<wwswimming@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1135995835.324471.195630@g14g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
>
> hi
>
> for example, i'm watching video in an explorer window and want to
> capture what i'm watching.
>
> whether it's a surfcam, that is, video of the ocean, or a news segment
> from a news website, i'd like to be able to capture the audio & video
> from the screen.
>
> that is, to be able to pick a rectangle containing the video of
> interest, and to then just save "it" (the video & audio appearing in
> the capture window) to a file.
>
> in the past i've pointed a webcam with a microphone at the computer
> screen. that's kind of a clunky way to do it, and it generates huge
> file sizes.
>
> is there a Video Screen Capture program like this, available for
> Windows XP ?
>
> thanks !


Tech-Smith's Camtasia is made for this. Many software tutorials are
produced using Camtasia. It records screen activity into an .avi file.

Just one little problem with it. If you're capturing video that's playing
from a video player (like Windows Media Player), you'll get a black
rectangle. (It will, however, capture Flash video, something I found out
just a week or so ago.) This limitation has something to do with the video
acceleration in your system. Supposedly, you can disable the video
acceleration in Control Panel and it should capture video, though I'm not
sure exactly how that will affect the video playback of what you're wanting
to capture. I've never tried it.

There is one sure-fire way of capturing video playback as it's happening on
the computer monitor. That's to convert the VGA signal, using one of those
contraptions that are used at churches all the time to throw a Power Point
presentation up on the big screen behind the stage. I forget what they're
called, but you can buy 'em for under $100 at Radio Shack. Output to a tape
deck, then bring the video back in and capture it with your editing
software. More hassle than it's worth, if you ask me.

Randy