What's needed to make screen captures

Posted by: collegepark33

What's needed to make screen captures - 07/04/03 06:26 PM

I wanted to try my hand at screen captures only I am not sure what I need to get started. Can anyone point me in the direction of the materials I need or a site where I can get some instructions?

Thanks
Posted by: zoomway

Re: What's needed to make screen captures - 07/07/03 12:40 AM



First, you'll need a capture device. This can be a video capture card that goes inside your computer (in either a PCI or AGP slot), or an external device that hooks up through your printer port, or USB port. They all do basically the same thing. They capture pictures and video from your VCR or DVD player and save them to your hard drive.

I have the ATI All In Wonder Pro (above). It, like most capture devices, came with the cables necessary to hook the computer up to a VCR (DVD player). This is the capture, or TV tuner screen. It allows you to watch what is playing on the VCR (DVD, television) on your computer screen.



If you hit the icon that looks like a camera, you get a screen capture. It's basically a snapshot taken of what appears on the screen.

If you hit the camcorder icon, it starts saving video, whether whole scenes or just a few seconds of a scene and saves them as MPEG or AVI files.



If you're making a music video, you'll need to edit your AVI (MPEG) clips together. This is the old VidEdit AVI editor, but most editors do the same thing. They allow you to edit out what you don't want, edit clips together in a specific order, and allows you to lay down a musical (or other type) soundtrack.



Most modern video editors have drag-and-drop technology, which is a lot easier than the old VidEdit screen, or similar editors. You really had to love making videos in the old days because it was so difficult and time consuming. However, I'm happy to say that with Windows Movie Maker, any idiot can make a video biggrin I mean that in the best sense wink

For tips and tutorials on how to use Windows Movie Maker, CLICK HERE

Of course if you don't have Windows Movie Maker or anything as fancy, you have one last step ...



Since AVI files are so large in terms of file size, you'll have to convert them into a format that's manageable and that won't take forever to download. Most common formats chosen are Real Media (RM and RAM files), Quick Time and Windows Media Player formats.

The Real Media encoder converts the AVI file on the left to a RM file on the right. It can turn a 20 MEG AVI file into a 4 MEG RM file without losing video quality.

To find products like this, type "video capture" into a search engine, or "video editor," and so on.

Zoom
Posted by: collegepark33

Re: What's needed to make screen captures - 07/07/03 12:56 AM

Thank you Thank you Thank you! Zoom you are wonderful. That is exactly what I needed to know. I only need one item and I can try this. boogie party