Importing Screen Capture Movies

Hi. I'm a very new user to Final Cut. I'm trying to make very simple 1 to 2 minute demos of how our company's software works. I've experimented with i show u and snapz pro for capturing screen activity. When I playback the captured .mov files w/ Quick Time they look great. As if I were actually looking at my monitor. When I import them into Final Cut Express, they look like *****! I've used files that were compressed with H.264, DVPRO NTSC and even uncompressed .mov files. Once I render them, they are not clear at all. What might I be doing wrong?

This is very difficult to do well with FCE. It's much better in FCP.
What size are you making the captures? FCE is resolution specific, so ideally you should make them at 1280x720 using the Apple Intermediate Codec.
When you import the files, what frame rate appears using iShowU and SnapzPro? Check item properties of the clips.

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AE CS 5.5 Mac OS 10.7, Imported screen captured .mov file is low quality

Hello
I'm importing a few screen grabs that I made using Snapz Pro video. The quality of the original file is great. But when I import it into AE CS 5.5, and then zoom in and animate it, it looks really, really bad ONLY when I render at 1/2 resolution.
If I did the same thing to images, they would look fine. But this movie asset (h264) looks horrible unless it's rendered at exactly 100%.
To be clear, this only happens at render, and in the preview pane when the pane or render are set to less than 100%. If I view or render at 100%, it looks fine.

Seriously?!?!
What version of After Effects? Include the minor version number (e.g., After Effects CS5.5 with the 10.5.1 update).
10.5.1
Have you installed the recent updates? (If not, you should. They fix a lot of problems.)
Yes
What operating system? This should include specific minor version numbers, like "Mac OSX v10.6.8"---not just "Mac".
Os X 10.7.3
What kind(s) of source footage? When telling about your source footage, tell us about the codecs, not just the container types. For example, "H.264 in a .mov container", not just "QuickTime".
H264 .mov captured with Snapz Pro Video
If you are getting error message(s), what is the full text of the error message(s)?
None
What were you doing when the problem occurred?
Rendering at half resolution, or previewing at half-resolution (also happens at other resolutiosn below 100%)
Has this ever worked before?
Huh?
What other software are you running?
Chrome
Do you have any third-party effects or codecs installed?
Surprisingly, no.
Tell us about your computer hardware. Include CPU type and number of processor cores, amount of RAM installed, GPU, number of disk drives, and how any external drives are connected.
Mac Pro 12-core 2.93, 24GB RAM, Radeon HD 5870, 4 internal drives (7TB total), about 10 external drives (RAID and separate other drives)
Do you have any third-party I/O hardware (e.g., AJA, Matrox, Blackmagic, MOTU)?
No
Are you using OpenGL features in After Effects?
Yes
Does the problem only happen with your final output, RAM preview, or both?
Both
Are you using Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing?
Yes

Imported screen capture avi looks pixely in pp2 cs3

Okay this is my first post on here so please bear with me, I will try to make this any easy one.
I am using Adobe Premiere Pro cs3 and I have been trying like mad to get a usable screen capture incorporated into my videos. I work for an internet company and I am charged with the task of creating tutorial dvds for training new employees and new website owners how to use our software. I am a professional, but I have never had to use so many screen captured elements, to be truthful, I have not used any until recently.
I have tried importing flash files of the content I need into premiere, which as far as I can tell is impossible and not the way to go about this. I then aquired a program called Hypercam that allows me to screen capture directly to AVI which I thought was wonderful until I brought the avi movies into premiere. What I am seeing is the source go from looking near perfect when not in motion in the source window, then the instant I hit play, the pixels turn to crap and it looks terrible, unusable for my purposes as smaller text gets completely obscured. The same is true if the avi file is brought into the timeline, no matter if it's rendered or not.
Upon closer inspection it appears that the pixels become wider and blurred when the video is played than when it is at rest.
The AVI files default properties copied directly from what premiere is telling me are as follows:
Type: AVI Movie
File Size: 22.6 MB
Image Size: 1280 x 1024
Pixel Depth: 1280
Frame Rate: 10.00
Total Duration: 00;00;17;17
Average Data Rate: 1.3 MB / second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0
Depth is 16 bits.
Compressor: 'CRAM', Microsoft Video 1
My project settings are:
720x480
dv ntsc PAR .9
29.97 fps
My system is a Dell XPS 710 Quad core with Nvidia 768mb 8800 GTX card and dual monitor set up.
I have read through the other thread dealing with this and as far as I can tell, it is either a PAR issue or a problem with using an AVi in premiere. I need help friends, and I guess the questions I need answered would be one or many of the following.
1. How do I screen capture into a usable format for Premiere with no loss of quality?
2. How can I use/convert my existing files so that I may edit them without loss of quality?
I will continue looking and I will be monitoring this thread until I get something that works. I'm not afraid to spend money to do this right so any and all suggestions are welcome. Please HELP!

