converters) only handles Flash Video within an .FLV. I've heard that sometimes, Flash Video can be embedded within a .SWF, but I've personally never seen it.

To convert the .SWF, you'll need one of the various Flash/SWF to AVI programs out there (though I've never really had much luck with any of the free ones; the commercial/shareware ones might be better). Or try using the video capture programs again (might be a better idea to try CamStudio instead of Camtasia, or maybe Fraps). You may have better luck, since you'd be capturing directly from the .SWF and not trying to capture from a running screensaver.

[p_l]

Success! The freeware SWF2AVI failed, but something called ADShareit SWF to Video Converter Pro worked.

Thanks for the help, everybody.