Need help capturing computer screen from TV-Out to AV In of Canon ZR800

[trophyhead]

Hi all,

Perhaps the title said it all...

I'm attempting to capture the computer screen to my camcorder as I demonstrate some software...for eventual playback on a television. I have a cable running from the TV-Out port of my laptop to the AV port of my Canon ZR800 camcorder. I have the camcorder in PLAY mode, but am unable to capture the computer screen on tape, nor can I see it on the camcorder screen.

Troubleshooting this, I connected the laptop to the composite input of my TV and can see the image on the TV, so this much is working I believe. I have a 1/8" adapter on the RCA end of the cable going into the camcorder, so it's possible this is part of the equation.

The ZR800 manual has a section on 'dubbing' on page 42, but I'm not sure it's applicable for what I'm doing with a composite signal. The laptop also has a Firewire cable...not sure if it's possible to get the screen input *into* the camcorder this way...trying the TV-Out port for now...

Anyhow, if anyone out there can help me out, it would be greatly appreciated. I've been wrestling with this for a few hours and am getting rather discouraged.

Thanks,

Glenn

[thecoalman]

Camstudio

[trophyhead]

I'm eventually looking to create a video that can be played back on a normal television (on a DVD)...I'm under the impression that CamStudio will make a nice looking video for computer playback, but won't look good on a normal TV due to resolution issues. I'm fairly new to this...if my premise is incorrect, I'm open to suggestions as to how to approach this differently.

[thecoalman]

Even if you set your monitor to 800x600 with a very large font it's still not going to very legible on a TV, plus you'll be going through multiple conversions. On the other hand with camstudio you can bring it into an editor and use pan&scan, zoom etc. and you're starting with perfect source.

[trophyhead]

Thanks Coalman,

I'm ultimately looking to make a DVD that can be played on a television...this will consist of video shot through the camcorder, as well as computer screen demonstration clips. A friend of mine says that using a Camtasia / CamStudio type of screen capture will not translate well to a television due to resolution loss and screen geometry issues. He recommended I use the TV-Out of the computer and tape it via the DV Input port on the camcorder...then move it back into the PC via Firewire and edit in Vegas.

Is there a better approach? I know there's going to be some inevitible loss in clarity when showing a computer screen vid on a lower-res TV, but I'm concerned about stretching and blurryness issues. Would definitely need to set computer screen to lower res and larger fonts. If there's a better way, would love to learn about it.

Thx again,

Glenn

[thecoalman]

type of screen capture will not translate well to a television due to resolution loss and screen geometry issues.

Your going to lose resolution no matter what you do and geometry will be the same if your outputting full screen to the cam. Most of the problems you're going to have with a project like this , specifically the legibility of the text, can be overcome by a little creativity and a decent editor. If you capture full screen either via your cam or camstudio(without editing) its going to look like shit no matter what you do.

At least with the camstudio capture you'll have some wiggle room to zoom in or out and pan around.

[jagabo]

A few notes regarding TV-out:

You may need to enable the feature via the graphic's card's setup applet. Some graphics cards enable the feature automatically if you have a device powered up and connected to the TV-out port when the computer is switched on.

CamStudio will give you more flexibility and likely better quality (if you deal with it properly) than recording the TV-out from your graphics card.