So I have been doing some more homework and I took Harm's suggestion to get Camtasia. Thank you for that, I love it. It is quite versatile and looks great(It should for $300). So now I am able to produce a screen captured video that is workable though I am having a couple of issues still. The Dv/NTSC standard of 720x480 PAR .9 is not the easiest to match up. I have output my camtasia video as an AVI, 640x480 with a PAR of 1 and set it to 30fps, I also set my premiere project to 30 fps. The AVI file I created is about 14 gigs as the movie is 9 minutes long. I tried importing it but only the first 2 minutes of the video come into the project which makes no sense to me. I am getting low on Hard Drive Space ~30 gigs left of 320, so maybe there are safeguards in the machine or program which won't let me use the whole file as it would bring me too close to the limit(don't worry, I'm getting a 1TB external drive later today). So now I am pondering my options and again asking for help.
My first question is why would a 9 minute avi cut itself off to 2 minutes when imported into premiere and how can I get it to import properly?
Second question, perhaps I am approaching this the wrong way, is there a better way to make a tutorial video with the screen captured AVi that I now have? I want to do some fancy stuff with AE an PP to make it shine but neither seem very willing to comply. What I'm considering is just producing an intro and ending separately and then importing the finished videos back into Camtasia, even though their transitions are kind of basic, it would work I think.
I am going to be using this alot as I have 12 different lessons to create so if Harm or anyone else wants to offer suggestions on the best way to approach this and/or fix my importing/compatibility issues, I would greatly appreciate it.

Snapz Pro X screen capture Movies into FCEHD

I make educational tutorials for educators. I also created a weekly vodcast/show with a FCE HD intro. I wish to import the SnapzProX 2.0.3 (SP) vids into the FCEHD intro and export for vodcast for web streaming. My vodcast will premeir in the fall of 2007.
I found that SP seems to best export to FCEHD as an animated movie file. However, I am unsure of how to get the best quality mp4 when exporting from FCEHD. What are the best settings to get a 640 X 480 web video. I can go smaller, but in many cases my teachers wish to see a larger video so they can read the text on the screen. Am I stuck with a tiny 320 x 280 window for tutorials on the web?
I tried manually upping the size when exporting to mp4 and the video was extremely blurry.
File size is an issue... my tutorials are short (about 2-5 minutes) annd I wish to keep them under 20MB.
I watch Atomic learning vids (www.atomiclearning.com)that are fairly clear and can stream from the web. I called them and they also use Snapz ProX for screen capture.
Any ideas on how to export from FCEHD to the web and still have a fairly clear video?

The codec with the best quality to size ratio is H264. This is what the trailers on Apple's quicktime site are made with, and is capable of very high quality results with (relatively) small file sizes. However, it requires that people have Quicktime 7 installed in order to view it. To support older versions of Quicktime, I would next recommend the mpeg4 codec at around 300Kb/s. You might have some trouble staying under 20MBs at 640x480, though.
You mentioned blurry video when you uprezed to 640x480. You must remember to always convert from your highest resolution. If you converted a file from 320x240 to 640x480, it will get very distorted and pixelated. Also, if you're coming out of SP at a resolution smaller than 640x480, you will also get bad results. Remember to always record at the highest resolution/quality possible.
There is never any one size fits all here. It all depends on what the source material is (graphics and low movement always compress better than live action and high movement. Screen text tends to compress poorly), and what the needs of your viewers are (size vs bandwidth). So your best bet would be to run a lot of tests with a multitude of configurations on a short sample of your project. Then pick the one that seems most suitable.
Mac Pro 2.66Ghz - 3GBs RAM - X1900XT Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Premier Pro CS4 and Camtasia imported screen capture

