Windows, Windows knowhow

Windows: Capture (Main) Screen and Audio with free software

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Hi,

there are a lot of tools which does this task.

But at the end of the day I used screen-capture-recorder.

Screen Capturer Recorder has an screen and audio grapper which can be used by ffmpeg, gstreamer and compatible tools. screen-capture-recorder has not a GUI interface but configured once it does its jobs.

Installation

Download the latest version from the release page and install it. In this example to the default directory C:\Program Files (x86)\Screen Capturer Recorder.

The package has ffmpeg “on board” so you can start immediately. A first simple example:

This command line records the main screen and all audio with a framerate of 10 fps

C:> "C:\Program Files (x86)\Screen Capturer Recorder\configuration_setup_utility\vendor\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg.exe" -f dshow -i audio="virtual-audio-capturer":video="screen-capture-recorder" -r 10 D:\temp\test_screen_capture.mp4 -r 10

But it is recommended to get hte latest version for Windows.

Screen Capturer Recorder is also configurable by some registry keys. The registry key is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\screen-capture-recorder. Possible values:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\screen-capture-recorder]
"capture_height="=dword:000001E0
"capture_width=dword:00000280
"start_x=dword:00000000
"start_y=dword:00000000
"default_max_fps=dword:0000000A
"stretch_to_width=dword:000001E0
"stretch_to_height=dword:00000280
"stretch_mode_high_quality_if_1=dword:00000000
"hwnd_to_track=dword:0000000A
"disable_aero_for_vista_plus_if_1=dword:00000001
"track_new_x_y_coords_each_frame_if_1=dword:00000000
"capture_mouse_default_1=dword:00000001
"capture_foreground_window_if_1=dword:00000000
"dedup_if_1=dword:00000000
"millis_to_sleep_between_poll_for_dedupe_changes=dword:0000000A
"capture_transparent_windows_including_mouse_in_non_aero_if_1_causes_annoying_mouse_flicker=dword:00000000
"hwnd_to_track_with_window_decoration=dword:0000000A

These are only example values. Adjust to your need or delete the one you not need.

Note: Screengrapping is also possible with the ffmpeg builtin input device gdigrab .

gdigrab can capture all screens.

C:> ffmpeg.exe -f gdigrab -framerate 10 -i desktop D:\temp\test_screen_capture.mp4

and with audio

C:> ffmpeg.exe -f gdigrab -framerate 10 -i desktop -f dshow -i audio="virtual-audio-capturer"  D:\temp\test_screen_capture.mp4

Or as XVID

C:> ffmpeg.exe -f gdigrab -framerate 10 -i desktop -f dshow -i audio="virtual-audio-capturer" -c:v libxvid  D:\temp\test_screen_capture.avi

and split output file into 15 min chunks

C:> ffmpeg.exe -f gdigrab -framerate 10 -i desktop -f dshow -i audio="virtual-audio-capturer" -segment_time 00:15:00 -f segment -c:v libxvid -reset_timestamps 1 D:\temp\test_screen_capture%03d.avi

of

C:> ffmpeg.exe -f gdigrab -framerate 10 -i desktop -f dshow -i audio="virtual-audio-capturer" -f segment -segment_time 900 -c:v libxvid -reset_timestamps 1 D:\temp\test_screen_capture%03d.avi

gdigrap can either grap the whole desktop or a single window specified by the windows title. Take a look at the documentation for all options.

Michael

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