Is there any way to capture a video (and audio) of things that are happening on my monitor to like a movie file (.mpg, .avi, .mov, anything)? I know hitting "printscreen" or "alt-printscreen" captures still images on your monitor and then you could use paint to save it to like a .bmp or .jpg file. I'm wondering if there is a "video" equivalent of capturing things on the monitor. And if there is no way to do this normally (i.e. a no cost solution), is there any good software out there that does this? Thanks a bunch.

Edit - I also want to incorporate the audio (that is, the audio coming out of the out jack of the sound card) into the video as well

 

Ive been hijacking countless numbers of threads that contain links to streamed videos trying to find out the same thing. For some videos it works but not all so far, the ones that did were .wmv format and I simply clicked on the streaming control toolbar and took the properties and saved from there.

Is this what you are asking?

 

Well, not just necessarily streaming videos off of websites. I was wondering if you could capture your screen or the "active" window (akin to alt-printscreen for still images) in video format (and the audio). OK, it seems real doubtful this could be done with standard Windows tools. So, does anyone know if there is software out there that is capable of doing this? Thanks.

 

Microsoft shipped a screencam with office 97 however it bombed for one reason or anouther and isn't supported by windows xp 2000 or above. If you find one please let me know!

 

Yea, but there has to be a non-Microsoft product that captures the video off the screen. I'm sure I'm probably not the first to conceive the idea. Maybe somewhere on that digital editing software aisle in CompUSA .....

 

I once had a program that could capture .ASF streams (worked on some sites, not on others for some reason; I think my firewall may have played a roll).

I though it was called "ASF Capture" ...

I realize that it doesn't solve your "capture the screen" need, but it's *something* ..

 

Yea my colleague was telling me about screencam but unfortunately support for that product has been dropped and doesn't support XP.

However, I'm planning to do this another (albeit crude) method. I bought an S-video-to-video composite (on VCR) cable along with line out-to-left-right audio in (on VCR) cable. I will use these cables to connect from my laptop to my VCR and record on VHS tape what I need to. I also bought an A/V converter to USB kit which I'll connect from the VCR to my laptop so that I could make a video clip file on the computer using a video capturing program.

Now, I connected just my S-video-to-video composite cable from my S-video out on my laptop to that yellow video port on my VCR to see if my laptop is feeding the video to my TV correctly. I can see my wallpaper BUT that is it!!! Nothing else shows on my TV - all I have showing on the TV is that dumb Windows XP green rolling hills/blue skies wallpaper lol. My laptop is obviously talking to the TV/VCR but maybe not all of the info is getting through?

Anyone have any feedback? Thanks.

EDIT - OK, the reason why just my wallpaper was showing was because I realized that my TV is acting like an "extension" display medium. For instance, if I were on my desktop and dragged an icon to the right of my laptop screen, I see that icon appear in from the left on my TV. But this is not what I want - I want my TV to mirror exactly what my laptop screen shows so that I could get it on VHS. Now, in Display --> Settings, I tried dragging the monitor icons so that they overlap each other but it won't do that. Is there any way for the TV to mirror what I see on my laptop? Thanks.

 

I think it's cool that you can extend the desktop like that. Sorry I can't help, I just wanted to comment.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Incubus
I think it's cool that you can extend the desktop like that.

 

does this mean WITHOUT a video capture card.

with one of those you can capture anything and it will be in any picture format you want.