I have a question from one of you professionals regarding Camtasia screen capture video imported to PP. I used several settings that was suggested in the posts in these forums and others and the quality of my video is still very bad. Please Help:
I am making a four minute training video that includes some screen shots of software. The final video will be put on DVD and Flash for website.
My capture settings of Camtasia are 1024 X 768. I used Tech smith codec and I used Logarith codec to produce the video in AVI from camtasia.
I set my PC screen size to 1024 X 768 as well.
My Premier Pro CS4 Setting HDV 1080i, 29.97 frame rate. 1440 X 1080 Frame size.
I also used the following frame sizes DV NTSC, 29.97 frame rate. 720X480 frame size
I also used MPEG2, HDTV 720p, 29.97High quality, 1280 X 720 frame rate
None of the above settings worked. Please help
Thank you

This ARTICLE and the included links might be helpful. Be very sure to look at all of the replies by Jeff Bellune on using the TechSmith CODEC's from Camtasia. I think that he replied in most linked threads.
Good luck,
Hunt

Advice on compressing screen capture movies for web ?

Hello everyone,
I just am curious about what is the best way to go for compressing screen captures so that they maintain the best clarity for text. I've gone back and forth between MP4 (improved) and quicktime movies set to h.264... I am just curious what the general opinion here of what is best to use? It seems that MP4 improved produces larger files with less quality... Also it was a little confusing to see that compressor's h264 option is for "apple devices" or "dvd studio pro" and thus doesn't offer streaming as an option as it does with mp4-- so the only way to properly produce h264 files for web is to use the quicktime option and select h264 as it's compression type? Is this correct?
-patrick

What is the frame size of your source clip, and what frame size have you chosen for your output?
Exactly what settings have you tried so far? Please share some details
I would recommend using the Apple > Other Workflows > Web > Download > QuickTime 7 compatible > H.264 LAN as a starting point.
Set a frame size (i.e. 1280x800, 1024x768 or 768x480, if you have a widescreen computer display) and adjust the video bitrate accordingly. The frame size you choose, should be divisible by 16, 8 or 4, for best quality. Have a look at this article for more info on that: http://www.flashsupport.com/books/fvst/files/tools/video_sizes.html
For more info about H.246 and macroblocks, have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264
For more details on getting the most out of H.264, have a look at the Apple tutorial Creating Amazing Video Content with H.264.
1. Find the frame size you would like to end up with
2. Adjust the video bitrate accordingly (set the keyframe interval to automatic)
3. Enable Frame Controls in the Inspector window, and set the Resize Filter to Better or Best (gives you much better quality on downscaling, than without frame controls - do a test and see for your self)
An other good tip, is to set an in/out point in the Preview window in Compressor, with a duration of maybe about 10 secs. That way you do not need to encode the whole clip just to test your settings. Add multiple settings, before you submit the batch. When it is done, see which one you think looks the best compared to file size.

Importing Screen Capture into CS3

I use Jing to capture screen images. When I take those images into Photoshop, the size is shown at around 2megs at 72ppi and the.png image looks pristine and sharp. When I import the screen captures into PPro they fall apart in the timeline. Can this be corrected? Thank you.

Jim,
The Project Settings: 720/480; D1/DV NTSC (0.9); Lower Field; Display- 30fps, non- drop; Edit Code: DV NTSC; Timebase: 29.97.
Hunt,
I don't know where to begin to do what you suggest. You are brilliant with this.....me not so much. Any easier way to explain it so that I can try your suggestion? By the way, I do scale in Photoshop so that is not the issue.
Thanks to you both.

