[HELP] Capturing Video from a PC?

[Draugr]

Ok.

First I am new here so forgive me if this question is silly.

I'm looking to record in HD (1080p if possible) my computer desktop video. Let me explain what I'm hoping to do.

A few years back I found this really nice Christmas screen saver. I always wished I could record lets say 30 minutes of it digitally on my PC so I could then edit it within my Pinnacle Pro software and make a holiday DVD to give to some of my relatives who would enjoy it. While editing in Pinnacle, I would place some nice Holiday music over the screensaver video and then merge it down to a DVD disk so that the screensaver and its falling snow, and blowing wind effects could be heard gently behind some classic holiday music.

Last year I came up with this idea, but it was only days until Christmas and I could not figure out how to achieve this in time. I tried using software to record the desktop from within the same PC, but it never worked right and was jumpy and skipped alot. I have a quad-core PC, but I guess the screensaver running, the software trying to record the screensaver video images off the desktop to the same PC's hard drive was just too much for the whole PC to handle.

I really wished for some sort of HDMI input capable recorder, preferably with its own HD so that I could use my HDMI out on my video card and record the screensaver to the hard disk in the external recorder box via HDMI in. Sadly, what I found was either way too expensive for such a task, or something that wasn't fully capable for what I was hoping to achieve.

So, I finally got back into the idea of trying this and wanted to ask if anyone here can give me a suggestion. I'm hoping to record the screensaver digitally through a method like HDMI out to an HDMI In external box with HD capability. Can anyone suggest anything? Is there better software that might be able to accomplish what I tried last year, but failed to do? That being playing the screensaver, recording the screen image to a hard drive all on the same PC?

Any information is appreciated.

Thanks,
John

[Steve(MS)]

So the screensaver is already on your computer?
What did the screensaver originate on a DVD or Blu-ray?
Fill in your computer specs, does your computer have an extra hard drive?

[usually_quiet]

Assuming you have a 1920x1080 60 Hz monitor, the video you'll be trying to capture will be 1080p60. Screen capture is your best option. Hopefully someone here can help you with that. There is no capture device available that I know of that will meet all your requirements.

Although AVerMedia makes a couple stand-alone capture devices that can accept a 2.5-inch internal drive, or an external USB hard drive, they only record component video input, and only up to 1080i.

The only capture device I have heard of that can capture 1080p60 as 1080p60 via HDMI is the Micomsoft SC-510N1. However, it isn't sold outside Japan, and it is an internal device with a PCI-e x4 interface, plus since it depends on software for encoding, it is going to need a high-end CPU to work properly if you intend to use a highly compressed format for your captures. If you use light compression, you will need a fast second hard drive to be used only for recording your capture.

All the other consumer capture devices that accept 1080p60 input via HDMI can only capture it as 1080p30.

[aedipuss]

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/254587-How-to-capture-a-screensaver-into-a-movie-file

[Cauptain]

Mirillis Action! 1.10 will record 1080p@60fps, full v-synced with minimal requirements.

Perfect to need.




Claudio

[Draugr]

OK, so I wasted a lot of time trying to get these screensavers to record to avi. I read all the posts in the thread listed and that didn't help.

I tried FRAPs and other software capturing programs. None worked. For some reason these capturing programs don't like recording Screensavers.

So, I am looking for my next best option. I'm going to ask about this, and perhaps some of you might be abel to A. Tell me if it is possible, and B. Suggest a good product.

OK, so I have two PCs. Is it possible to get some sort of display port video adapter that can display my PC screen through a component cable with sound? I would then take the component cables and connect them to a video capture device on my other PC. This way PC 1 would be running the screensaver and PC 2 would be recording the video coming through the video capture hardware via software like Pinnacle Pro? I'm assuming this would work because the component cables connected to a video capture device would look like regular video from a VCR or DVD player to Pinnacle on the recording PC.

I really hope to be able to record these screensavers and convert them to avi or to DVD. They will really make great looking scenes for a DVD player on a Hi-Def TV. If a component cable is used, I can get up to 1080i quality correct? Hell, I'm willing to try 720 HD as well, if it will work.

If the above is possible, can anyone suggest a good, but not overly expensive external capture device? External in that it connects to a USB 2 or USB 3 port on the recording PC.

Thanks
John

[usually_quiet]

OK, so I wasted a lot of time trying to get these screensavers to record to avi. I read all the posts in the thread listed and that didn't help.

I tried FRAPs and other software capturing programs. None worked. For some reason these capturing programs don't like recording Screensavers.

So, I am looking for my next best option. I'm going to ask about this, and perhaps some of you might be abel to A. Tell me if it is possible, and B. Suggest a good product.

OK, so I have two PCs. Is it possible to get some sort of display port video adapter that can display my PC screen through a component cable with sound? I would then take the component cables and connect them to a video capture device on my other PC. This way PC 1 would be running the screensaver and PC 2 would be recording the video coming through the video capture hardware via software like Pinnacle Pro? I'm assuming this would work because the component cables connected to a video capture device would look like regular video from a VCR or DVD player to Pinnacle on the recording PC.

I really hope to be able to record these screensavers and convert them to avi or to DVD. They will really make great looking scenes for a DVD player on a Hi-Def TV. If a component cable is used, I can get up to 1080i quality correct? Hell, I'm willing to try 720 HD as well, if it will work.

If the above is possible, can anyone suggest a good, but not overly expensive external capture device? External in that it connects to a USB 2 or USB 3 port on the recording PC.

Thanks
John

The Roxio Game Capture HD PRO is the least expensive USB 2.0 HD capture device I have seen http://www.amazon.com/Roxio-Game-Capture-HD-PRO/dp/B008YTAGGW

It was only released on September 20. Is the quality of its captures good? I don't know. It is too new for there to be much information available about it. The few reviews I read say it is easy to use. Technical information is a bit sketchy. It accepts HDMI input and records 1080p30, 1080i or 720p60 in H.264 format. It might work if you can use a second PC for capture.