Screen-captured movies are pixelated

I am capturing video from my screen as I navigate within a software application (we are making training videos). The Quicktime movie that is produced at the end of the capture is flawless, but when I bring it into Final Cut Express, the final movie is pixelated and un-readable. I am using an application called iShowU to do the capture and have the video set at MAX and 40 frames/sec.
Has anyone had success capturing video from the screen and incorporating that video into Final Cut Express? I am also having similar trouble with images exported from PowerPoint, even when they are exported at 1200DPI PNG.
Thanks for any help!
Michael

If you intend to output on video, like tape or DVD, then the way to do the screen capture is to rent a scan converter and record in a digital video medium, either on tape or directly to computer in a correct standard video format.
If you're going to deliver on the web then you can use computer resolution to scan your material. You would however then need to work with a resolution independent editing application that can work in different codecs that are suitable for this, like Final Cut Pro.
If you are only doing simple editing and trimming you might also be able to use the QuickTime Pro player to trim and assemble screen captures.

Importing screen capture from Quicktime X

I am in the process of making training videos for my job. For a couple videos I want to show how to access certain areas of a website. I have been doing screen captures of these using Quicktime X. They are recording at 1920x1200 with a frame rate around 9fps. My timeline in FCP will be 1920x1080 at 29.97, upper-field first. I will be working with pro res 422 from AVCHD camera files. For the life of me I can not get these screen captures into FCP. It says invalid format, and I'm guessing it has to do with the frame rate. I tried converting these screen captures to pro res 422 at 1920x1080 in Toast 10, and while they converted, the videos then played back super super fast in FCP, probably adjusting to the frame rate.
Can someone help me figure out a good way to do this?

There are a couple of things that will absolutely make you task rife with challenges; one is that 9fps will cause the screen capture to play back in a 29.97fps or even a 24fps video sequence way, way fast! Optimum solution is to capture at the same frame rate that you will be editing your training video in. Hopefully you can do that over and adjust the frames per second. The other issue is that your screen capture is not in a video resolution. Regardless, you should be able to set in the resulting video of the screen capture and keep the aspect ratio, and either size it to fill or fit within the 1920x1080 sequence frame. As for the frame rate difference, it's just extremely different, so you may need to conform it in Cinema Tools and then slow it down by using command- J (apple key + "J") and entering a percent under 100, somewhere around 30%.
So basically the best solution is to be able to do your screen capture at 29.97 fps but if you're past that opportunity, then conform the clips in Cinema Tools to 29.97 and slow the clips down.

Imported screen capture file looks blurry

Hi, I am re opening an old post, because I didnt find any answer.
The post is from 9'th of May 2008:
"I'm using a demo version of iShowU to record my computer screen. The resulting .mov file looks great! However, when imported into FCE and rendered, the quality is not nearly as good. It becomes blurry and the text is choppy.
I have tried several preset and a few custom settings in iShowU. Almost all of them produce a great looking movie when playing in Quicktime. But none of them look good in FCE 3.0. They look passable, but not as good as I had hoped.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Mike
I have the same problem, using the FCE 4.0. I am struggling with this for two weeks now and still couldnt find any solution. I would really appreciate if somebody could help me,
thanks in advance,
Michał

Thanks for Your answers, it were inspiring
I think I have the answer.
1) You should use Animation codec, instead od dv pal or dv ntsc
do not scale it or resize if You plan to edit it
2)In FCE You MUST choose in the sequence preset, one of Apple Intermediate Codec. Using any dv preset, will cause blurring.
(I don't know how it works in FCP, any info will be greatly appreciated)
in FCE all apple intermediate (as HD ) are in 16:9 aspect ratio, i wonder how can I make screencast in 4:3?

Importing screen captures into Adobe Premiere CS3??

I’m using Camtasia to capture my mouse clicks on a website to use (sort of like a tutorial) in a video I’m working on, but when I import the Camtasia AVI file into Adobe it loses its sharpness and the font and graphics become unreadable. Any advice? Tips? Hints? I’m pulling my hair out over here!

This ARTICLE and its links might offer some useful tips.
Good luck,
Hunt

Aperture cannot import iPhone 3G screen captures

I have no problem importing regular pictures from the iPhone camera roll into Aperture. All software is the latest version. However I cannot import screen captures from the iPhone. In Aperture's import window, there is a dotted line in a square shape outlining where the screenshot should be, but no image appears and the box can't be selected.

Actually the box can be selected, but you won't be able to see it. I have the iPod touch and the operations are pretty much identical. Any images in that Saved Images folder on the touch or iPhone can be imported into an Aperture Library.
Bring them all in, then delete what you don't need. Then, on the iPhone, go into the folder and delete all of the images, otherwise the next time, they will all be available and, if imported, you will have duplicates.
I guess the way to think about it might be to imagine what a roll of film was like: we could not see the photos, but had a fair idea (on a single roll -- not a major shoot) what we had on there.

Capturing Screen to Movie is slow when capturing Poser

Hi, i use Poser for 3d graphics. I want to do screen capture movie using ScreenFlick, a program that captures the screen to a movie.
And the problem is I want to capture Poser while i use tools to move around my 3D World. The poser display uses Open GL.
I notice that it moves nice and smooth when i dont have the ScreenCapture recorder( tcapture to movie) ON. But as soon as i turn it on, i move around my scene zoom in, rotate etc and it gets slow and choppy.
I guess it's cause the Sc reen Capture program uses processor power and then Poser also takes a chunk of it.
But in anycase, i would like to know .. is it just impossible to have smooth moving graphics in my Poser preview mode when i use screen capture utilities?
I use ScreenFlick but i heard there is a new program for OS X 10.5 that claims to capture totally smooth(http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/screenflow.html). I dont use 10.5
I have a basic Mac G5 1.8Gzh, single processor and with 2GB RAM.
Macos X 10.411

I'd open Activity Monitor in Utilities & see what CPU usage is, what Disk Activity is, Memory Uasage and such.
How much free disk space do you have on what size/speed drive?
Also, Thousands of Colors may be faster than Millions of colors if that suffices.

Working with Screen Capture Footage in FCP

I purchased Snapz Pro X to record screen capture footage for a project I am doing. After recording the .mov files I imported them into FCP and edited together a sequence along with music and titling. Unfortunately in the output video the footage looks compressed and fuzzy. I have the project resolution set to an HD setting, but I'm still getting a fuzzy looking screen shot.
What is the proper way to import screen captures into FCP and how do I export them without loosing resolution.
Thank you ahead of time to everyone who has any input?

Hi -
When you saved your SnapZ Pro X movies, a window comes up allowing you to choose the video codec to use when saving the file. What settings did you use?
Also, have you rendered the timeline?
Thanks

Trying to increase the sound of recorded screen captures

Hi. I'm making screen capture movies with Snapz PRo 2 and they are being saved as QT movies on my desktop. When I open them in QT and try to increase the sound volume, the setting don't stick if I try to raise the volume over 0db. I read somewhere that QT won't let you save volume over 0db, is that true?
If so, does anyone know how I can increase the gain on the movies without having to load them into Final Cut or iMovie? Is there some program that will let me just edit the sound of a QT movie?
Thanks in advance.
Antonio

Hey, thanks for the tips. But... I don't think I'm making myself clear here.
I don't want to spend ANY time in post with these tutorial screencasts that I'm making. If I did, I'd just whip out my Sennheiser and my mixer and take the whole shebang into FCP and cut it and sweeten audio there.
What I'm doing is using Snapz to capture screen actions that I'm recording as tutorials for my students. I'm using either a Blue Snowball USB mic or my Logitech 250 USB headset with mic to record my voice as I demo apps on the Mac. Snapz is using the Apple animation codec to make the movies. But, what Snapz is not doing and cannot do is help me boost the audio a bit. If it did, then I'd have a finished movie right there. As it is, I have to wait a long time for Snapz to finalize the flick. What I don't want to do is load the film up in FCP (takes time) and then export it (also takes time) and be done. I want to package these things up fast. All I need to do is boost the audio a little and everything would be great. If Quicktime Pro allowed me to do that, that would be great because it would not have to re-encode the movie again.
Maybe there is no way to do what I'm asking without doing it in FCP. If that's the case then that's what I'll do.
THe whole point of this is that I want to keep it as simple and as past as possible because I am not making any money doing this (but I am teaching for money). I offer it to my students as a value added addition to their classes.
Thanks,
Antonio

Importing Screen Capture Movies

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